The funeral of playgrounds: What happens when children no longer play outdoors

There was a time when childhood was noisy not from screens, but from shouting in the sun, the clatter of stones in a game of ghatta, the echo of laughter chasing a ball down the alley. There was dust on the face, scratches on the knees, and stories in every bruise.

Today, silence looms. Not the comforting kind but the eerie quiet of absence. Of swings that no longer move. Of fields turning into parking lots. Of marbles replaced by mobile screens. The playground has died. And few seem to have attended its funeral.