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A Profile of Children's Play in Urban India
A Profile of Children's Play in Urban India
URBAN INDIA
MEERA OKE, ARCHNA KHATTAR, This article attempts to present an overview of the
PRARTHANA PANT
AND T.S. SARASWATHI situational analysis of play in the urban setting in a
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, developing country (India), substantiated by the
India
results of empirical investigations conducted in
Key words: Baroda and the metropolitan city of Bombay. The
play, urban child, urban India
observations highlight the universal features of play
Mailing address:
T.S. Saraswathi
and also their cultural specificity conditioned by
Department of Human Development and ecological factors, social class and gender. The
Family Studies, Faculty of Home Sci-
ence, M.S. University of ecological constraints of crowding, the high-rise
Baroda, Baroda, 390 002 India buildings, unsafe streets, scarce open spaces, the
[email:
mps.kon@rmc.sprintrpg.ems.vsnl.net.in] preoccupation with the ‘idiot-box’, all seem to
conspire against the urban child’s natural propensity
Childhood [0907-5682(199905)6:2]
Copyright © 1999 SAGE Publications to play with joyous spontaneity. On the flip side of
(London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi)
Vol. 6(2): 207–219; 008139 the coin, of course, are the conscious endeavours by
the urban community to recognize children’s need
for play and to create play environments in the form
of parks, children’s museums, play centres and the
commercial ‘fun-worlds’. In such a context, what is
most impressive and heartening is children’s
remarkable ability to create their own play space, be
it in crowded hovels, community lanes and alleys,
construction sites or even the traffic-infested streets,
improvising play materials with whatever is
accessible in their environments, be it sticks and
stones, or tins and trash.
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CHILDHOOD 6(2)
play such as tools used for play, adult/peer participation and play spaces.
The contributions and values of play have been recognized in the enhance-
ment of physical, psychosocial and cognitive skills in children (see Rubin et
al., 1983; Sutton-Smith and Roberts, 1981; see also Block and Pellegrini,
1989, for discussions on the ecological context of play). Studies in India
have examined the use of play materials (Dave, 1984); play preferences
(Muralidharan and Bannerji, 1972; and traditional games and toys (Khanna,
1983, 1993). Despite some universal features of children’s play, the value
and place ascribed to ‘play’ in the Indian context presents a somewhat differ-
ent world view.
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OKE ET AL.: CHILDREN’S PLAY IN URBAN INDIA
play (Kaul, 1993). The terracotta toys that are unearthed were miniature
objects of daily use like bullock carts, kitchen vessels and dolls. The other
evidence of the historical significance of play in India is in the presence of
traditional toys, some of whose dates of origin are still unknown (Khanna,
1983, 1993). The interesting feature of these toys is that they are indige-
nously prepared from naturally available materials like sticks, clay, leaves,
etc. and function on some scientific principle; for instance the wind-blown
wheel or chidia3 (for further details see Khanna, 1983, 1993). From these
artefacts and illustrations it is evident that in India artisans have long toyed
with children’s play materials. Some toys like the ‘snake toy’ take on ritual-
istic associations (nagpuja4); others are for pure amusement, like the jump-
ing monkey or acrobat. These play things, designed by rural artisans, can be
seen at melas.5 They are inexpensive and easily available. It is evident from
these illustrations that play in the Indian context, has been viewed as a
microcosm of an experimental theatre, wherein children learn adult rules and
norms of behaviour appropriate to the cultural context.
Methodology
This study explains the effect of urban environment on children’s play. It
also focuses on how children utilize environmental restrictions as well as
facilities in their play since we presume that the natural propensity to play in
children will try to overcome any restrictions posed by the environment.
The specific objectives of the study were:
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CHILDHOOD 6(2)
Sample
Mumbai (Oke, 1993)
Two-hundred-and-forty children (130 boys and 110 girls) of ages 6–12 were
observed as members of varied play groups, essentially during the midday
school break. The sampling technique used was instantaneous sampling,
which involves the recording of current activity observed at a given time.
