Shashikant Jadhav, a 38-year-old lifeguard and operations supervisor with Drishti Marine — a non-public company tasked by the Goa Authorities to curb incidents of drowning off the state’s seashores — remembers what impressed him to get into the career.
Talking to The Higher India, he recollects, “Though I’m from Raigad district, Maharashtra, I grew up in a small village in South Goa. Visiting the seashore close by, I fell in love with it and learnt easy methods to swim within the sea with my associates. However I additionally noticed many individuals drowning within the sea and that left an actual impression on me. Rising up, I wished a job the place I might save individuals’s lives.”
Earlier than Drishti Marine was operational in 2008, Shashikant was a lifeguard working for an additional firm contracted by the tourism division of the Goa Authorities.
“Earlier, there was little to no coordination in rescue efforts. There have been occasions when the individuals in cost didn’t even know I had swam out into the ocean to rescue somebody. We didn’t even have correct gear like a surfboard, walkie-talkie, lifeguard jeep, or jet-ski,” recollects Shashikant.
This lack of coordination, gear, and professionalism was mirrored within the lack of seashore security and the variety of drowning deaths Goa noticed. Issues got here to a head in 2007 when the state sadly noticed 200 individuals drown off the shoreline, in response to information studies.
As Rajiv Somani, founder and chairperson of Drishti Marine, notes, “Following the occasions of 2007, the State Authorities was prompted to take quick measures and put collectively an environment friendly system to safeguard lives alongside seashores. One of many measures adopted by the State Authorities was to nominate knowledgeable company for enhancing seashore security.”
In 2008, Drishti Marine was tasked by the Goa Authorities to curb drowning incidents off the state’s seashores. As soon as it was awarded a contract to supply lifeguard providers for the state, Shashikant was among the many first lifeguards to hitch it.
“After I joined Drishti in July 2008, they put me by a 45-day coaching course the place I discovered the finer particulars of lifeguarding and easy methods to use the brand new gear given to us. There was a larger emphasis on security right here. In my earlier job, we might get no backup throughout rescue efforts. Now, at any time when we exit on a rescue, we’re supported by jet skis, backup lifeguards, and many others. Additionally, we obtain steady coaching and have reorientation classes yearly to maintain up with the most recent strategies and expertise,” says Shashikant.
Braving the waves: Goa’s Drishti Marine
The information of Drishti changing into the designated company to supply lifeguard providers additionally prompted Ashwin Ghag, a former national-level swimmer, to go away Pune for Goa in 2008.
“From 1999 to 2008, I labored as a swimming coach for kids in Pune, after which I labored as a senior lifeguard. Earlier than my swimming coach and lifeguard profession, I used to be a national-level swimmer. I used to be impressed by my father to change into a lifeguard. Watching him work as a lifeguard and save lives impressed me to change into one,” recollects Ashwin, a 42-year-old senior lifeguard at Drishti Marine presently posted on the favored and crowded Calangute seashore.
“Whereas I used to be working in Pune, I heard a couple of new firm in Goa providing lifeguarding providers and that they wanted lifeguards. Together with one other senior lifeguard from Pune, I moved to Goa. Regardless of my abilities, I had little expertise of engaged on seashores. Working as a lifeguard in swimming swimming pools, I knew easy methods to use life-saving gear. However I didn’t know easy methods to use them within the sea attributable to my lack of expertise working in these environment,” he provides.
The very first thing Ashwin learnt after becoming a member of Drishti was how way more stamina a lifeguard requires to swim into an enormous water physique just like the Arabian Sea and rescue somebody.
“Whereas saving somebody from drowning in a swimming pool, you’re working in a confined house with 4 corners regardless of its measurement. You recognize precisely the place to leap in, save the individual and drop them off at any given fringe of the pool. Within the sea, you’ll be able to solely save somebody by taking them again a method. It’s not a confined house. One other factor I learnt about had been rip currents — sturdy and slim currents that may pull you into the water,” says Ashwin.
Right now, Drishti Marine is the designated first responder for any beach-related emergency, together with circumstances of marine strandings. Since its inception, Rajiv claims that its 450-plus sturdy power of ‘lifesavers’ (lifeguards) has saved about 7,700 individuals from drowning off Goa’s shoreline.
Patrolling Goa’s shores and saving lives
Seashores in Goa are divided into zones: swim areas marked by crimson and yellow flags, no-swim zones by crimson flags, and watersport areas by black-and-white flags. Excessive-footfall seashores have devoted lifesaver towers providing a transparent vantage level.
