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The Hindu
30-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
The troubling takeover of Bengaluru's open playgrounds
Blatant attempts to take over the city's open playgrounds have left Bengalureans scrambling to take the legal route. A recent court stay might have temporarily halted the controversial upgrade and proposed expansion of a basketball court in Indiranagar. But the spotlight is right back on a system that has been swallowing up the city's limited open spaces for infrastructure projects, denying children the right to access and freedom to play. For the collective, I Change Indiranagar (ICIN) and local residents around Victory Grounds in Indiranagar 1st Stage, the protracted legal battle to save the ground has been propelled by a fear: apprehension that the proposed upgrade and development of the basketball court could be a cover to eventually deny access to local children. This trend has been visible in many parts of the city, and the residents are determined not to let it repeat here. On its part, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) maintains that the upgraded court will remain accessible to the public and will not be privatised as feared. But both ICIN and the residents around the ground are not convinced. Several playgrounds that were once thriving, energetic hotspots of organic multi-sport activities have disappeared, replaced by flashy, access-controlled sporting facilities. Disregard for open spaces But more troubling is the disregard for open spaces in the land acquisition process for mega infrastructure projects. In a telling example, anthropologist and seasoned rights campaigner Usha Rao draws attention to three playgrounds taken over for the Namma Metro Line along a three-kilometre stretch: The Chhota Maidan in Shivajinagar, the Bamboo Bazaar Banda Ground and the Pottery Town playground. The Banda Ground has been Usha's research focus for long. 'I have been studying it personally over so many years. It was a free space for very low income communities in an area where there are no large plots, and the roads are narrow and dangerous for children to play. It was also a community space. It was an Idgah ground with prayers and a place of celebration for Christmas, Ganapathy, Deepavali and other festivals. There is a mixed community around. Plus, at any point of time, one could see some 12 games going on,' she recalls. In the original plan, Banda Ground was not the location for the Namma Metro station on the Gottigere-Nagawara Line. The station was to come up near the Cantonment Railway Station, aiding seamless shifts for passengers from one mode of transport to another. However, despite opposition from citizens and public transport experts, the location was shifted disrupting community life in and around the ground. Barely a kilometre away is the site of the Metro's Pottery Town Station, once a dynamic community space and the only playground within a 3 km radius. Although part of the Pottery Town Government High School, this ground was open to children from Benson Town, Jayamahal and Williams Town to play football, cricket and other games. Today, the place is abuzz with construction activity. Livability challenged The takeover of playgrounds strikes at the very heart of Bengaluru's livability. Beyond traffic, this too has been a factor in lowering the city's score in global livability indices. As Usha points out, these open spaces go beyond games and double up as spots where children socialise, mix with people from different strata of society. Youngsters develop social skills through play, building friendships, learning to collaborate and resolve conflicts. These accessible play areas often nurture community cohesion while promoting mental health through physical activity. Advocates for accessible public spaces wonder whether these factors are considered at all in the land acquisition process for big projects. To make way for a Metro Line, the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) had earlier taken over the Jakkarayanakere playground, once a popular hangout for children in and around Seshadripuram. It is now only a nostalgic memory. 'Pay and play' exclusivity The mushrooming of 'pay and play' sporting arenas across the city have indeed increased options for those who can afford them. Mobile apps allow people to book slots, the rates of which are inevitably out of reach of children from lower income groups. 