Activity sampling was also done of unorganized group play of children to
ensure representation of play activities. Adult members present, especially
teachers, were also observed for their direct or indirect participation in chil-
dren’s play.
A subsample of 72 children – an equal number of boys and girls – and
their five teachers were interviewed to obtain information on their percep-
tion of children’s play behaviour. The school setting was Marathi medium
schools catering to the majority of Bombay’s middle- and lower middle-
class population.
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OKE ET AL.: CHILDREN’S PLAY IN URBAN INDIA
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CHILDHOOD 6(2)
Table 1 Types of play activities in urban India (and percentage of time devoted)
4. Jumping/skipping/dancing
Rassi, chapti/hop-scotch, phugdi, bus phugdi, 22
jhimpori jhim, garba, ghisbai ghis, phubai phu,
elastic.
6. Singing Antakshari. 2
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OKE ET AL.: CHILDREN’S PLAY IN URBAN INDIA
1. The first step consists of ‘starting the game’, which involves initiat-
ing activities; for example, a child sings a rhyme belonging to a partic-
ular game, and other children gather together (e.g. ‘Tu, tu tu’ – for a
catching game), or a child displays an object that he or she is holding
(like a crumpled paper ball), or someone makes a suggestion and the
rest accept readily.
2. The next step involves choosing, defining roles and trying to get the
best role. The selection is made by using a method of chance. Jingles
or rhymes are used to find the odd person out like ‘in pin safety pin’
(the influence of urban living!). In some games motor skills like speed
determine the players’ roles. For instance, all participants place their
foot on a marked circle, and at a signal all the children remove their
foot, the last person to remove their foot is ‘It’.
3. The next step involves ‘marking the boundaries’ and defining the
limits of behaviour for the players. Children structure their play
according to available space and events around them. For instance, one
of the rules for playing ‘teacher-teacher’ is that the teacher is not
allowed to smile (some reflection of Indian school teachers!). Accor-
dance with the rules determines whether the player continues to play
or not. The adherence to rules and restructuring them often become a
source of disagreement among the players.
4. The next step usually merges with the earlier one and involves the
actual ‘playing of the game’, going beyond setting the stage for play
and working out the rules of the game. It is usually accompanied by a
lot of high-pitched voices, and concentrated moves and strategies.
5. The last step involves the ‘dissolution of the game’, which is usu-
ally the result of either an internal conflict among the players or ‘time
up’, or interference from some external source. These processes at
times occur rapidly, and children change games fluidly, moving from
one to the next, the time duration ranging from a few seconds to half
an hour.
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CHILDHOOD 6(2)
Vehicles
Parked cars, scooters, trucks, railway vans,
etc.
Physical setting
Railway tracks, benches, walls, broken
furniture, telegraph/traffic light poles, gates,
railings, plastic and cement pipes,
abandoned buildings, etc.
Construction material
Sand and cement mixers, bricks, stored
water, iron rods, broken paving, etc.
Nature’s bounty
Trees, plants, leaves, twigs, beans, grass,
sand, mud, stones, etc.
rated in play. Contrary to these two settings, the materials that children
among the urban poor used are seldom designed for play. They used a wide
variety of materials, ranging from usable rubbish littering the surroundings
to the physical setting itself (see Table 2). The rubbish included plastic bags,
bottles, rings, wooden planks, broken coconut shells, empty tins and boxes,
thread/string, scraps of paper, candy/chocolate wrappers, etc.
Children from the ‘disadvantaged’ settings seem to play more imagina-
tively than children from socioeconomically advantaged families or settings.
The ‘denseness’ of the construction site and the lower-SES residential areas
offer a richness in the possibility for play. There are a variety of textures,
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OKE ET AL.: CHILDREN’S PLAY IN URBAN INDIA
Park with
Construction play
Use of materials site equipment Lower SES Higher SES
Total 65 21 35 35
Source: Khattar and Pant (1997).
materials to explore, and a number of corners, heights and depths within the
physical setting, safe or otherwise, where children hide, jump, climb
and slide down. These two settings appear to encourage children to use
indigenous material and be innovative in their play, in contrast with the
structured spaces and play material available to children in the higher social
class. This is dramatically illustrated in Table 3, which presents a disaggre-
gation of data by play space and SES (Khattar and Pant, 1997).
