Kerala IAS officer motivates children to play outdoor games by offering to join them

Thiruvananthapuram: At a time when online game addiction among students has become a serious cause for concern, an IAS officer in Kerala is motivating children to play outdoors during the school vacations by offering to play with them.

The initiative by Pathanamthitta district collector Prem Krishnan S is receiving a good response from youngsters, with many sharing pictures of their outdoor sporting activities on his social media page and inviting the IAS officer to join them.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Krishnan said, "The heat of summer and joy of vacations has arrived. Let's make the holidays beautiful. Instead of getting addicted to computers and mobile phones, let us go to the vacant lands and hit fours and sixes and take wickets. Let it be the new intoxication in our life."

The district collector also offered to play with them. "You may post photographs of your playgrounds. I will also join you as a player and friend in selected areas," he said.

Subsequently, many groups of players in Pathanamthitta shared pictures of their playgrounds, mostly vacant lands and fields, and invited the district collector to play with them. On Thursday, the collector also played with one of the groups.

Krishnan told DH that the initiative was made as an easy option to revive the children from online game addictions, and the response was quite good. He also said that some persons had shared concerns that adequate play areas were not available at many places now.

In due course, such issues could be addressed with the support of the local bodies concerned.

Krishnan, who is a 2017 batch IAS officer hailing from Thiruvananthapuram, has been a cricket enthusiast since his student days.