As Rajiv elaborates, “Swim zones are repeatedly monitored by lifesavers geared up with binoculars, jet skis, backbone boards, surfboards, and rescue tubes. When an individual in misery is noticed off the seashore, the on-duty lifesaver notifies different lifesavers by way of radio. The rescue workforce rushes to help the individual in misery, alerts backup to name an ambulance, and accompanies the rescued particular person to the hospital for analysis.”
“Lifesaver towers are stocked with emergency medical gear — comparable to first help kits, backbone boards, surfboards, rescue boards, rescue tubes, handheld radio units, bag valve masks to help in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), and Automated Exterior Defibrillator (A.E.D.) machines. The official seashore jeeps are on standby to move sufferers or distressed people to close by well being services or ambulances. Lifesavers are additionally skilled in first help to supply quick help throughout medical emergencies,” he provides.
“Working in Calangute seashore, I do roughly 30 rescues a month as a result of there’s all the time a big crowd current there. Rescues normally occur between an approximate vary of 30 to 50 metres into the ocean [from the shoreline]. Away from the shoreline at Calangute Seashore, we encounter quite a lot of rip currents. When a vacationer encounters a rip present by swimming too removed from the shore, they panic as a result of the water is pulling them into the ocean,” explains Ashwin.
How are the heroes behind the rescues chosen?
Women and men between the ages of 18 and 30 years who know swimming and are dedicated to saving victims are eligible to change into Drishti lifesavers, notes Rajiv.
“Our hiring guidelines contains thorough bodily checks, interviews, reference checks, and police verification. The bodily demanding nature of a lifesaver requires that women and men who apply ought to possess a excessive diploma of bodily health and our coaching workforce does the remainder. Each lifesaver have to be able to swimming 400 metres in beneath 11 minutes. They should rapidly assess the capabilities and dangers of people concerned in aquatic actions, observe on-site protocols, and supply emergency medical providers when required,” says Rajiv.
Rajiv goes on to say, “Drishti’s 450-strong lifesaver workforce undergoes a rigorous annual refresher course to keep up and enhance their emergency response abilities, bodily health, and communication skills. The coaching contains CPR, first help, seashore operations, jet ski use, rescue gear dealing with, and varied rescue methods. Along with lifesaving abilities, in addition they obtain coaching in management and gentle abilities to successfully handle public interactions.”
Lifesavers should full annual coaching to retain their certification and stay eligible for obligation. This programme, carried out throughout each Goan districts, is organised by the Particular Rescue Coaching Academy (SRTA), affiliated with the Nationwide Talent Improvement Council, Talent India programme, and Surf Educators Worldwide of Australia.
Drishti additionally introduced the induction of girls lifesavers on their workforce in March 2021.
Lifeguards, canine heroes, and AI expertise main seashore security in Goa
In addition to the usual gear they’re given, Drishti Marine has additionally employed canines to help them of their rescue and monitoring efforts.
As Rajiv claims, “Drishti Marine has additionally launched the primary of its type initiative in Asia — expertly skilled canines known as ‘Paw Squad’ — to bolster their rescue efforts. These canines, accompanied by their handlers are skilled in patrolling and detecting individuals in misery. Drishti Marine lifesavers are additionally the primary responders to any marine strandings and are skilled in accordance with the Wildlife Safety Act of India.”
The company has additionally built-in ‘superior expertise’ to reinforce the efforts of their lifeguards.
“Our sister concern, Drishti Works, has developed AURUS — a self-driving, AI-powered robotic that patrols non-swim zones, gives logistical assist, and assists lifesavers in making public security bulletins in a number of languages. It really works alongside TRITON — an AI-driven monitoring system that provides complete seashore surveillance, spots vacationers in misery within the water over lengthy distances, and aids lifesavers in emergencies. Each AURUS and TRITON are presently deployed at Miramar seashore in Panaji and operated by our ‘tech lifesavers’,” he says.
Contained in the lives and challenges of Goa’s lifeguards
Since Drishti Marine grew to become the custodian of seashore security in Goa in 2008, their lifeguards have rescued over 7,700 individuals, together with locals, and home, and worldwide vacationers, claims Rajiv.
“They’re additionally skilled responders for marine life strandings, working carefully with the Forest Division and NGOs centered on marine welfare. A latest notable rescue occurred over the Independence Day weekend earlier this yr when Drishti lifesavers (lifeguards) rescued 9 fishermen after their boat capsized off Rajbagh Seashore in South Goa, demonstrating their skill to deal with mass rescues in excessive circumstances,” he goes on so as to add.
