Kashmir can save lives if swimming is promoted as a basic life activity
Every summer, Kashmir loses a heartbreaking number of young lives to the very waters that define its landscape. As the temperature rises, children and adolescents, seeking respite from the heat, turn to ponds, streams, lakes and rivers. Yet these same waters, beautiful and bountiful as they are, turn into scenes of horror and grief. The pattern is now tragically predictable: a child dives in, vanishes beneath the surface, and a body is retrieved hours later.
Despite Kashmir being a land of lakes, rivers, and springs, the overwhelming majority of its people, especially children, do not know how to swim. This is not a failure of individuals or families. It is a systemic lapse in vision, education and public safety. In a region where water is part of daily life, the ability to swim should be as fundamental as learning the alphabet. But in most schools, swimming is not even discussed, let alone taught. They prefer hockey, cricket and other games, but not a skill that can also be a sport.
There was a time, not long ago, when institutions in Kashmir understood the cultural and environmental reality of the Valley. They made swimming mandatory. Generations were not only taught to float and survive but to rescue others. That consciousness has since disappeared, replaced by passive curriculum and a hollow approach to physical education. History must give credit to Tyndale Biscoe for making swimming basic to education in his famed Srinagar school.
The state, too, has failed in preventive care. There are hardly any lifeguards stationed at vulnerable water bodies, no signage warning of danger, and no fencing or rescue infrastructure at popular swimming spots. Over the years, an unguarded bridge in Srinagar has now been nicknamed a suicide point, where people come and jump into the Jhelum and end their lives. While in the rest of the world, lifeguards are a routine sight near beaches and pools, in Kashmir, the absence of such services signals neglect.
It is time for a change rooted in a three-fold response: First, introduce swimming as a mandatory component of school education, with certified instructors and infrastructure support. Second, deploy trained lifeguards across high-risk water bodies, especially during summer. And third, invest in the creation of public swimming pools and water-safety awareness campaigns.
Kashmir’s children are not dying due to fate or mischief. They are dying because the system has failed to teach them survival in the very geography they inhabit. That must change, urgently, systematically, and permanently.
