Designing play areas

According to the latest pan-India survey (by District Information System for Education or DISE) statistics, every two in five elementary schools in India don’t have a playground, Which is two of the 10 basic norms mandated under the Right to Education Act (RTE). A survey conducted covered 1.5 million elementary schools in 680 districts across the states catering to 19 crore children and 40 percent of educational institutions are having zero outdoor sports facilities. However I am not going on a rant since there is a ray of hope (Not because our PM speaking about Yoga), but because I have Anjali Menon with us on Audiogyan. Thank you, Anjali for giving your time and it’s a real pleasure to have you on Audiogyan.

Topic
Designing play areas with Anjali Menon

Questions

• In one of the articles you mention, “We do not only design for special-needs children, but we also design for everyone. They have to be a part of the same society as everyone else, and that cannot happen in isolation. So we design play experiences that are fun for everyone” – Can you start by telling us a brief background about Gudgudee, how did it start, and what the story behind it?
• Can you share a particular case study in detail? Maybe, at Panchkula or any site in Mumbai. What was the problem statement, how did you address it and what was the final output and impact. How did you measure it?
• What is or was the biggest hurdle in evangelizing the importance of well-designed play areas? Who are you dealing with? Government, Organisation, NGOs, etc…?
• How different is your approach while designing spaces for special needs versus the rest of the kids? What all aspects are different w.r.t. psychology, materials, execution, game formats, etc…?
• You have picked your battle of making playing areas more inclusive and welcoming for all types of children. What is the future of Gudgudee? What according to you is the crying need of the hour w.r.t playing spaces, areas, and overall development of children in India?