At a school in Narur village in his Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi, PM
Narendra Modi exhorted the school kids to go out play. That's all very well, but where exactly should the kids play, since nearly 40% of India's schools have no
playground.
ONLY GAMES, NO SPORTS
Only one state and one Union territory come close to having playgrounds in all their schools — Punjab, where 98.57% of the schools have a playground and Chandigarh, where 92.54% of schools have such a facility.
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY IS MOSTLY THE CASE
CBSE guidelines say schools need to have outdoor facilities for a 200-metre track and space to play games while the Right to Education Act, 2009, too, made it mandatory for schools to have playgrounds, but that directive was watered down in 2012, making playgrounds not mandatory within school premises as long as schools make alternative arrangements for sports in adjoining municipal parks.
SCHOOLS IN SACHIN'S CITY HARDLY HAVE PLAYGROUNDS
Mumbai, India's financial capital, where every inch of open space is coveted, has no playground in 75% of its schools, as per the state government's own admission, while in Karnataka, of the 50,000 elementary and secondary government schools, 50% have no playgrounds. This is probably why an Olympic gold medal is a pipe dream for many Indians.
