The deceased were identified as Neon, 4, son of Milon Mia, Halima Akter, 3, daughter of Dulal Mia, and Fahima Akter, 5, daughter of Rustam Ali of the village.
Imarat Hossain Gazi, officer in charge of Kendua police station, said the three drowned in a pond near their homes while they were playing on its bank. The facts indicate it is yet another instance of Bangladesh’s ‘silent killer’ of children, striking to take more young lives.
A 2017 study published in esteemed medical journal The Lancet said drowning accounts for an astonishing 43 percent of all deaths in the 1-4 age group in Bangladesh.
Unicef quotes a survey by the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) that says over 18,000 Bangladeshis aged 1-18 die of drowning each year – more than 50 each day.
Most of the deaths occur among unsupervised children between one and five years old in ponds that are very close to their homes. Seventy-five percent of drownings were found to happen within 65 feet of home. Sixty percent of the victims drown between 9am and 1pm, when older siblings are at school and mothers are preparing food, gathering wood and water, or tending to crops.
Coming to know of the matter, family members of Neon, Halima and Fahima recovered their bodies and rushed to Tarail upazila health complex of Kishoreganj, but the duty doctor declared the trio dead.