Recently news published in the national newspapers has created noticeable sensation in the country. The news is that a twine drowned in a ditch by the side of their house in Sylhet. The news was published with a caption 'birth and death is in the same day'. The story is that the twine was only 19 months old and they were brother and sister. They used to play outward of their residence. On the day of the incident they fell into the ditch by the side of their house. Their parents did not notice it and after some hours they found him dead into the ditch.

This sort of news in national media gets space regularly and it is very much alarming. Often we see 2/3 children get drowned in different places in Bangladesh and most of the cases it happens in concerned mother's ancestral house area as the children visited that place with their mothers. We get the news in the print and electronic media that school children of class IX and X and even college students are also the victims of the drowning in general. And the frequency of these incidents is rising alarmingly. To mitigate this situation we have to address this problem. In the media we get only the news and information but what should be done and what is to be done after such types of accidents do not come to the media. For that reason people are kept in dark. It should come to the notice of the conscious people so that they can feel that they have great responsibilities to mitigate these accidents and as well as different government departments/agencies have also something to do for addressing this problem. It is very much astonishing that there is no one who has said something or given stress or delivering any speech on this issue in the media. Whereas right to protection of life and secured life are the fundamental rights of the people. The print and electronic media have some responsibilities to make people conscious about these incidents. They can make programs for the risk and danger of the children while they make plan to go to the water body such as ponds, rivers, and 'haor', lakes and sea beaches. Especially the tourist police can make them aware about the ebb-tide. People fall them into the danger if they go to the sea in time of ebb-tide.

Sometimes we get the news that students visiting Baralekha Water Falls at Moulvibazar and in Kaptai Lake of Rangamati get drowned and 2/3 days later their dead bodies got floated. These are the disastrous news of a particular family whose children were missing. We all know Bangladesh is a riverine country. Hundreds of rivers are flowing into this country and ultimate destination of these rivers is the Bay of Bengal. In the rainy season all the rivers of Bangladesh are flowing with full of water. This water and heavy rainfall cause floods in the rainy season. Moreover, hundreds of thousand ponds, ditches and burrow pits, 'haors', 'bills' are of full of water in the rainy season. In the village areas housewives with their children are used to visit their maternal homes in this time. This we know as the common pictures of rural Bangladesh in rainy season.

Each and every day many children get drowned in ponds, lakes, rivers and other water bodies in Bangladesh. We do not get all this news in national or regional media but it is true that it happens in different places in Bangladesh. In our Eid festivals and Durga puja people are used to go to their ancestral house with their families from Dhaka and other big cities. In this time the tender aged children might be at stake. Children feel free to go and visit every place, specially rivers and ponds adjacent to their ancestral house. In this time parents are appeared to be unaware to their children and many drowning incidents occur in this time. So, special initiatives should be taken by the local Union Parishads, Municipalities, Civil Defense and Fire Service department. At the same time parents must be careful and aware about their children so that they can take appropriate measures in right time.

Nowadays, several incidents of drowning of children occurred in different places in Bangladesh. In many cases we see that some young boys and girls of university and colleges are also the victims of such type of accidents. We can easily reduce the numbers of these incidents if we all make ourselves a bit conscious and aware of our children. Now the situation is alarming and the frequency of these accidents is increasing day by day. Often this sort of news is coming to news media. We know any death news is disastrous to any family whether it is natural or unnatural. But untimely and accidental death has profound impact to the families who are sufferer of untimely and accidental death of their children. After getting the death news of their beloved one the parents and family members of that particular family get puzzled and they become hopeless and speechless. The consequence of such type of accidental death crumbles the happiness and future of that family. For that reason all of us should come forward to mitigate the death occurrence of this sort of incident. Generally we get only the news of sufferer families after they lost their beloved one. We should address this problem to reduce these incidents and to help those families so that they can overcome their grief and after that they can come to the normal life of the society.

Dr. Syed Nesar Ahmad Rumy, Retired Civil Servant and Freelancer, Dhaka