By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

The recent boat mishap in the Harni Lake on the outskirts of Vadodara in Gujarat last Thursday, in which fourteen school children and their two teachers lost their lives, is nothing short of being a most colossal tragedy. It is gut wrenching, the way in which these young lives in their prime, were snuffed out when they were out on a picnic, which ironically, was meant to be an enjoyable outing for them and their friends.

All the children who perished were aged less than fifteen years, while the two lady teachers who died with them were both aged forty-five. Among those grieving the loss of their children, were also a couple who lost both their children, who were born after seventeen years of marriage. According to a relative of the couple, the family, which lost a boy, a student of Class II and his older sister, a student of Class III, the parents had offered prayers at various shrines for more than fifteen years before they were blessed with the two children. But what makes this unfortunate accident an almost criminal and culpable act is the fact that it could easily have been prevented, if only the school authorities and the boat operators too, had taken the minimum necessary precautions that they had been morally and legally bound to take, before taking the children on that fateful boat ride.

The School Authorities erred because they had collected a sum of Rs. 750 per head from the parents, purportedly for taking their children on a trip to a waterpark but abruptly changed the destination to the lake, without their permission and even without informing them about the change of plan.

So, there was no sanction from the parents to take their children on a boat ride, which was a clear act of wrongdoing. The lake management authorities and the boat operators erred in not providing life jackets to any of the passengers before allowing them to board the boat and more importantly, by grossly overloading it. It is reported that there were thirty-one occupants in the boat which had a rated capacity of just fourteen passengers. When one of the teachers pointed out this risky transgression, it appears a member of the operating staff reassured her that it was a job they were doing routinely and that it posed no danger whatsoever.

Thursday’s tragedy comes as a bitter reminder of a boat capsize on August 11, 1993, that had left twenty-two people dead on Janmashtami day in the same city’s Sursagar Lake. Although the usual formalities of holding an investigation into the accident, which too was largely man-made, were done, neither the authorities nor the contractors seemed to have learnt any lesson from that accident or taken any corrective action to prevent such mishaps, which is what has led to the present tragedy. But boat mishaps resulting in huge losses of lives, are not uncommon in our country as we keep hearing of them with very distressing regularity.

The causes and the corrections are both well-known to us and also to those vested with the powers that can prevent them but sadly, nothing changes for the better. The more disturbing observation is that we keep hearing of school trips turning tragic with the same painful regularity, by way of road and drowning accidents. This is what makes me feel that the Governments both at the Centre and the States, should step in and completely ban all recreational school and college trips, except those meant for educational purposes, which are a necessary part of the learning process of the students.

The job of taking students for sight-seeing, picnics and all other leisure activities should be left only to their parents and family members, to be done under their direct observation and supervision, which would be safest for their wards. There is no denying the fact that parents and close family members are the best persons to do this job because they would then be handling easily manageable numbers of eager, inquisitive and exuberant children, who can be kept under some level of control. In addition to this, they will be able to take on-the-spot decisions about what activities they can be allowed to undertake or participate in, taking into consideration the risks and perils involved and the safety provisions available at the places they visit.

I say this because, tasked with handling unmanageably large numbers of children, as are invariably involved in school excursions, the handful of accompanying teachers will simply not be able to do the job with the efficiency that it demands, despite their experience, earnestness and best intentions. And, if things go wrong, as they sometimes can, they will needlessly be blamed for not doing a good job of what they are not normally bound to do as part of their duties.

The School Authorities too can only wring their hands in helpless despair and blame the lack of safety provisions at the locations where these mishaps take place. And, blaming the authorities for the lack of safeguards as we always do, is of no use, as we all know frustratingly well. They always display some kind of face-saving, knee-jerk reaction that only effectively helps to keep assuaged feelings of outrage in the public a little placated, till the whole affair is forgotten for good.

And, when you look at Government helplessness too, a little more pragmatically, you’ll realise that all the rules that are put into place, with the best of intentions just cannot be expected to deliver the desired results, unless every single person tasked with adhering to them, does a very honest and sincere job.

And, this is often a very unrealistic expectation. So, self-help is the best help, here too, as everywhere else. We have to understand that even the strongest of chains will only be as weak as its weakest link. Do think about it!

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