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CHILDHOOD 6(2)
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OKE ET AL.: CHILDREN’S PLAY IN URBAN INDIA
particularly behind the door, close to the teacher’s table, or an enclosure near
a water tank in the school compound or home setting. Boys on the other
hand created the boundaries as the game proceeded, and usually chose open
spaces for play. The boundaries for play were adapted to the capacities of the
players; for instance, in the game of cricket, the boundary for play depended
on how far the players could run. In slum settings girls were observed to
play around their homes; the space for movement was limited and restricted
because they had to take care of younger siblings and other household
chores.
The age mix and gender differences in play clearly reflect the distinct
socialization of children. Girls tend to conform to the rules of the game, and
enforce the rules as well; whereas boys use flexible rules, and change them
at their convenience.
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CHILDHOOD 6(2)
removed and swings made from old tyres and sand pits make the place child
friendly. Others still await their turn for transformation. Recently, in an
UNESCO-sponsored international seminar cum workshop on ‘affordable
spaces for education of children’, held at Mumbai in August 1996, students
of architecture reported on projects undertaken to redesign existing open
spaces for children. Some of these have been sponsored by the industrial and
corporate sectors. Such efforts are indeed encouraging exercises towards
building challenging, safe and interesting play spaces for children.
Conclusion
To conclude, observations of play in a variety of settings reveal how intense
and absorbing play can be for children. They play in close proximity to the
contexts of adults’ daily lives and childhood and play enjoy a synergistic
relation.
One would expect that the social ills like child labour, prostitution,
overcrowding and hectic lifestyle that plague children’s lives in urban India
would impose restrictions on children’s spontaneous play behaviour. How-
ever, it is heartening to note that while operating within these limitations,
children snatch their time and space to play by restructuring the content to
the context and innovating upon whatever is available to them.
While empirical data highlight the universal prevalence of play and the
commonality in games such as hop-scotch, tag and hide and seek, they also
draw attention to some culturally unique games and context-specific play
activities and adaptations. The role of the adults in children’s play in urban
India is essentially restrictive, i.e. to protect the child from hazardous activ-
ity and/or to minimize adult discomfort by keeping noise and movement at a
low level. The adult role in facilitating and promoting children’s play is min-
imal (such as accompanying children to parks), if not entirely absent.
The use of play spaces and materials by children merits special atten-
tion. Observations reveal that the spaces and materials which provide maxi-
mum opportunity for innovation, such as those available in slums and
construction sites, are not particularly safe for children, and the safe environ-
ments provided by the adults such as parks with structured play equipment
are not particularly stimulating. The challenge is to create play spaces that
are safe, inexpensive and yet with scope for innovation and fun, fostering the
spirit of playfulness in childhood. This was Tagore’s dream for children, a
dream so vividly captured in his poem, which serves as an apt conclusion to
this article:
On the seashore of endless worlds the children meet with shouts and dances.
They build their houses with sand and they play with empty shells.
With withered leaves they weave their boats and smilingly float them on the
vast deep.
Children have their play on the seashore of worlds. (Tagore, 1962: 54–5)
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OKE ET AL.: CHILDREN’S PLAY IN URBAN INDIA
Notes
1. Bal leela: children’s play – the contextual meaning of leela is play acting.
2. Maya is a term used to describe the power or force that deludes humans into believing
the unreal as real.
3. Chidia: a sparrow.
4. Nagpuja: praying to the cobra.
5. Mela: a local fair for people of all age groups.
6. Katcha: literally ‘unbaked’ material used to build make-shift dwellings (not
made from brick and mortar).
7. Katcha limboo: literally means unripe lemon, implying that the child was not a
full-fledged participant in the game.
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