CONSUMER RIGHTS
Rules for safe swimming
Pushpa Girimaji

Year after year, there are reports of children drowning in swimming pools. Yet,we, as a people, continue to ignore pool safety. Already this year, two young children in Pune have drowned in residential swimming pools. While four-year old Narendra died in the swimming pool at Siddheshwar Housing Society on April 11, six-year old Harshad met a similar fate at the Sujay Garden residential complex on April 15. About a year earlier, 13-year-old Saurabh Sahu had drowned in similar tragic circumstances at the pool of another residential complex- Gagan Vihar society. With swimming gaining popularity as a sport as well as a source of recreation, most residential complexes these days are building swimming pools for the convenience of the residents.

What they are not realising, however, is that without adequate safety measures, these pools can well become death-traps, particularly for young children. In the USA, the Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that about 250 children under the age of five die annually in swimming pools. There is also a large number of children who sustain injuries as a result of accidents in pools.

Now with housing complexes providing swimming facilities to residents, the number of casualties may well go up, unless adequate safety measures are taken. Besides the design and construction of the pool and the maintenance of standards of hygiene, all swimming pools should provide for certain basic safety provisions to prevent accidents. One of the most important safety precaution is to ensure that the pools are never overcrowded. The entry and exit of every person should be recorded and younger children and learners should never be allowed to go into the deeper side of the pool. There should be adequate number of fully trained lifeguards at all times. When the swimming pool is not in use, it should be barricaded to prevent children from entering the pool or accidentally falling into it. There should be adequate first aid facilities at the pool side and arrangements to transport an accident victim to a nearby hospital without wasting any time. Failure to follow any of these safety measures could well lead to a tragedy.

In fact a perusal of some of the cases that have come up before the apex consumer court show how indifference to pool safety have resulted in casualties. Take the case of Sanjeev, son of Mr S.A.Patil. Sanjeev was taking a course in swimming offered by the Belgaum Aquatic Club and on a fateful day in 1992, he went into the pool and never came out. The safety measures in place at the pool were obviously so poor that this was not even noticed. So much so that when Sanjeev’s distraught parents went to the swimming pool in search of him, they were informed that Sanjeev had left after the swimming lessons.

The parents then lodged a police complaint and it was only later that the boy’s body was taken out of the swimming pool. Holding the Aquatic Club as well as the corporation of the city of Belgaum (whose pool was used by the club for conducting the classes) responsible for the death of Sanjeev, the consumer court awarded the parents Rs 2.5 lakh as compensation. In the case of Kedar Dole also, the apex consumer court held the Shikshan Prasarak Mandali, Pune, which offered coaching classes in swimming, guilty of negligence on several counts: (a) no life-saving mechanism was available at the pool site to deal with accidents; (b) there was no net or partition in the pool to prevent learners from entering the deep side of the pool; (c) the coach left Kedar unattended at the pool and the life guards were also not attentive; (d) Even after it was discovered that Kedar was missing, precious time was lost in searching for him in the bathroom and elsewhere instead of in the pool ;(e) After Kedar was picked up from the bottom of the pool, the instructor wasted precious time taking him to a room nearby for first aid. He should have tried to revive him on the side of the pool itself.

So the next time you take a dip in a swimming pool or send your children to a pool, make sure that the pool follows all safety regulations and has adequately qualified life guards. And if you are sending your children to the pool, please ensure that they are accompanied by an adult who keeps an eye on them at all times.

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