THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A swimming school each in all the 140 assembly constituencies within the next four years - this is the latest initiative of the state government in imparting swimming lessons to children as a deterrent measure against the alarming instances of drowning deaths in the state. On an average about four persons drown in the state daily. Even then many initiatives and proposals to impart swimming training to students have suffered premature deaths. During last year a total of 1,350 persons drowned in the state and in 2015 the number was 1,380. A good number of the victims were youngsters and their chances of survival were minimal. In the wake of the alarming number of drowning mishaps, the state government initiated various projects to impart swimming training to students.
Couple of years back the State Disaster Management Authority had piloted a project in Thrissur to impart free swimming training to school children. Hundreds of students in the district availed the scheme. But the project could not be extended to other districts. "Fund scarcity was a major hurdle as swimming training required safe swimming pools. Though the state has got many water bodies, parents were reluctant towards swimming training in unsafe water bodies or pools without proper water treatment facilities," government sources said. In 2011 the Kerala State Sports Council mooted mandatory swimming training programme at schools as part of physical fitness. The then education minister M.A. Baby and then Sports Minister M. Vijayakumar welcomed it and swimming programmes were piloted at some schools. But the project also suffered a premature death. Again unavailability of pools near schools was cited as the stumbling block.
Addressing this issue, the government is now giving shape to a project to set-up one swimming school each in all the 140 assembly constituencies under the General Education Rejuvenation Mission. The schools are to have swimming pools with water treatment and safety facilities. Free swimming training would be given to students of all government recognised schools - government, aided and government approved private schools. Director of Public Instructions Mr K.V. Mohankumar said that the project would be aiming at giving swimming training to all students. "The project is in final stages of being launched. It would be initiated with Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board's financial support. We hope to achieve the target of 140 swimming schools within the next four years itself," he said. Many leading private schools are having own swimming pools, while other private schools are making tie-ups with private pools to offer swimming training to students. But a major chunk of students, who are at government and aided schools, are illiterate about swimming, despite Kerala having a higher number of water bodies.
Community volunteers may usher change
The recently launched Community Rescue Volunteer Scheme (CRVS) of the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) and a scheme for training flood rescue volunteers to be launched by the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) are likely to bring some relief to the rising number of drowning instances in state. When taken against the large number of water bodies in the state, the resources of FRS to carry out rescue operations during drowning mishaps are minimal. This gap could be bridged to some extent with CRVS. Swift rescue is crucial to save lives during drowning instances.
CRVS, launched earlier this year, aims at creating a list of volunteers for rescue activities. The target is to have at least 30 volunteers in each local body area. They would be imparted training based on the probability of drowning mishaps to occur in a particular area. For instance, volunteers in coastal areas and near rivers would be imparted training on rescue in water. "Though many staying near rivers and at coastal areas would be well-versed in swimming, they may require training for rescue activities. Similarly, though many buildings are equipped with firefighting equipment, many are unaware of making use of it in case of mishaps. Such issues could be addressed with the CRVS scheme," said FRS director general Mr. A Hemachandran.
He also said that the project was already getting good response, especially in northern and central parts of the state. Meanwhile, the SDMA is planning to launch a scheme for providing training to volunteers on rescue operations during flood. These volunteers could also undertake rescue operation in drowning instances.
