Tarun Murugesh had learnt to swim but did not want to have anything to do with swimming. It was an accident that encouraged Tarun, a star volleyball player, to change his mind. Chancing upon two drowning people, he rescued them. And, for the first time, Tarun realised his ability as a swimmer could be useful to others. With a little encouragement from loved ones, he learnt first-aid training and then went on to be trained as a life guard.
Today, he is a south zone member of the Rashtriya Life Saving Society, the only NGO in India that train and certify life guards. The Society is believed to be the Indian analogue of Royal Lifesaving, England and Australia.
Tarun, a resident of T. Nagar, conducts regular first-aid training for school and college students and corporate employees.
“I work with students, fishermen, police personnel, commandos and transgenders. Our aim is to create a life saver in every house to avoid a lot of preventable deaths,” he says.
He is currently training Royal Enfield expedition bikers.
Beyond first aid, Tarun is passionate about making our beaches safe. “Every year, over 1,50,000 deaths by drowning occur in our country, with the highest reported from Tamil Nadu. Our beaches are the most unsafe. People must be told what to wear and what not to wear, how far to go into the sea for a swim. We need watch towers and one life guard per 20 people, not only on the shore but also on jet skiers in the sea manning it. We are even ready to train fishermen for life guard work. But we need the go-ahead from the government,” he adds.
Tarun and his team want to first take up this work at smaller beaches — such as the Thiruvanmiyur beach — and start securing them.
But life-guards are hardly respected, he says.
“It is not a glorified career. How many people know that water rescue is a sport in itself and is played at Commonwealth and world games. This is the only humanitarian sport that is going to be introduced in Olympics.”
Tarun is also a Rotaract member and conducts many of the organisation’s welfare programmes. He is also working closely with the Australian Consul in Chennai for the Nipper programme.
He can be reached at 97899 85252.
