They save scores of lives in Delhi, but they are themselves a vulnerable lot. This is the story of 13 Delhi Government divers who made several deep drives to take out the bodies of two young boys when their boat capsised in Yamuna, near Timarpur, recently.
But even as they fetch out bodies and save lives, these life guards, all of them between 25 and 35 years of age and without any formal swimming training, are forced to dive into the city’s toxic waters without body suits or oxygen masks while carrying out these rescue operations.
The recent rescue operation took them more than 12 hours to find the two dead bodies as the boat had capsised at the deepest part of the river, which is close to 50 ft deep, claimed one of the divers.
“We were born on the banks of the Yamuna and we are used to faith and pollution. But when we enter these dirty drains, it loads to skin diseases, respiratory and eye-related problems,” the summers. Most people are on holidays and they go to the without appropriate safety measures, and land in trouble. As there are no boundaries around the Yamuna and the high flowing Munak canal, it becomes difficult to curb accidents.
These divers claim that fething a body out of the Yamuna is not as troublesome as fetching one out of Munak canal in Bawana. “The water flows at a very high speed here and the depth is close to 15 ft. We can go as deep as 40 – 50 ft but in Bawana, due to the speed of water, bodies are washed away and we have to check a larger area,” said diver Interzaar.
These lifeguards, however, don’t complain much. “It is a mission for us to fetch dead bodies and rescue people. Life is valuable and we feel blessed saving each soul. Our mission is to take out even decaying dead bodies, as it is important for family members and police,” said Rayees Ahmed, one of the divers.