Regardless of the skilled coaching that the Drishti lifeguards obtain, which saves them from many risks related to saving individuals from drowning at sea, the challenges they encounter are actual.
As Shashikant notes, “When individuals are drowning, they panic. If you immediately have interaction with a sufferer of drowning, there’s all the time the hazard that they’ll drag you into the water with them.”
He provides, “As lifeguards, we’re informed to first deploy a rescue tube or board, which the individual drowning can maintain on to, flip them in direction of the shore, clear up their airways, and push them in direction of the shore. However on events you come throughout drunk individuals who have swam too far off shore and it’s onerous to get them to carry on to the rescue tube or board. With drunk individuals, we attempt to establish as lots of them as doable and ship out groups to evacuate them from the seashore itself, or push them so far as away as doable from the shoreline.”
Ashwin, who claims to have finished 484 rescues to this point, notes, “Regardless of having rescue gear, a drowning individual’s first intuition is to carry on to the rescuer as a result of they’re in a state of panic. Additionally, there are events when the rip present is so sturdy that it takes six or seven individuals with it. This occurs as a result of one individual tries to avoid wasting the opposite however encounters sturdy rip currents. Dealing with these conditions is difficult and also you want a couple of lifeguard and a number of gear to avoid wasting them. I used to be a part of a rescue effort the place we saved seven individuals directly.”
Ashwin additionally agrees that coping with drunk individuals drowning at sea is difficult. “A few of them are so drunk that they don’t even realise that they should get on prime of a rescue board. Due to years of expertise and coaching, now we have learnt easy methods to deal with such conditions. The difficulty with drunk individuals is that typically they don’t have the power to get their torso on prime of the rescue board. We’ve to assist them get on prime of the surfboard,” he notes.
“Nonetheless, earlier than deploying the surfboard and pushing them up on the surfboard, now we have to gauge the power and motion of the waves and time our efforts correctly. Now, if I bounce into the water with out timing it correctly, the rescue board might get washed away onto the shore after which I’ve to push and carry the drowning individual again with out the rescue gear. My job is to get the one who is drowning on prime of the rescue board and drag them again to shore,” he provides.
Regardless of their coaching, Ashwin notes that there are events when the ocean simply overwhelms you with huge waves and robust currents. “In addition to these rip currents, you’re additionally coping with sturdy plunging waves that roll over victims of drowning. On these events, victims are sometimes dragged 200 to 400 metres away from the shoreline. As skilled lifeguards, we all know easy methods to swim and navigate previous these plunging waves and rip currents. For vacationers, nevertheless, in the event that they get rolled beneath these huge plunging waves, they find yourself taking in quite a lot of seawater. In these situations, now we have to deploy jet skis to rescue them as rapidly as doable,” he explains.
“If it’s a single-person rescue, we regularly use a rescue tube. If it’s a couple of individual, we use a surf/rescue board. However our quickest gear are jet skis, and these are significantly helpful throughout the monsoon season when the rip currents are strongest,” he provides.
Shashikant notes, “One other problem we encounter is uncooperative vacationers, particularly from international nations. Once they go to Goa for the primary time and see the Arabian Sea, they get the impression that the waters listed below are calm. What they don’t realise is the facility of sturdy rip currents within the Arabian Sea. Generally, we get into arguments with vacationers and should name the police to disperse them away from factors the place they will doubtlessly drown.”
Regardless of their greatest efforts, nevertheless, there are uncommon events when individuals drown to dying. How do lifeguards cope with this devastation? With a resigned look on, Shashikant says, “We’re simply human, and never gods. We do every little thing to avoid wasting a life however typically God has different plans.”
“That is why lifesaving is greater than only a job; it’s a calling,” says Rajiv.
However given the dangers they undertake, what kind of financial compensation and social safety do their lifeguards obtain?
“Sometimes, younger lifesavers begin their careers with a wage within the vary of Rs 18,000 per 30 days. Lifesavers in senior positions can earn as much as Rs 1 lakh per 30 days. Lifesavers are supplied with legally mandated insurance coverage insurance policies, together with workmen’s compensation, and medical insurance coverage. Moreover, those that marry are eligible for advantages, comparable to LIC insurance policies and stuck deposits for the couple. The organisation additionally affords a referral programme. Volunteers occupied with pursuing lifesaving as a vocation are supplied Rs 18,000 for a three-month evaluation interval,” he claims.
(Edited by Pranita Bhat; Photographs courtesy Drishti Marine)
