Child And The Borewell

jayasala42 · Oct 30, 2019

It was a tragedy;
An unfortunate accident, and possibly an avoidable one.
The inviting death trap of a deep well swallowed the infant into a depth
of 25 feet.
The child had a chance of survival of less than a couple of hours
in the narrow width of the well in the cold water, and a bit of slush too.
The survival chance got almost impossible as the time progressed to long
stressful hours and it was a case of doom when the child was dragged deep
up to 100 feet.
Then the show began.
Every sundry Official arrived on the scene.
The TV Channels arrived with their team crews for breaking news non stop.
The National Disaster team was working coordinating with fire brigade with assorted
heavy to heavy earth digging equipment.
Ministers arrived one after another and the local area Minister stayed put to showcase the
concern of the welfare Government.
The Deputy Chief Minister arrived.
The Channels were at their worst with their panel of experts discussingthreadbare
the ways and advise to retrieve the Child alive.
When the crucial couple of hours failed to bring the child from the deep well, the child we knew
were to be retrieved only as a dead body.
But the Thamasha went on and on.
Special Prayers were Offered, and lit candle morchas were taken.
Not to be found left from the arc lights all leaders of parties big and small were free to discuss
the tragedy and marked their presence on Camera.
The Publicity crazy cine lyricist was found it worthwhile to compose a poem.
Even the Prime Minister was forced to tweet and offer his prayers on the survival of the
unfortunate Child which struggle was long past over.
It is sad that even tragedy and death has become a thing of commerce and self serving publicity.
The Government and the mass of Tamil people were shedding tears for a cause which proved to
be unworthy and a failed cause when we were past the couple of crucial hours.
Now the TV Channels and political leadership are vying with one another and profuse in their
condolence.
A couple of years back a suicide of a young girl who could not make it in the NEET
Examination and carried a Court battle was exploited to the hilt and the live, news breaking
TV brought unashamedly brought the last rites to your drawing room.
This is a sickness but self serving one for the commerce in communication and wrongly
perceived expression of concern and compassion.
No body denies the laudable effort to retrieve the child from the deep death trap.
It should certainly must have been confined to the team and no further.

jayasala42

Thoughtful · Oct 30, 2019

Hi Ma'm,
I understand your anguish.

I wonder if it is time for the news media in india to have CNN style analysts like Larry King/Anderson Cooper who will bring parties from different perspective and keep at it until there is a system in place to handle such emergencies.

The big question is, when will we have first respondents who can get to location and be able to save the child in a timely fashion.

Someone should be bringing attention to this and other issues time and again and keep this fresh in public memory.

MalStrom · Oct 31, 2019

Any publicity in such cases should be limited to making people aware of such dangers, and to take public safety measures to avoid such tragedies in future. It is crass and ghoulish to have 24/7 coverage otherwise.

Sunshine04 · Oct 31, 2019

See this
As Tamil Nadu mourns Sujith Wilson’s death, two more children fall into pits and drown

Agatha83 · Oct 31, 2019

Dear Jayasala,

This is not the first time that a child died due to negligence of the parents and the entire society. There have been almost 10 bore well deaths of young children, where technology became useless in retrieving the children alive. The young techie Subashree who died recently due to a fall of banner on her, while driving her 2 wheeler, could have been saved if only help arrived during the crucial half an hour, when she was alive.
In our country nothing works during an emergency and human lives are cheap. A compensation of 10 to 15 Lakhs from the government will close the matter forever. It’s the parents who are left alone to grieve their loss, their entire life.

Agatha83

jayasala42 · Oct 31, 2019

There have been strong objections in the media for the compensation, since it is the father of the child who dug the borewell and didn't close it when it became out of use since the past five or six years.

jayasala42

Viswamitra · Oct 31, 2019

Dear Smt. Jayasala:

This is man made disaster. There has to be a clear law prohibiting leaving unused bore-well open. Unfortunately, moving the earth-moving equipment from various projects is cumbersome. The first respondent are not equipped with such equipment to address this kind of issues and they need to rely on other people to bring out the child. It is a tragedy that could have been avoided especially after so many instances of children dying after falling into open bore-well.

The press everywhere is looking for newsworthy items and this is a touchy subject that will increase the view of the television news program by many Indians. They keep showing the same video over and over again with different experts making comments. But there is no constructive suggestion to prevent such occurrences in future nor how to take out the child quickly.

jayasala42 · Oct 31, 2019

Dear Viswa,
It is well known that the disaster is man made. Even while the news was in the air, a face book video was recd. From the video the procedure seems very simple. A web just fits into the borewell probably made of some non decayable stuff connected to 8or 10 ropes.Seems to be a permanent arrangement. Any falling child will not slip into depthless bottom.It will be caught like afish in the net through the ropes. and the child can be retrieved wiithin minutes. Any such step may be adopted and modified according to our need.

Iyyappa Madhavan shared a post. - Iyyappa Madhavan | Facebook?

jayasala42

Viswamitra · Oct 31, 2019

Dear Smt. Jayasala:

Ideal solution would be to close the bore well rather than letting the children fall and catch them in the net. This is not the first child to fall into the narrow bore well and it has happened before many times. Good governance would be to prevent that happening over and over again. Financial penalty for open bore well would be a good place to start.

rgz · Nov 1, 2019

Viswamitra said: ↑

Financial penalty for open bore well would be a good place to start.
Click to expand...

India has many laws and rules. But hugely lacking in enforcing and implementing the rules.