IITian leaves High Paying Job To Build A Playgrounds For Disadvantaged Children

Her journey began in the year 2015 when Pooja graduated from IIT Kharagpur with an architectural engineering degree. In her spare time, then a 23-year-old volunteered at a poor daycare and gave as much as possible for her time. On one of these visits, pooja saw a heartbreaking spectacle, the kids didn't even have toys to play with, they tried to play badminton with slippers and some played with giant cement pipes that we often come across near construction sites.

Pooja decided to help the disadvantaged children and turned to her colleagues for help building the playground, but since they were all broken students, they could only devote their time and energy. They contacted IIT academics who donated enough money to Pooja and her classmates to get all the material to the field. After the medical center also accepted the construction of the track, Pooja approached Michelin tires, a leading tire manufacturer, and told about her charity idea, and they donated tires to build the track, the full cost of playing on-site reached Rs. 1 lakh.

After a while, Pooja didn't think much about building playgrounds, and when campus arrived, the graduate was hired by a startup called Stayzilla as a product manager. There she worked for a year and a half and admits that she received a ballpark with about 300 requests for the construction of playgrounds, such as the health center. At that point, Pooja began to seriously consider building playgrounds as a full-time career.

So in 2017, Pooja took a job and founded an NGO called Anthill Creations, which, along with five of her friends, is building playgrounds across India. However, this information was not well received by her parents, who were quite disappointed that their daughter had left a great job due to a life of instability, but after a few moments of hesitation, they turned around and supported their daughter in everything. She was shining with happiness. And over the past five years, the NGO has built 283 playgrounds in 18 Indian states, including Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, and Assam.

Due to the fact that the playground is full of toys, equipment, and games made of tires and similar waste materials, their construction will not take more than 4-5 days and, depending on the size of the playground, can cost Rs 1. per 5 million crowns. Pooja shares that NGOs do not work independently and that they work with local NGOs and community members in the area where the stadium will be built. She shares: "We are working with individuals, communities, governments, and organizations, to help us with funding to build a playground. Although the stadiums are almost like a DIY project and are made from scrap tires, they can last for about 10 years." they also teach community members to maintain a playground.

Pooja researched and discovered that using space properly can change people's behavior. She points out that while it may seem so, everyone should embrace the idea of play corners, which she has met with a lot of resistance as she tries to convince people of the same thing. She said: “Everyone gives a lot of education, but time out of books is just as important for children. Playgrounds help children develop physical development, social and emotional skills, and we become first friends on the playground.  Sometimes, we have to work really hard to convince people about the importance of the playground, but we do our best. And when people finally notice the positive impact of these playgrounds on student performance and behavior, it's a real success."