In urban India, swimming is seen as more of a relaxing activity one partakes in on holidays, rather than a survival skill that people should know. Lack of public pools and swimming infrastructure in our cities, means that most of us miss out on knowing this basic requirement. For instance, in Mumbai there are only about 13 functional BMC pools, most of which are afflicted by issues such as improper chlorine levels, inadequate lifeguards, irregular ambulance services, and so on. Thus, it leaves swimming as a skill limited to affluent urban Indians, who can afford to send their children to schools with pools and private swimming facilities. This leads to a major problem — according to data by the National Crime Records Bureau, more than 38,000 people died because of drowning in 2022 alone, which means that around every 15 minutes, an Indian dies because they can’t swim.

Sharvari Desai, a 36-year-old swimmer who has been learning at a private facility for the past year, says that a near-drowning experience led to her fearing water. “Once, I was at a swimming pool with some of my friends,” she narrates “when I was playing and was pulled down into the pool. That time, water went into my mouth,” But Desai took it as a challenge, and learned swimming, and also enrolled her child for classes.