Mumbai’s playgrounds: A look into how and where Mumbaikars play
Part 3 of 3
Read Part 1 here. Read Part 2 here.
We left of understanding the cultural phenomena of kids in Mumbai playing in the streets because of the lack of access to playgrounds and parks. We now take a look at the rise of ‘pay and play’ spaces that have popped up across the city.
In the last 5–7 years there has been a wave of new ‘pay and play’ [colloquially called turfs] spaces that have opened up all across the city. These turfs operate by charging an entry fee by the hour. They provide people with a safe and clean environment to play in, without the hassle of worrying about oncoming traffic [like when playing on the streets], or worrying about space crunch and having to share an over-crowded playground.
The popularity of these spaces is so high that there are aggregator websites like ‘bookmyturf.com’ and Apps that one can use to book time slots to play. These slots often fill up days and weeks in advance. But these spaces are clearly not designed with keeping inclusivity in mind. Looking at the things that turfs advertise on the aggregator websites paints a picture of who their target audience really is — most turfs offering free parking spaces and coaching on demand.
To collect this data, I went through all the turfs listed on an aggregator website called bookmyturf.com and then cross-referenced that data with Google maps to get the co-ordinates to map them out.
Mapping out the costs of the different turfs across the city paints a telling picture. Moving away from downtown towards the suburbs of the city, one can see a change in the price. Expensive neighborhoods like Bandra attracting the highest cost while the far flung parts of the city like Malad offering the cheapest options.
Focusing specifically in M-Ward [West], one can observe different price points in the same locality of Chembur, with 3 different turfs at 3 distinct price points. Play at K-star being located at the prime real estate area near Central Avenue Road is the most expensive turf, whereas Urban Sports located at PL Lokhande Marg, an area with a lot of low income and informal housing in the vicinity offering a cheaper alternative.
There is a direct co-relation between where the turf is situated and the price of entry.
Looking at all this data, one can clearly notice that there are multiple barriers for kids to access safe play spaces in the city of Mumbai, leaving most of the kids in the city growing up with no space to play.
