Delhi children's parks are death traps

A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice R.S. Endlaw asked civic agencies to file a report on the status of the these parks and maintain facilities there for children.

The bench had earlier sought status report from civic agencies on the issue and directed them to take immediate steps to improve the conditions of children's park. The civic agencies, however, not filed the report Wednesday to which court asked them file report before July 9 "without fail".

Senior advocate Nidesh Gupta, who was appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court in the case, told the bench that he had visited various children's parks in areas like Vasant Vihar, Vasant Kunj, Greater Kailash, Sarojini Nagar and India Gate and filed pictures that depicted poor facilities there.

"All the swings, slides and other facilities are in bad condition. From all the swings, nails are coming out. Its a death trap condition there," he said.

The court had taken suo motu cognizance of the letter written by Supreme Court judge Kurian Joseph asking it to take up the issue appropriately so that children get a "congenial atmosphere in these parks befitting their age and dignity".

Justice Joseph, after visiting two children's parks at India Gate and Lake Park near Sarojini Nagar recently and seeing their deplorable condition, expressed displeasure that no responsible authority was maintaining those parks.

He wrote to the high court, saying it was an issue of "serious concern" for children visiting the parks and their deplorable condition was a "violation of human rights of children".

In the letter, Justice Joseph said he found that slides were broken, swings were not properly maintained, there was no fountain working and in the Lake Park, there was no lake.

"In both the parks, I could infer that there was no responsible authority maintaining it. There was no one to guide the children. I feel there is serious violation of human rights of the children as it is their right in their tender times to have a decent environment to play and frolic around."