'Kids from the neighbouring Binnamangala slum at the intersection of Indiranagar 100ft Road and Old Madras Road use the Victory Ground. Even the basketball court was used by these children,' says Sneha Nandihal from ICIN. Active resistance from local residents have achieved success in the past in a few cases. An attempt to take over a shared playground in Thippasandra had met with vocal, multi-pronged protests by residents of the nearby Geethanjali Layout five years ago. As civic activist Jagadeesh Babu recalls, the move to put up a private cricket academy was challenged by citizens, who flooded the Palike Joint Commissioner with hundreds of SMSes and WhatsApp messages seeking action. Mounting protests eventually led to scrapping of the project. Rising development pressure in the city's Central Business District (CBD) has reduced open spaces, with institutions prioritising infrastructure over play, says Rajeev G. Malagi, Programme Manager, Sustainable Cities and Transport at the World Resources Institute (WRI) India. 'Lifestyle shifts and mobile usage have further contributed to declining physical activity and youth well-being,' he explains. URDPFI guidelines The Centre's URDPFI (Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation) guidelines recommend 10 to 12 sqm of open space per person, he points out. 'However, Bengaluru is working towards achieving this. There is an urgent need to revive and strengthen Bengaluru's school playgrounds and open spaces to re-engage youth with the outdoors, supporting their holistic development while also enhancing the city's climate resilience and creating livable environments.' Rajeev's recommendations to re-establish open spaces are these: Mandate all new schools to provide open play areas proportionate to student strength; transform school playgrounds into sports training centres accessible to youth and local communities; and create an interconnected network of open spaces including parks, playgrounds and public facilities. This network could be integrated with accessible public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure to support active urban living. While decades-old playgrounds are being acquired for multiple projects, new open spaces are not being created. Usha warns that this will have large repercussions on generations to come. 'If an underground Metro station is built in place of a playground, will the space above become available for the children? No. Such places will be completely under security cameras with shops. It is a complete loss,' says the anthropologist, indicating the need for a total policy rethink on open spaces in the city.
Hindustan Times
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
What do Bengaluru's youth really care about?
Is activism dead in Bengaluru? I thought about this as I waded through knee-deep water in South Bengaluru. Once again, the rains are upon us, and once again, the city is waterlogged. Netizens in other cities are gleeful. Bengaluru gets half the rain of Mumbai, and has half the population, said one. Yet it suffers from more flooding than Mumbai, every time it rains. What will it take for this city to wake up and get BBMP to do its job? Am I living in Varthur or Venice, asked dancer Ramaa Bharadwaj on Facebook? We need gondolas to wade through our streets. Does Bengaluru lack the time or inclination to protest and seek good governance? Is it because we are an IT and tech city that keeps workers so busy that it induces brain fog for everything else? One citizen, though, has taken action. Dhivya Kiran, 43, from Richmond Town has served a 50-lakh legal notice to BBMP stating that he has suffered 'physical agony and emotional trauma,' directly because of Bengaluru's potholed and damaged roads. On May 14, his advocate KV Laveen served a legal notice that lists physical and emotional pain directly caused by Bengaluru's roads: jerky stop and go traffic resulting in 'severe neck and back pain,' that had him make four emergency trips to the hospital and orthopaedic doctors. Well done, I say. Finally. It is not as if Bengaluru doesn't have citizen groups. The list is long. There are organisations like Oorvani which publishes Citizen Matters, a great read for those who want to keep in touch with civic action groups and their activities. I Change Indiranagar, HSR Citizen Forum and other flourishing neighbourhood Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) mobilise their neighbourhoods. National organisations like Janaagraha began in Bangalore. Some offer channels of intersection between government and society: Bangalore Political Action Group (BPAC), Rise up for Rights, Friends of Lakes and others come to mind. In addition, groups like Namma Bengaluru Foundation, Aravani Art Project, CIVIC Bangalore, Flourishing Bengaluru Collective, and many others also attempt to make governance accountable. What is interesting though is that many of these efforts are spearheaded by land-owning, home-owning middle-aged folks. Remember when colleges were the hotbed of protests? Well, that doesn't seem to happen in Bengaluru; which leads me to the question: what do Bengaluru's youth care about? What uniquely animates Bengaluru's youth relative to say Delhi, Mumbai, Shanghai or San Francisco? Sure, all these cities have ambitious, insecure, anxious, eco-conscious, evolved young people. Some even ditch their jobs to volunteer, write poetry, climb mountains, and start companies. The