Women Lifeguards Being Trained In Chennai

The All Women Center of Chennai has collaborated with Rashtriya Life Saving Society to get their women trained and mentored as lifeguards and first aiders. Jayanthi Murugesh is the head of the Center and also one of the founders of the RLSS Chennai wing.

RLSS (Rashtriya Life Saving Society) was established by Rear Admiral PD Sharma and has trained over 2 lakh people as lifeguards since 1998

New Indian Express reported Jayanthi Murugesh saying, “It is necessary for more women to be part of life saving activity and we need more lifeguards and women lifesavers. The best would be to encourage women to save lives.”

According to statistics, 23 per cent of the global drowning cases occurs in India every year. Admiral Sharma says that there aren't many women who are lifeguards and hence should be trained to know how to respond in times of need. With death toll increasing in the city of Chennai, it is significant that there are enough first responders to cater to the need of the hour. If you train a woman, the number of people aware of these skills multiply as they tend to pass on their knowledge. With men, it remains with just the one individual who went through the training personally.

In India, we lose close to 1.3 lakh people every year due to drowning

Children go on outings with their mothers and if they are equipped with the knowledge of basic first aid and lifeguard skills, they are not dependent on the authorities to show up before it's too late. It is always better to be informed about what the first response to an accident should be.

Not just women, the RLSS has enrolled over 60,000 children in their initiative called Swim and Survive. RLSS has spread to 19 states and has received state government recognition for its high standard of training and safety.

Drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional injury-death worldwide and accounts for 7.3% of accidental deaths

Chennai will now be the state with women lifeguards and hopefully, this trend will follow throughout the nation soon enough.

Feature Image Courtesy: Indian Express