Last evening, I was sitting in the central park with my wife. A number of children (aged between 2 and 6, were playing in the lawns. Their guardians, mostly mothers were chatting among themselves.
One of the parents decided to go home and took her children away.
Another child aged about 4 started following them without any one noticing him.
Now, this park is situated smack in the middle of two driveways, of Mantri Synergy. Water tankers, cars, and an assorted sorts of vehicles traverse these driveways, regularly during the eve ning hours.
There is only one entrance to this park, and the gate is always kept wide open.
This child was about to step out and dash across the drive way, in pursuit of his play mates, and a water tanker was approaching. Luckily, his mother spotted him and admonished him and he came back. Fortunately, nothing untoward happened.
A little later, another toddler tried to run out of the park. The mother came running and stopped it. I suggested that she closed the gate which she did, and latched it.
Within a minute, an elderly couple, enterd the park by opening the gate and left it wide opened.
and went on their merry way.
Now, this is a diaster waiting to happen some time. I am not being an alarmist. So let us see what we can do about it.
There are one or two security guards, hovering near the main entrance. One of them could be stationed at the gates of the park to regulate the movement of people in and out of the park.
Or, we could install a turnstile, which will deter a child from making a wild dash across the drive way.
Or, a maze installed to restrict rapid movement of children.
I have been noticing a gradual increase of the number of people using the park, this will only keep increasing.
Something has to be done, and done fast
I believe it is better to look after the safety of our children ourselves. The main gate is more important and more than one security guard should be present there. Posting a guard to man the park gate will not solve the issue. Tomorrow we may need security guards to look after the children's play-area gate, the central fountain etc. I am also a mother of a toddler and even I chat with neighbors while our children play. Still I would say, we need to look after them ourselves and try to educate them about road-safety. Not every job can be out-sourced.
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