problem though is the immigrant nature of Bengaluru's population. Attend any launch event in Central Bengaluru, and you'll hear Hindi, not Kannada. Upwardly mobile Bengalureans, it seems, are from elsewhere. They throng to Bengaluru, attracted by its cosmopolitan populace, great weather and startup culture. Bengaluru thus has become a city of immigrants, where nobody takes ownership of its issues (save a few patron saints of lost causes). Why would people protest when Bengaluru seems better than where they came from? The second reason for this lack of activism is what the city does to your psyche. At the end of the day, Bengalureans like many South Indians are not inherently flashy. We keep it down-and-low. Our humble-bragging and hustling is restricted to LinkedIn. This is the problem. Where is the time to protest and join parades when you are happy eating benne dose in CTR or bird-watching in Cubbon Park? The simmering prolonged discontentment that needs to happen in order for collective action to take place simply doesn't exist here because the Bengalurean is inherently live-and-let-live in nature. But back to the question: what do Bengaluru's youth care about? If I had to pick one, I would say that they yearn for community, perhaps because they move here sans family or friends, to get a job, most often at a startup, where they are surrounded by rootless folks just like them. If you are in your 20s or 30s in Bangalore, you learn quickly to join groups, to speed-date, to attend art, yoga, journaling or hand-pan music workshops, improv theatre classes, and niche clubs for board games, manga, anime and quiz. All that coding during the day must result in a longing for something physical and sexual because dance classes are huge, ranging from pole dancing to salsa to get this— lap dancing. It seems that finally, a city that was defined by tech is learning to embrace the humanities, and here lies my hope. In order to save the world, you have to read Homer and enjoy Keats. You have to read UR Ananthamurthy and Kuvempu, attend Shivarama Karanth's yakshagana revivals, learn to draw like Hebbar and attend performances under Chowdiah's violin. The humanities humanise us. They make us care. They allow for empathy. If you are sitting in a cubicle, you won't care about the woman wading through water. The great thing about the comeback of the arts into Bengaluru's ecosystem is that it offers hope for a more empathetic society. Cross pollination between the worlds of art and tech may nudge us to collectively demand better governance from our politicians and bureaucrats. So yes, activism may have been dead in Bengaluru during the go-go years of IT. But thanks to art, theatre and music, it may well make a comeback. (Shoba Narayan is Bengaluru-based award-winning author. She is also a freelance contributor who writes about art, food, fashion and travel for a number of publications.)
Time of India
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Bengaluru: Indiranagar basketball court redevelopment sparks debate over public access
Bengaluru: For over four decades, a modest basketball court tucked inside Indiranagar 1st Stage served as a vital playground for local youth, adults, and sports enthusiasts of all backgrounds. This court, part of a larger public ground, was more than just a place to shoot into hoops, it was a vibrant, inclusive community space where people came together to play cricket, basketball, and other games that very space has become the centre of a growing debate, as BBMP began construction to convert the basketball court into a full-fledged stadium after a traditional puja on May 8. While some welcome the move, others are raising serious concerns about what this transformation might mean for the future of public to Detailed Project Report (DPR), BBMP plans to upgrade the existing court by resurfacing the basketball court, adding spectator stands (gallery) on four sides, constructing changing rooms, toilets, and store rooms, installing lighting for evening games, fencing the premises, creating car parking space inside the playground area, and improving drainage estimated cost of the project is Rs 6 crore, and it is expected to be completed in six to nine months. The stated aim is to provide better infrastructure for players, host tournaments, and promote sports among Bengaluru's heart of controversyHowever, residents are not convinced. Many strongly oppose turning it into a stadium-like structure that could limit free public access with entry fees, fixed timings, or requirements like special footwear. — barriers that could keep out children from low-income backgrounds. The lack of clarity in the DPR about future usage policies has only added to these concerns. Swarna Venkataraman from I Change Indiranagar said, "We're not against upgrading the ground — we want it to be maintained. But turning the only open space we have into a private club facility is unacceptable."Another key