Taman Flora and Taman Cahaya in Surabaya have officially been designated as Standardized Child-Friendly Playgrounds or Ruang Bermain Ramah Anak (RBRA). Both parks achieved the highest category in RBRA standardization by the Indonesian Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (locally abbreviated as KemenPPPA).

This designation is based on the Decree of the KemenPPPA through the Deputy for Child Rights Fulfillment under article Number 13 issued in 2025 concerning the Designation of Standardized Child-Friendly Playgrounds (RBRA) at the Provincial/Regency/City Level for the year of 2024.

The Head of the Division for Pollution Control and Biodiversity Management in the Department of Environment of Surabaya, Myrna Augusta Aditya Dewi, said that based on the decree, the Children's Playground in Taman Flora scored 589, while Taman Cahaya scored 578.

“The Ministry requested regencies/cities with parks to register for Child-Friendly Playground certification. We submitted two parks, Taman Flora and Taman Cahaya, and [both were] successfully achieved certification as a 'Paripurna', the highest level nationally,” said Myrna on Saturday (11/1).

Myrna explained that during the assessment, the Surabaya City Government first completed the administrative stages up to field inspections. The Surabaya City Government also made various efforts to ensure that playgrounds in the City of Heroes met the  standards.

The first criterion is that park’s facilities must be free for public use. Because, according to KemenPPPA regulations, parks and facilities or play areas for children must be free.

In addition, there are various other requirements that must be met by the Surabaya City Government. There are 13 aspects of mandatory requirements, including aspects of comfort, location, safety, and lighting.

“From these aspects, there are 132 elements that must be fulfilled. Such as safety related to access and furniture. So there should be no sharp corners, no rusty facilities, the playing area must use synthetic grass and not sand. There are rules displayed as well, such as no smoking,” she explained.

She explained that the playground is a place or play area designed to accommodate children's play activities safely and comfortably, protected from violence and harmful things.

“RBRA is more about safety and comfort for children. It has facilities for disabilities, security personnels who are always patrolling, CCTV, notification speakers, and first aid. So when an incident occurs, it can be handled immediately,” she explained.

In addition, with this recognition, it strengthens Surabaya's position as a Child-Friendly City. “This park is one proof that Surabaya is a Child-Friendly City because it has park facilities and infrastructure that are nationally recognized and child-friendly,” she emphasized.

Myrna admitted that in the future, the Surabaya City Government will continue to strive to submit certifications for other places. In addition to city parks, also for other facilities that have play areas. “It could be tourist attractions, like the Traffic Park in Joyoboyo Transportation Station. We are trying to have something standardized every year,” she said.

She added that in 2024, Surabaya was not only submitted RBRA to the KemenPPPA, but also submitted Taman Flora and Taman Cahaya as Child-Friendly Parks to the National Standardization Agency so that they could be verified to obtain Indonesian National Standard of 9169:2023 (given for Child-Friendly Playgrounds).

“[It is] Like ISO, and the audit was carried out in December 2024, we are just waiting for the results, we are trying to achieve SNI. In the future, we will maintain the playgrounds that are already [have the standard of] RBRA and others to be managed according to applicable rules and guidelines,” she concluded. (*)