Problems and prospects of children's recreation parks in Dhaka city

Abstract

Bangladeshtoday is a paradox. It is burdened by the vidous circleof poverty, low Fel capita inwme, malnutrition, lower resistance to diseases, aggravated unemployment, population expansion with high birthrate and high mortality espedally infant mortality. Jn the c<lpitalthese crises are more a('llte. In Dhaka only 30"0 household and their children can somehow nreet their recreational demand through the fadlities provided by the various governmental and nOllgOH'mmental authorities. But major portion of the dtl' is b<>ingdeprived from wel1-pl,nUledrecreational fadlities. Because it is not possible for them to pay Tk 50 _ 100for reueation even for their children. Tntllis study an attempt has been made to investigate the reueation.u provisions pruvidl.0 for the children of the city and ba~d on the data and infOrmdtioncollected few recoITlIItendatiom; have been proposed. Firstly the overall background and rationale of the study are described. TIle importancf' of amusemenl and rf'creation for Ute proper mental and physical growth of the children hdvf'also been exp~d.. However thC'actual condition of present Dhdka witI, resped lo Uteprovision of children recreation is discussed as weLLThree large amUSeillf'ntparks of Dhaka namely Shishu Park al Shilhabaeh, Shishu Meta at Shamoli and Wonder Land at Gulshan were selected as thC'designaled parks for this research. Each of thC'enterialling ilelIlSof all !hrf'C' study parks is studied vcry carefully, along with their capacity. duration of one use, aVE'Taeeuse in weekdays and holidays etc. A questionnaire survey was also carned out to know about the so{io-emnomic stalus of the visitors and tIleir opinion and preferences for various asp€cts of the study pdl"ks.Investment Rf'tum Analysis has hC'C'ncarried out for C'achpark. Moreover the f'Xistingcondition of eiehl Dhaka Gly Corporation pdl"ksis described h••r.e, After the accomplislmwnt of all the procedures of obsf'rvation, socio-economic sutvey, physical survey, collecnon of other priIIlary and secondary data and information. few analyses have been done. On the basis of tlWSf'analyses the concept of 'Small Model Amusement Park' (SMAP) has been developed which is recommended to be pstablished in suitable areas of the city.