Jiya Rai, a 14-year-old para-swimmer, the daughter of a senior sailor of the Indian navy, Madan Rai, MC-AT-ARMS II of INS Kunjali, is popularly deemed as the ‘Jal Pari’ of India. She is a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder and took on the mammoth task of swimming through the Chilika lake in Odisha, a brackish water lagoon and the second-largest lake in the country.
She did this to raise awareness about protecting migratory birds that flock to Chilika yearly.
The lake is a biodiversity hotspot and houses many rare and endangered species. Her 21km swim completed in 3 hours and 57 minutes was a feat accomplished by no other.
Although, her achievements don’t stop here. Jiya has proved through her abilities that she is better than her able-bodied counterparts in long-distance open-water swimming. She swam the Palk Strait between Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu in 13 hours and 10 minutes, becoming the youngest and fastest female swimmer in the world to swim the strait, even breaking a record set in 2004 by Ms Bula Chowdhary who swam the strait in 13 hours and 52 minutes.
At just 12, she swam the Bandra- Worli sea link to Gateway of India, a distance of 36 km in 8 hours and 40 minutes, to raise awareness about autism. Her incredible accomplishments earned her the ‘Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar’ in 2022.
Her aim now is to be the first differently-abled girl to swim the English Channel and complete the arduous ocean’s seven swimming challenge completed by only six athletes worldwide.