Ground Report: 10 children drown this year in Jawaharnagar lakes; Locals send SOS to govt

Hyderabad: Laxmi vividly remembers the day when her 14-year-old son had a half day at school. On March `16, her son told her that he was going to play with his friends. Little did she know that he would never come back. Later, his body was found in the Eedulakunta Lake in Jawaharnagar in Medchal Malkajgiri. The bodies of two of his friends who went along with him were also retrieved from the lake.

On December 15, a 10-year-old girl went missing from her school in Dammaiguda. The next day, her body was found in the Ambedkar Nagar Lake, another lake in Jawaharnagar in Medchal Malkajgiri. The police say that it was a natural death but the locals allege foul play in the investigation.

These two are not isolated incidents in Jawaharnagar lakes. Since March 2022, there have been ten reported deaths in the lakes in Jawaharnagar. Locals have been requesting authorities to implement safety measures around the lake. But all their pleas have been falling on deaf ears.

There are seven lakes in Jawaharnagar- Pararnagar Lake, Malkaram Lake, Chennapur Lake, Kankara Machine Lake, Eedulakunta Lake, Ambedkar Nagar Lake, and the Lake behind Army Dental College. The locals say that all seven lakes are dangerous and are frequently visited by children. Hence they say, there is an immediate requirement to put fencing around the lake and keep signboards in the area.

Eedulakunta Lake

"I used to travel passing the Eedulakunta lake every day for work. But I did not recognize that there was a lake there until my son died. There are no boards or anything," says Laxmi, who lives in the Gabbillalpet slum in Jawaharnagar.

Laxmi's husband was disturbed after the incident and he met with an accident. His legs are paralysed now. With no job currently, Laxmi struggles to make ends meet.

She says she feels drowned by the weight of her son's memories when she goes near the lake.

"There are no play areas for children here. So they are going to the lake to swim and play," says the grandmother of a 15-year-old boy who was also found in the drowning incident in March.

The boy's mother Kunchapu Madhavi says that she has stopped sending her younger son alone anywhere after the elder son's death in the lake. "He resembled his father, and so he was very much loved," says Madhavi, weeping. Unfortunately, Madhavi lost her husband also, a few months before her elder son's death. "I go alone to that lake. Sometimes, I feel like jumping into the lake and ending my life," says Madhavi.

Sampoorna, mother of another 15-year-old boy who drowned in the March 2022 incident says that she has never been to the Eedulakunta lake after her son's death. She also says how repeated incidents of children drowning in the lake are triggering the memories of her own son. "The other day, when the missing girl's body was found in the lake, I stopped working. I was taken back to his memories. I spent a lot of time looking at his old photos and videos," says Sampoorna.

After the March 2022 incident took three children's lives, in another incident in November, five children and their teacher drowned in Malkaram lake in Jawaharnagar. The boys had gone swimming. When their teacher tried to save them, he also drowned.

In April 2022 the families who lost their children in March 2022 sent an application to the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR).

The locals say that they are asking for the bare minimum-high fences, CCTVs, and warning boards in all the seven lakes in the area.

In November, People's Voice for Child Rights (PVCR) filed a petition with the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) seeking immediate implementation of safety measures and compensation to the affected families as they come from marginalized communities.

"We are asking for some basic things. First of all, there should be fencing around all seven lakes. Besides, there should be watchmen at all the lakes. In Hussain Sagar, there are watchmen and it has helped bring down the drowning cases in the lake. There are so many organizations for child rights in the state. Then why is their right to live violated?" asks Subhash from PVCR. He also added that discussions are going on between the SCPCR and the municipality and that he is yet to hear a concrete decision from SCPCR.

Mekala Kavya, Mayor of Jawaharnagar Municipal Corporation (JMC) says that they have very less funds to implement safety measures around the lake. "We cannot afford to make a compound wall around the lakes. The government had sanctioned Rs.2 crores. But we need Rs.4 crores more. Signboards have been placed in two of the most frequented lakes in the area- Malkaram and Channapur lake around 4-5 months back," said Kavya. However, the locals deny that signboards are placed near these lakes. We tried contacting JMC Commissioner Ramalingam, however he denied to respond then.

NewsMeter tried contacting the SCPCR chairperson Srinivas Rao but he has not responded to our calls. The copy will be updated once we get to hear from him.

After NewsMeter wrote the story, JMC tweeted, " Estimate is prepared and ready for tendering. Will finish the work initially where accidents are occurring. Also police patrolling at these places has been increased."