Fun for free goes unnoticed during Ramadan

“What’s the point of playing? We don’t have time!” said Hamida, a seasonal beggar sitting in front of a public toilet near the Shishu Park in Shahbagh.

“Iftar is drawing near, it is the best time to collect alms,” she said, tying and gathering up some pieces of clothes on her lap. After being assured the sack-like object she made resembles a newborn, she resumes her work.

The two children loitering around, who she introduced as hers, followed her. They were two-and-a-half-year-old ‘Rudra’ and five-year-old ‘Labiba’, Hamida said.

It was a Wednesday, the day of the week when the Shaheed Zia Shishu Park, the only public sector amusement park for children in Bangladesh, is open only to ‘dustho’ (disadvantaged, if translated into English) children.

Underprivileged children, the homeless in particular, fall in this category. They can enter the park and enjoy the rides for free between 1:30pm and 5pm on this day. The timing has been changed to 2pm-4pm for Ramadan.

Hamida said she was unaware of the service.

For the lady, Ramadan is the month for begging. The rest of the year she earns a living by working as a domestic helper for households. “My children also beg with me so I cannot let them waste time during Ramadan, even if the facility is for free.”

The Shishu Park was devoid of people and the rides were at a standstill on Wednesday, as not a single underprivileged child showed up to take advantage of the opportunity. But a good number of visitors -- university students, couples and children with families -- arrived only to find the signboard set out with the rules and the revised operation hours.

The park, with 12 rides set up on 15 acres of land, hardly sees any visitor on Wednesdays, according to Mohammad Mofizul Islam and Dudu Mia, two security guards who have been working there for the past 30 years.

Former president HM Ershad started the service for underprivileged children in the late 1980s. Initially, massive crowds would arrive but they thinned over time and the children stopped coming. Now, on a regular Wednesday, the park sees about 25 kids at best. The number has gone down to zero because of Ramadan, the guards said.

“Since the start of Ramadan, not a single poor child has showed up on Wednesdays. There was a time when 150 to 200 poor kids would pour in,” Islam recalled.

Mia mentioned that the sorry state had prevailed for the past two to three years.

Some of the visitors asked the guards to let them in, seeing that there were no other customers. But the guards would not bend the rules. They assumed that the street children loitering nearby know about the service but cannot use it, perhaps because they are working as hawkers to make some money before Eid.

“We do not like sitting idle,” said Islam, adding that the free-of-cost service had been recently extended for children with intellectual disabilities and autism.

But that decision too brought in trouble. “Parents started bringing a dozen kids with only one being autistic. So we had to be strict and now we are not allowing them unless they show us designated cards.”

Uttam Kumar Roy, a public relations officer at Dhaka South City Corporation, disagreed with the accounts of the guards when asked on the matter.

“Parents do know about this service. It is decades old,” said Roy. “Orphanages and different agencies bring hundreds of children. Circulars are published in newspapers whenever the timetable is revised.”