question being asked is about private coaching clubs. Currently, a private basketball club has been conducting weekend paid classes there. Residents ask how a public space can be used for commercial purposes and fear such arrangements might increase after the stadium is players' perspectiveOn the other hand, long-time basketball players strongly support BBMP's plan. Yeshwanth Jayanna, a player who used the court for 8 years and represented Karnataka in the sport, said, "We've wanted this upgrade for decades. When it rains, we can't play. The court is cracked and worn out. We need a roof and better flooring to train seriously."He added, "Our club has always been about encouraging public to play. We're not turning it into a private zone — we're fighting to improve it."BBMP RespondsBBMP officials have attempted to ease fears. Snehal R, zonal commissioner, BBMP east, stated, "This is not a takeover of the entire playground. Only the basketball court is being upgraded. The rest of the ground will remain open to public." On allegations about a basketball club conducting coaching by collecting money, she said an inquiry will be conducted on the added no decisions have yet been made regarding access policies, and BBMP is open to discussions about free coaching sessions and possibly adding more courts if the demand arises. She emphasized that infrastructure requires maintenance and that involving local associations in management may be necessary, but it does not mean details of the project- Convert the court into a stadium with resurfacing, adding a gallery/viewing stands, changing rooms, toilets.- Car parking inside the playground - The estimated cost is Rs 6 crore- Expected to finish in 6-9 months- It is unclear whether the basketball stadium will remain open for free public use
New Indian Express
09-05-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Indiranagar residents protest, but Palike goes ahead with bhoomi puja for stadium
BENGALURU: Even as resident welfare associations of Indiranagar have been expressing fear that they may lose the only playground marked for Indiranagar Stage-1 and Stage-2, and BBMP proposing a stadium at a cost of Rs 6.5 crore, the bhoomi puja (ground-breaking ceremony) for the stadium was held on Thursday. However, Snehal R clarified that the playground will not lose its characteristic, and people and children will still have free access. She said the project is an upgrade of the existing basketball court. Congress leader Abhilash Reddy, supporting the claims, said news about enclosing the ground, and poor children being denied entry, is false. 'The basketball court of Indiranagar will get a facelift. The court will have a synthetic floor, it will have new seating arrangements. There is no question of the entire playground being covered,' he said. Recently, the resident welfare association — I Change Indiranagar — petitioned the zonal commissioner, stating that this is the only open ground and if it is turned into a covered stadium, it will deny access to poor, middle and low income groups, and schoolchildren in surrounding areas who use the playground for physical activity. The residents say that in 2017, when attempts were made to convert the ground into a stadium, a stay was obtained.
Time of India
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Indiranagar residents oppose stadium plan on playground
Bengaluru: Residents of Indiranagar have strongly opposed BBMP's decision to construct a stadium on the only open and accessible playground in their area — Victory Grounds in Indiranagar I Stage. The sudden announcement of a Rs 6.5-crore project, which includes a tensile-roofed stadium over the existing basketball court, has triggered outrage among the local community. "This is the only BBMP playground available to I and II Stage residents. It is used daily by children from the locality, nearby schools and from low-income neighbourhoods. Converting it into a stadium will restrict access and benefit only a select few," said Swarna Venkataraman, core member of I Change Indiranagar. Residents are also questioning the lack of transparency. "In 2017, we secured a high court stay on a similar indoor stadium plan. Despite this, BBMP revived the project without public consultation," said Sneha Nandihal, co-founder of I Change Indiranagar. Local groups argue that such a project will increase traffic and pollution in the already crowded neighbourhood. "The DPR falsely claims the playground is surrounded by wide roads. In reality, it's located in a densely packed residential zone. The proposed car park alone will consume the entire ground," said Ashok Sarath, president of Defence Colony Resident Welfare Association. Calling for equitable access to public spaces, residents demanded that the Rs 6.5 crore be used instead to maintain and improve the existing playground. "Why enclose the only lung space left in our locality?" said DV Ashok, president of 1st Stage League RWA.
