Abstract
From children’s perspective, play is what they spontaneously do in their everyday lives as they pass through childhood. Play is a valuable and enjoyable activity, shaped by the child’s ecologies of development, including the geographies, histories, socio-political contexts and culture within which the child is located. While play is recognized as a right for all children, children with disabilities are often excluded from outdoor play spaces. Promotion of inclusive play spaces remain inconspicuous in provision and policy. Inclusive play is about creating places where individuals with and without disabilities are able to engage in play together. This chapter will advocate the need for fostering inclusive out-door play spaces in India. Section “Introduction” will discuss the ideas of leisure/play and disabilities and the challenges it poses to inclusion. Section “Play and Disability in India” will examine some of the policy efforts and civil society initiatives towards inclusive play in community playgrounds in India. Section “Efforts towards Designing Inclusive Play Spaces in India” will outline a direction for collective action among the actors associated with the lives of children with disabilities and in particular emphasize the need to listen to children’s perspectives and voices.
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Acknowledgement
I thank Kavitha Krishnamoorthy and Kilikili for allowing me to draw upon their experiences of designing inclusive playgrounds in India for writing this chapter.
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Srinivasan, R. (2023). Play for All: Fostering Inclusive Play Spaces in India. In: Mukherjee, U. (eds) Childhoods & Leisure . Leisure Studies in a Global Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33789-5_3
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