Residents of Makannapalli village in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district are setting an example of self-help by coming together and constructing a playground on their own. They decided to do so since their repeated requests to district authorities and Government failed to get any result.

This remote village has a population of 2,400 people and boasts of a large pool of sports talent with the young and children playing hockey, volleyball, cricket and kabaddi among other games. There are more than 100 men in this village who are serving the armed forces and police.

Despite all this the village doesn’t have a proper playground and the nearest one is located two kilometres away, making it very difficult for children and sportspersons to practice. Apart from this, residents, including the senior citizens keen to enjoy a morning or evening walk have no place to do so.

With repeated requests for a playground yielding no results, the residents of the village came together and pooled Rs. 12 lakhs and they identified two acres of land on the outskirts of the village for setting up the playground. To ensure there was enough space, they bought land at a nominal price.

Describing the response of the residents as overwhelming, Saini Desayya, Sarpanch of Makannapalli said not only did people contribute money, many came forward to gift their land too for the playground. He added that a total of Rs.12 lakhs had been collected from 100 donors and two acres of land has come from 23 landowners.

Already the levelling of the land has been undertaken. The Government has assured them of electricity connection for the playground. The villagers have asked the authorities to provide aid for chairs and other sports infrastructure.