The government of Thailand has backed a program called Thai Children Can Swim, which is being administered by the Department of Physical Education to educate kids how to swim and be safe in and around the water.
Following the WHO’s recent revelation that drowning is the second biggest cause of death among children globally, this is understandable.
The National Child and Youth Development Promotion Committee (NCYDP) has approved the project and its efforts to reduce drowning incidents, according to Rachada Dhnadirek, the Deputy Spokeswoman for the Prime Minister’s Office. This comes in response to resolutions passed by the United Nations General Assembly on the prevention of youth drowning.
The Department of Physical Education has so far enrolled 9,311 children under the age of 15 in the project, and it has proposed ideas to the Ministry of Digital, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Public Health to reduce the number of child drownings, such as making introductory swimming courses a mandatory school subject and allocating funds for swimming pools.
In 2021, the ASEAN region had the second-highest drowning rate in the world, and in Thailand, children under the age of 15 accounted for around one-fifth of the national average of about 3,600 drowning fatalities per year between 2011 and 2020, according to the WHO.
According to the World Health Organization, the rates of drowning are greatest for children between the ages of 1 and 4 and 5 to 9.
