SRINAGAR: Kaun hai Master, Kya hai Plan?: Who is the Master, what is the Plan?

On June 5, 2025, this newspaper carried a shameful truth in its sports section: unmasking the dirt at Eidgah playground in downtown Srinagar. Once a field of dreams, it’s now a swamp of muck and potholes. Where children should run, there’s sludge. Where there should be cheers, there is silence.

This is not just Eidgah’s story. This is a eulogy for every Maidaan turned into a paid park, garrison, restricted complex for VIP visits and what not? I spent six years scripting sports stories, as a shoe-leather scribe, for All India Radio (Akashvani) Srinagar. I know what a playground means. It’s not just a ground. It’s a stage. A therapy room. A world of endless possibilities. It teaches teamwork, risk, recovery. It holds the bruises and the dreams. Today, Srinagar’s playgrounds are locked, lost, or looted. By events, encroachments and government apathy. Ask any child: “Where do you play?” They’ll point to narrow lanes. And sometimes, rough roads of not-so-smart city.

When play is not a priority, drugs dominate. Play is not a luxury. It’s not a break from education. It is education. It’s how children process fear, joy, loss, and friendship. It’s where they learn to fall and rise again. Srinagar has no play policy. No minister talks of play. No municipal plan maps it. SMC’s job is not to take trash and dump it at Achan and make the lives of the locals miserable. Municipality’s job is to ensure that our children are safe, sound and solid. Last month, 50 playgrounds were built through the Maidaan Cup initiative in restive Dantewada in Chhattisgarh. Ten thousand children benefited. If Dantewada can dream in red zones, why can’t Srinagar dream in green? What stops the local lawmakers?

In the last week of last month, I sent an open letter to our cabinet minister about the grievances and problems of our disabled community. I believe no answer is also an answer: I don’t care. On June 06, I dialled a top official of a particular public sector undertaking to know their inclusion story. He shouted and hung up. That speaks volumes about the smartness of this city. Inclusion starts with a willingness to unlearn. Many in power don’t.

In any healthy democracy with welfare mind-set, you don’t find officers enveloped by apathy. You ask for your rights. What about my street? What about your colony? Can a stroller roll on our footpaths? Can a child cycle safely to school? Where is the inclusive city we’re promised?

UNICEF and UN-Habitat, in 1996, proposed child-friendly cities. In 2017, the UN gave us Shaping Urbanisation for Children. Our planners clearly skipped that class. We witnessed much-hyped Smart City Mission marred by corruption. We saw taxpayer’s money going for a toss. Officially, 90% of the proposed work is complete, then why Srinagar sinks and stinks. Why everyday gridlocks? Why did SCM fail to ease Srinagar’s traffic tensions? Why were playfields excluded in SCM?

On June 07 afternoon, my advocate friend drove me around the city to see how people access recreational spaces. It was the day of joy in the sad city. We reached Pratap Park. I asked her if she can find anything uncommon in the park. After 10 minutes of walk, she gave up. Look, on two extremes of the park, you see SMC powered restrooms. Perfect. No? But in the middle of Pratap Park, there is an old-fashioned Kashmiri taet (latrine). She couldn’t control laughing for next few minutes. Forget about playgrounds, imagine 713.94 crore spent on SSCM couldn’t move a teat from Pratap park in the heart of the city.

Playgrounds are mental health sanctuaries. Philosophers knew this. Aristotle warned: train only for war, and you forget how to live. Harry Overstreet said, “Recreation shapes people.” Initiatives like Chennai’s No Tech Tuesdays and Mumbai’s Equal Streets show us the way. Close the roads to cars, open them to children. Prioritise playfield over parking lots. Insist that every residential block have a play zone.

Remember the summers of our childhood? Mohallah tournaments, those broken windows, bruised knees, stolen fruits and fierce debates over cricket laws? Play was free, loud, and full of mischief. Now, in 2025, our children stand fenced out of fields. Play has become a product. Only those who can pay can play. This is not a lament. It is a call to reclaim joy. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child—Article 31—recognises every child’s right to rest, leisure, and play. When cities ignore this, they are not just failing their future; they are violating a right.

Srinagar must rise. Demand play. Demand space. Let us push the administration to draft and adopt a Child-Friendly Urban Policy. Let every maidan be maintained, not encroached. Can people in power also encroach? What? I can’t hear you. Are you saying might is right? No, we are ruled by popular government. We voted them to power. They will ensure that our children have free access to playgrounds/parks one day.

Did you just say that today’s busy Jahangir-chowk was a vast playground a few decades ago? Seriously? Golbagh playground paved way for High Court of J&K. but why? Due to political pressure? Yes, I know there was a playground nearby, exclusively meant for women, called Zanana Park, I see civil secretariat there. There was Khaar Maidaan (chandmari ground) in Batamallo. But where is it now? Sir Mohammad Iqbal park in Hazuribagh was once a famous football ground. Hair-raising? Even Habbakadal’s Gudoodbagh Maidaan is gone. So, University of Kashmir’s Convocation Complex is built on a playground? Oh My God.

June 11 last year was the first International Day of Play following a campaign that called on the United Nations to promote play in the lives of children everywhere. It was an urgent need to “put play back on the agenda”. But children in war situations and conflict zones, in the words of Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, “are not learning how to paint, how to colour, how to ride their bikes – they are learning to survive.”

When a city ignores its children, it erases small joys such as climbing a tree, chasing pigeons in the park etc. Why aren’t they considered in city planning? In absence of playgrounds, children see this city as chaotic, confusing, and often unfriendly. Inclusive cities are designed with children and PwDs at the centre. Tim Gill, in Urban Playground, argues that play must be as essential as water and power. Why not here? Now, play is a privilege. Pay to enter. Pay to play. Or stay home and scroll. Our children don’t want malls. They want mud. They don’t demand much— Just space. And time. And a city that remembers joy. A city that plays is a city that heals. A city that fences play is a city that dies. Let Srinagar not be that city. Children may not vote. But they are watching. And we owe them an inclusive playground.