Digantar School Gets a New Sustainable Interactive Playscape

By Sukeerti, AKP India Coordinator

INDIA | Every year AKP along with A&K India try to contribute to our projects in meaningful and innovative ways. Since education is our most important focus area, we decided to take the learning outdoors and funded the construction of a sustainable interactive playscape at Digantar school in Jaipur, India.

Play has an integral role in early childhood development. It improves motor, cognitive and imaginative skills, and helps them learn to negotiate their way through social situations and connect a bond with nature. Article 31 of the UN Charter on Human Rights states that play is the right of every child. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity. Still, over 100 million children in India are deprived of play and it continues to disappear from the home, schools and communities particularly for the 23.6% of the Indian population living in poverty.

We partnered with Delhi NCR based Anthill Creations to build a playscape that uses recycled tires and scrap to transform spaces into creative areas for children! These play spaces are created for children of all age groups, with a specific focus on early childhood learning.

Worldwide more than 981 million tires are thrown away every year and less than 7% are recycled. We are thrilled to be able to support recycling of around 1100 kgs of waste by building a playscape at Digantar which is being used by 220 children in the school. The children are deeply enjoying the new space, and now are also aware of the importance of recycling in transforming spaces.