Deep trouble

Sonu, a two-year old boy from Agra who fell into a 150-ft deep abandoned borewell on Thursday, was pulled out dead yesterday.

It did not make much news. After 5 days, no one expected the toddler to come out alive. The TV news channels, who were covering it minute-by-minute on day one, had moved on to something more sensational or trashy than a tragedy that befalls poor Indian children with alarming regularity.

The story repeats itself every few months. It was the fall of 5-yr-old Prince in July 2006 into a similar borewell shaft and its round-the-clock TV coverage that first brought home the horror of these death traps to a nation inured to needless deaths. Prince was lucky though. After 48 hours of falling into the 70-ft pit, he was rescued by the Army and locals and became an instant hero.

Earlier this year, 6-year-old Suraj was playing in a farm when he fell to his death into a 13-feet iron pipe of 8-inch diameter (!) left inside another abandoned borewell at a village near Jaipur.
The story of Advesh from Jhansi and Sarika from Bikaner is the same. They died in similar accidents in January this year. In March, two-year-old Vandana was rescued from a 45-feet pit near Agra.

Who leaves these tunnels to hell open? And how do these children end up falling in them? What are their parents doing when these kids wander off to these death traps? And, how come all these cases happen only in northern India? And how is it that none of these kids seem to have surnames? These are some mysteries I continue to grapple with everytime an incident like this is reported.

My guess is -- most of these borewells are dug by officials and/or contractors to see if they can hit a water source underground and then abandoned when the venture is not successful. The cost of filling up a 70 to 150 feet deep well with 8 to 12 inches diameter is probably more than that of a poor child's life. So, they just move on to another hopeful piece of land, leaving the hole open or covering it with some dried vegetation, or trash, or a mixture of mud and gravel. After a while, nature uncovers their negligence for innocent children to fall prey to.

It is heartening to know that the President of India has finally condoled Sonu's death and the Rashtrapati Bhavan has issued advisories to "the Ministries of Rural Development, the Urban Development, the Water Resources and the Home Affairs so as to prescribe necessary safety standards and to take safety precautions while digging borewells and to instruct accordingly their respective field formations for ensuring their strict compliance". I guess the President has done her job and kids can play safely now!

A non-governmental organization (NGO) has also filed a complaint with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to probe Sonu's death while asking “how many more children will die” after falling into open bore wells before the authorities decide to act.

The Prime Minister and other leaders responsible for running this country, however, have not even bothered to acknowledge this problem yet. They are probably busy solving other, bigger problems : terrorism, religious massacres, separatist struggles, Naxalism, etc. So, they are likely to get around to this pretty soon. Good luck, children!