How to fight the mothers to stop drowning in Indian wetlands

Mangala Pradhan will never forget the morning son lost his son.

It was 16 years ago, the unforgivable Sundarbans – in a wide and harsh delta of the 100 islands of West Bengal in India. His son Ajit, he had just begun to walk, was full of life: curiosity about weird, restlessness and world.

That morning, like so many more, the family was busy in everyday work. The mangala gave breakfast to Ajiti and he was preparing to the kitchen. Her husband was buying vegetables, and the sick mother-in-law rested in another room.

But the little Ajit, always eager to explore, went unnoticed. The mangae shouted to look at that mother-in-law, but he didn’t have an answer. A few minutes later, the panic aroused when he realized how he silenced.

“Where is my boy? Have someone seen my boy?” screamed. Neighbors attended to help.

The despair became a heartbroken when his brotherhood found the small body of Ajites floating in the well. the outer yard of their ruined house. The little boy wandered and slipped into the water – a moment of innocence became the unthinkable tragedy.

Today, it is one of the 16 mothers around the Mangala for two non-profit kindergartens walking or bike, nourish and educate about 40 children who leave their parents on their way to work. “These mothers are the savagers of non-her own children,” says Kindergarten has created the Child Institute (Cini) Sujoy Roy.

The need for this care is urgent: Eleven children continue to drown in this river region full of ponds and regions. There is a well in every house to bathe, clean it as well as drinking drinking water.

The George Institute and Cini Medical Research Organization found a survey made in 2020, with almost three children to drown each day in the Sundarbans region every day. In July, the clerks hit the top, when the monsoon began rain, and ten o’clock and the two hours of the afternoon. Most children were not supervised at the time, as the caretaker worked with work. About 65% died from 50 meters away from home, and only 6% received the attention of the licensed doctors. Health was corrupt: Hospitals were scarce and many public health clinics were extinct.

In this regard, citizens maintained ancient superstitions to save the rescued children. The child’s body turned on the head of an adult, singing the calls. They beat the water with sticks to scare away the spirits.

“As I am a mother, I know the pain of losing a child,” the mangaster told me. “I don’t want other mothers to withstand what I have done. I want to protect these children from drowning. However, we live among so many risks.”

Sundarbans life is a daily struggle, which are inhabited by four million inhabitants.

The tigers, known to humans, are dangerous, dangerously walking and enters from crowded villages, where the poor are drawn. Live, often squat on the ground.

People fishers, it brings up honey and brings crabs in the constant threat of tigers and poisonous snakes. From July to October, the rivers and ponds are swollen, the cyclones shake the region and water disasters. Climate change is increasing this uncertainty. Almost 16% of the population here is between nine years.

“We have always lived with water, without possession of dangers, until the tragedies are hit,” says Sujata das.

Three months ago the life of Sujata was over 18 months old daughter Ambika, Cultalin drowned in their family’s home.

His sons were in coached classes, some relatives went to the market and was working at home an elderly aunt at home. Her husband, who usually works in the southern State of Kerala, was at home, solving the fishing network in the surrounding arasteout. Sujata went to water with its hand pumps, because the water connection prescribed at his residence was not yet implemented.

“Then we found it floating in the well. We rose water. We took it to a local karlaro, and he declared a dead tragedy to avoid what we should do in the future.” Says sujatas. “

Sujatas, like others in the village, plans to fence his pond bamboo and network so that children do not walk in water. He hopes to teach children to swim children in the village wells. He wants to encourage neighbors to study CPR to help drowning life to save life.

“Children don’t vote, so it’s often lacking political will to deal with these issues,” says Mr. Roy. “That’s why we’re focusing on building local resilience and expand knowledge.”

In the last two years, 2,000 citizens have received CPR training. Last July, he saved a child from a village inhabitant, reviving him before sending it to the hospital. “The real challenge lies in putting nursery and awareness of the community,” he added.

It is also difficult to implement simple solutions for costs and local beliefs.

In Sundarbans, the beliefs about the angry urban gods make people difficult to fence their ponds. On the side of Bangladesh, where it drowns the main cause of the death of four-year deaths, to keep children in the courtyard playgrounds safe. However, the fulfillment was low – they did not like children, and the villagers often used them for goats and ducks. “This created a false sensation of security, and the drowning rates were slightly enlarged in three years,” says Jagnoor Jagnoor George Institute of injury epidemiologists.

Eventually, non-profit organizations were placed 2,500 nurseries in Bangladesh, and the deaths of Itota fell by 88%. In 2024, the Government spread 8,000 centers, and benefited them every year 200,000 children. Vietnam who rich water focused on six-10-year-olds, using mortality data used for decades to develop policies and survive skills. This reduced drowning rates, especially among school children who are working on vehicles.

Itings remain a major world-class problem. In 2021, about 300,000 people died – every hour 30 lives were lost, according to the WHO. Almost half were under 29, and quarters under five. Indian data are poor, in 2022 at 38,000 drowning stalked about the dead officially, even the real number was much higher.

In Sundarbans, a tough reality is always present. They have been free to walk the children free of charge or to avoid walking with ropes and cloths. Jingling ankles used to warn parents about their children’s movements, but in this unforgivable landscape surrounded by water, nothing is really safe.

Kakoli daus’s six-year-old son went into a well overflowing in the summer that he was delivering a paper to a neighbor. Unable to separate the road and water, Ishan drowned. He had crisis since he was a child and could not swim him for the risk of having fever.

“Please ask all mothers: Fenced your ponds, learn how to stimulate children and teach it. This is to save lives. We cannot wait,” Kakolik says.

For now, kindergartens serve as a light of hope, offering children to protect children from the dangers of water. On a recent evening, four-year-old manik pal sang a cheerful reminder to his friends: I will not only go to the pond / parents if they do not / and stay flooded. my life without fear.