As we head towards a digital world, we are missing out on a lot of exciting things and experiences which we used to enjoy before we got sucked into this tech-savvy life. One of them is the sheer happiness of playing with the retro toys and games out in the fields or indoor with a bunch of friends and cousins making our boring afternoons fun, exciting and enriching.
With nuclear families and working parents, we see most of the city kids glued to their gadgets at a very young age spending most of their time in school, tuition and classes. Their social skills are affected as there is less play time with friends and family. Excessive screen time not only affects health physically but also mentally. Parents are slowly accepting the damage caused by excessive screen time and want to reduce it with some engaging and skilled based options to play.
Let’s look at how traditional toys/games can play a role in this.
The role of traditional toys in today’s times:
- Traditional Indian toys are not just for fun but are also informative. They help kids in learning skills like maths, hand-eye coordination, sensory development, etc.
- The traditional board games also teach kids certain tactics and improve their memory. It improves communication and coordination between the kids when they start playing them from a younger age.
- These games also prepare the kids for what they want to be in the future. It might not be very obvious, but toys definitely have a huge psychological impact to play in shaping the future of a child.
Another great asset of Indian toys is the way they are made using all the natural materials. Wood has always been the primary material of most of the Made-In-India toys and the colours used were organic; usually made from the vegetable dyes.
Helps promote parent-child bonding:
Most of these games/toys require more than 2-3 players, so inevitably in this age of nuclear families, parents need to join the game and thus it increases the quality time spent with kids. It helps them to bond better. As opposed to video/computer games that can be played alone, traditional toys promotes quality time together in the family.
Kids might grow up and get busy in their own life, with their own job and other chores but they would never really get over what was once a very phenomenal part of his childhood. A parent would recommend and buy the same kind of toy for his/her kid, which he/she once played with. Even grandparents find joy in playing with their grandchildren and their toys. That being said, it is pretty obvious that toys will never lose the significance they hold. They’ll always be passed down from one generation to another. Even if a child grows up and thinks about his childhood, he/she will always reminiscent the days he/she spent in the arms of his/her favourite toy.
Unlike the fancy and expensive gadget toys sold in stores today, traditional Indian toys and games were simple and took their inspiration from nature. It is very important for today’s kids to experience the unadulterated joy of the desi playtime and it is the responsibility of the grown-ups to offer this to the kids.
Janani S Koushik
KSP Team
Rushita Sheth
Mansi Zaveri
