Tk 271cr project to prevent drowning gets underway

The government has launched a Tk 271 crore project to prevent the drowning of children that will also offer daycare centre facilities across the country.

The project ‘Integrated Community Based Center for Child Care, Protection, and Swim-Safe Facilities’ undertaken by the Women and Children Affairs Ministry, will be implemented by the Bangladesh Shishu Academy over the next three years.

As many as 200,000 children under the age of five in 45 upazilas of 16 districts will be able to avail day care services at 8,000 community-based childcare centres, each with the capacity to care for 25 children for five hours from 9am.

The hours have been deemed vulnerable for children as parents are busy with income-generating or household tasks that pose the risk of them being exposed to different hazards, including drowning. Swimming lessons will be provided for 360,000 children aged 6 to 10 at 4,800 primary schools as part of the project.

Drowning is highly prevalent in rural areas and accounts for about 10 per cent of child deaths, according to last year’s survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

Drowning is responsible for 58 per cent of deaths among children between 12 and 59 months of age, according to another survey conducted in 2020 by the National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

While inaugurating the project at a city hotel on Sunday, State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Fazilatun Nessa Indira said that the project will be expanded further if the pilot phase is proved successful.

Anwar Hossain Hawlader, the secretary of the women and children affairs ministry, said that the project is a part of the government’s pledge to ensure a secure childhood for all.

Shariful Islam, deputy general of Bangladesh Shishu Academy, said they believe the project will play a significant role in preventing drowning.

Kelli Larson, director of Bloomberg Philanthropies, said Bangladesh is a role model in preventing drowning, which is called the silent killer. The resolution passed at the UN was basically an initiative by Bangladesh and Ireland.

Bangladesh Shishu Academy Chairman Lucky Inam chaired the program.

The government will finance 80 per cent of the project, while Bloomberg Philanthropies of the United States and the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) will bear the rest, along with technical support.

Bloomberg Philanthropies has developed a comprehensive daycare model, tested for years since 2012, and promoted the model to the government for scale-up.

The government has followed the model of community-based centres, named “Anchal”, which are being operated by the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies.