Thirteen children, all aged 15 or below, died after a boat carrying around 20 children to a feast in a neighbouring village capsized near Rampur Shyamchand village in the Raghopur Diara area of Vaishali district on the evening of Tuesday, October 13.
Vaishali District Magistrate Varsha Singh confirmed the death toll, stating that 13 children aged 15 or below lost their lives in the accident. Seven children were pulled out of the water alive and are reported to be in stable condition, officials said. The rescued children are being looked after, and their condition is being monitored.
The children were travelling together to attend a feast in a neighbouring village when the boat carrying them overturned in the evening. What was meant to be a joyful outing for the group of youngsters turned into an unimaginable tragedy within minutes, as the overloaded boat — carrying nearly 20 children — went down in the water near Rampur Shyamchand.
As word of the accident spread, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) was pressed into service and search operations were launched at the site. SDRF teams continued their operations as officials worked to account for everyone who had been on board the boat. Rescue personnel combed the stretch of water where the boat had capsized, and the operations remained underway, officials said.
The Raghopur Diara is a riverine belt where boats are the lifeline for residents of low-lying villages separated by water. For families in the Diara region, country boats are the everyday means of crossing from one village to another, and children routinely travel by boat to visit relatives and attend social gatherings. Tuesday evening’s tragedy has underscored, in the harshest possible terms, the risks that come with these routine river crossings.
The scale of the loss — 13 young lives snuffed out in a single evening — has stunned the region. An incident in which so many children from the same area die together is rare, and the tragedy has left the affected families shattered. The grief of losing children barely into their teens, all headed to a celebration, has cast a pall over the entire Diara belt.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the deaths and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) for the next of kin of each deceased child. The Prime Minister also announced Rs 50,000 each for those injured in the accident, officials said.
Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary also expressed condolences over the tragedy and announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh for each bereaved family. The state government’s announcement comes on top of the central assistance declared by the Prime Minister.
Officials said the district administration was coordinating relief and assistance for the affected families, and the SDRF’s search operations were continuing at the site to ensure that no one who had been on the boat remained unaccounted for.
