A silent epidemic: How India is losing thousands of lives to preventable drowning deaths

On 25 July, the world observes the International Day for the Prevention of Drowning – a date that now resonates deeply with me. On 23 June 2024, I lost a lovable one, who had also been a student of mine for a while, Advaitha Verma, to drowning. He was the younger son of my dear friend and former colleague, Sudesh Verma. A bright, spirited young man, Advaitha had just begun discovering the world, brimming with ambition and joy. One evening, while having fun with his college friends near the Pavana Dam, close to Pune, Advaitha slipped beneath the surface of the river and never came back up.

The tragedy was numbing. In a matter of moments, the laughter of young friends turned into gasps of despair. I saw a family shattered. I saw a father break. I saw a mother despondent, at a loss for words. I saw promise extinguished.

And then I realised – Advaitha was not alone.

Drowning: A global emergency with India at the centre

Each year, drowning claims more than 300,000 lives globally, with over 90% of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. The United Nations-affiliated World Health Organisation (WHO) classifies it as the third leading cause of unintentional injury-related deaths worldwide.

India, sadly, is among the worst affected.

Estimates suggest that around 38,000 people drown in India every year. That’s over 100 lives lost every single day. Many of them — like Advaitha — are young, vibrant individuals with their whole future ahead of them.

The most vulnerable are children aged 5 to 14. In some rural regions, like the Sundarbans in West Bengal, the statistics are grim: A 2020 survey reported three children under 9 drowning every day. The local drowning mortality rate for toddlers is over 240 per 100,000, the highest ever recorded globally.

What’s worse, these numbers are likely underreported. Many deaths in rural and remote areas go unnoticed, unrecorded and never investigated.

Why India suffers more

There are several reasons why drowning is such a large-scale but under-acknowledged killer in India:

• Rural exposure: Many children grow up around open wells, rivers, ponds and dams with no safety barriers or adult supervision.
• Lack of swimming skills: In most parts of India, especially rural areas, swimming is neither taught nor encouraged formally. This wasn’t, of course, Advaitha’s problem; he was a good swimmer, but the whirlpool caused by a ditch in the river bed proved too strong for his skills.
• Poor infrastructure and emergency response: Rescue and first aid facilities are absent or delayed in most drowning-prone areas. Advaitha was sucked in early in the evening while the rescuers, who had to be frantically searched despite the location’s notoriety for frequent accidental deaths by drowning, found his body at around 2 AM the next morning!
• Climate change: Erratic weather, flash floods, and overflowing water bodies due to changing monsoon patterns have made drowning even more likely.

Urban areas are not exempt. In July 2024, three IAS aspirants in Delhi lost their lives during a flooding incident. If our most educated and alert are not safe, what about the rest?

Global efforts and what India needs to do

The WHO has launched a Global Alliance for Drowning Prevention, and India followed in December 2023 with its Strategic Framework for Drowning Prevention. These initiatives recognise the problem and outline interventions – yet implementation remains worryingly slow.

Meanwhile, organisations like Bloomberg Philanthropies have committed over $100 million globally, including for India, to improve awareness and preventive infrastructure. In the Sundarbans, pilot projects are turning local ponds into safe swimming zones for children — a simple idea with life-saving potential.

The Verma family could have drowned in sorrow, but they did their bit despite grief. To pay homage to the departed dear one, who was a budding music talent, they established the Hemant Bala Advaitha Foundation that instituted “Advaitha — The Symphony Music Award”. The prizes will be given away to deserving teenagers this 6 September while the audience is made aware of the risks of, and prevention from, drowning.

However, these efforts are scattered and small in scale. What India needs is:

1. A national coordination mechanism for drowning prevention
2. Data systems that accurately record drowning incidents across states
3. Mandatory water safety education in schools
4. Community-based interventions like supervised creches, swimming classes, and fencing of open water bodies

Drowning statistics (recent estimates)

Behind every number is a name

We often talk of numbers. Thirty-eight thousand. Three hundred thousand. Percentages. Rates. But behind every number is a face. A family. A future that will now never arrive.

Behind one of those numbers was Advaitha Verma. He should have been 20 this year. He should have been laughing with friends, stressing over exams, planning a future… Instead, we remember him with tears and a pain that refuses to leave.

As we mark this day of prevention, let Advaitha’s story not be forgotten. Let his memory be a reason we change things – in policy rooms, in classrooms, and in villages where silent tragedies play out every day.

Drowning is preventable. The only thing we cannot recover is a lost life. Let us not wait for another name to become a statistic.