Summer holidays: Tips from Kerala Police to stay safe and healthy during swimming

Just a week ago, two children drowned in the Bavali River in Wayanad while on a summer pleasure trip. Three members of a family, including a girl, also met the same fate on Friday in Kozhikode. Similarly, a 12-year-old boy drowned in a temple pond in Alappuzha recently, while playing with two other children. Drowning deaths are the second most common cause of death after road accidents in the state. As our temperatures rise and children travel to new locations and explore their neighbourhoods in the hot season, it's important to take a few precautions to prevent such instances and stay healthy. Alappuzha's District police chief, MP Mohana Chandran, recently suggested a few tips for the same. 

Important tips
• The police chief suggests avoiding swimming in tourist spots, beaches, lakes, streams, rivers, temple ponds and other water bodies that could be precarious. 
• Children should be given swimming instruction.
• Children who visit their relatives’ homes should be strictly instructed not to go fishing or swimming unaccompanied by an adult. 
• Those who suffer from muscle cramps, seizures, or heart ailments should be careful while swimming. 
• It may not be wise to jump into a water body to save someone else. Try to pull them ashore using a long cloth or stick. 

• Women and girls shouldn’t wear clothes that restrict their movement while swimming. 
• Do not jump into a water body without knowing its depth. 
• Do not step into water after sunset. It is not wise to swim in deserted beaches or rivers at night. 
• Do not swim while you are intoxicated. 
• If you have any boating plans, make sure that the boat has enough life jackets and other safety features.