Accidental drowning: restraint and awareness at the waters edge

General Studies Paper 2

CONTEXT

• World Drowning Prevention Day is on July 25, here is an attempt to study the subject and implement various expert advisories on safe spaces; in 2021 there were36,362drowning deaths reported of which children were a large number.

DROWNING DEATHS

• Drowning deaths capture headlines from time to time, when they involve large numbers, or larger-than-life people, but what is less frequently mentioned, is the many drownings, predominantly of children that take place in India every day.
• According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s statistics for 2021, there were 36,362drowning deaths reported, forming 9.3% of accidental deaths in the country.
• Prevention, say experts, is the key to curbing drowning deaths in India as rescue and resuscitation efforts may not always be timely or feasible.
• And prevention involves several measures, at the safe behaviouralism’s infrastructural levels.

CHILDREN AT HIGH RISK

• Children are at the largest risk of drowning in India, and even reported figures are an underestimate, as most cases never make it to the hospital and are not recorded.
• The risk is highest in the one to six year age group, followed by the 6 -14 age group in India, especially in rural and remote areas.
• There is this perception that if a child grows up near a waterbody, he or she will automatically learn how to swim, but this is emphatically not true as there are two key aspects-in the drowning deaths of children: the lack of supervision and the lack of physical barriers on waterbodies.

REASONS ASSOCIATED AND MITIGATION

• Safe space- Access to and availability of safe spaces could go a long way in preventing drowning.
• Barricading – The other issue is the safe storage of water and barricading access to it where necessary. Safe storage needs to begin at home. Actionable awareness on this, for communities, is essential.
• The barricading of wells and, ponds and other small water bodies by government authorities and the prevention of unauthorised access are also necessary steps towards building safer environments and communities..
• Awareness- While accidental falls into water bodies account for-about 70%of all drowning deaths as per the NCRB, there have also been multiple cases of young people and families going for a pleasure dipor to bathe, with these outings ending in tragedy.
• Avoiding selfies- Selfies, she says, are another hazard: in an effort to get the best photograph of a scenic dam or a brimming river, many young persons have tragically lost their lives.
• The highest number of ‘selfie-deaths’, from a global search has been reported in India and drowning was amongst the topmost reasons for deaths caused while taking selfies states the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s status of drowning in South-East Asia: Country reports’,2022.
• Flood casualties- Another major cause of concern is drowning due to floods. A total of 656 people in India lost their lives due to flooding in data of NCRB.
• There is urgent need for better civic infrastructure and measures to tackle climate change.
• Post-event recovery and rehabilitative measures are also important as drowning deaths may even occur due to water-logging..
• State-specific policies that can be targeted to regions where interventions are needed like coastal villages, low-lying areas and wetland regions for instance.

CONCLUSION

• It may not always be accessible as a drinking source, but there’s water everywhere in the country: along our long coastline, in our meandering rivers and lakes and pooling in our wetlands, all crucial for survival. While we rightly work hard to safeguard these natural resources, we must also, simultaneously, safeguard people around them.