Fatal Accidents of Children Falling into Abandoned Borewells: An 11-Year Review of Data and Literature

Abstract

The escalation of child fatalities due to falling into borewell has been in news in recent years. A Borewell which is a digging structure, is created by digging, driving, boring, or drilling the ground to access groundwater from underground aquifers. When these borewells don’t fetch enough water they are abandoned without taking proper measures to seal them. Children might get accidentally stuck and trapped in the tubing or the hole of the borewell through which they are unable to extricate themselves. Due to this, if immediate rescue is not done, chances of survival of the little victims get diminished. Cases of children falling in borewells were studied from year 2006 to 2016. Data were reviewed from available literature, national crime record bureau of India, the news published in press media either as hard print, e-news, television etc. A total of 43 incidents of victims who had fallen in borewells were studied. Most of these cases were of children below 6-years with male preponderance. In most of the cases, victims died due to asphyxiation due to wedging of the body in the narrow space of the borewell. In few cases (rather 2 cases) there was water in the borewell which may have drowned the victims. Fatalities of children because of falling in abandoned borewells is rising. Such fatalities need urgent attention in form of understanding of risk, prevention, rescue and other legal sanctions to prevent further such incidents in the coming years.