A child dies from drowning every 31 minutes in Bangladesh, bringing the death toll from the silent epidemic to 18,000 children annually, according to data from the Centre for Injury Prevention, Health Development and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB).
According to a research study conducted in 2012 by The Alliance for Safe Children (TASC) in collaboration with Unicef’s Office of Research, the number of children that die from drowning is greater than the number that succumb each year to measles, polio, whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria and tuberculosis combined.
According to a 2014 World Health Organisation (WHO) report titled “Global Report on Drowning: Preventing a Leading Killer,” drowning accounted for 43% of deaths among children aged 1-4 years in Bangladesh.
The CIPRB data shows that around 80% of such deaths occur within 20 metres of the home. Most of the deaths occur in rural areas during the day between 9am-2pm when the child is left unsupervised because the parents are busy with chores.
Figures compiled by child rights organisation Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF) showed that a far smaller number of child drowning cases were actually reported in the press. BASF found that 354 children were reported to have drowned between January and September this year, 165 in 2014, 132 in 2013 and 125 in 2012.
“These statistics include only reported incidents whereas the real picture is more alarming as many incidents goes unreported. Every month, 1,500 children, mostly between 1 and 4 years old die due to drowning in Bangladesh,” International Drowning Research Centre – Bangladesh (IDRCB) Director Aminur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Children aged between 1 and 4 years are most vulnerable because their mobility and activity are on the increase but they lack the intellectual capacity to assess the danger posed by open bodies of water.
Experts said 50 children die every day because they are vulnerable to open bodies of water such as ponds, ditches, rivers, lakes and the ocean.
They said initiatives to teach swimming to children aged over four years old can help reduce 98% of such fatalities.
IDRCB’s Aminur stressed the need for coordination between the Health, Education, Social Welfare, Youth and Sports ministries and the Local Government Division to take necessary action to bring down the death toll.
“In most cases, the age gap between victims and rescuers is about 6 years,” Rahman said.
“If people are given proper training in mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and chest compression, it could help reduce the number of child lives lost to drowning,” he added.
<Government initiative flounders>
A government effort to introduce swimming classes at all educational institutions except universities has yet to make a dent in the number of deaths, reportedly due to a lack of infrastructure.
Seven months have passed since the Education Ministry issued a circular calling for swimming to be taught in educational institutions.
In March, the Education Ministry decided to introduce regular swimming classes at all higher secondary, secondary and pre-secondary institutions, and at equivalent institutions of the madrasah and technical education boards.
The Dhaka Tribune has learnt that district education offices have transferred the circular on swimming classes to their field offices but have failed to follow-up, calling into question the effective implementation of the initiative.
Field level officers say a lack of ponds on school grounds have limited the number of venues for swimming classes.
According to the circular, educational institutions have to ensure that ponds to be used for swimming classes are comfortable and in a healthy condition.
It required educational institutions to use life jackets and traditional life saving tools while training.
Due to a lack of ponds in Dhaka, schools will have to coordinate with organisations that have swimming pools to conduct swimming classes, it said.
The ministry assigned district education officers and upazila secondary education officers to monitor the swimming training and send a monthly report to the director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education.
District education officers, however, said they had passed the order to the field offices but were yet to get any response.
“There are few ponds in Dhaka. In fact, there is a lack of swimming pools in Dhaka to train students, so we are yet to get feedback from our subordinate officers,” Dhaka District Education Officer Harun-Ur-Rashid Sarker said.
Chandpur District Education Officer M Shafi Uddin said students in his jurisdiction learn swimming automatically because it is an area surrounded by water.
But his office is yet to take any specific initiative in regard to the circular.
Chittagong District Education Officer Hosne Ara Begum said: “I have passed the circular to the upazila education officer but I do not know whether he is monitoring the issue or not.”
According to Barishal District Education Officer Lutfun Nahar Afroze, many of the schools do not have ponds which creates barriers to implementing the initiative.
“I visited six schools on Saturday, but they do not have any ponds. In addition, some school have ponds, but they are not usable,” she said, adding that students practice swimming in ponds close to their houses.
When approached, Director General of Secondary and Higher Education Fahima Khatun said letters had been issued to field offices.
She said parents and children were very interested in learning swimming.
“There is no major problem in the rural areas as there are enough ponds where students can learn to swim. In the district cities, we are taking support from the stadium authorities to use their swimming pools to teach swimming to students,” she said.
She said the initiative was attractive to students because the authorities ensured safety and security measures during swimming classes.
