Teen with autism swims from Sri Lanka to Tamil Nadu in 13 hours

Jiya Rai, 13, is the daughter of a navy officer. (Image credit: Twitter/@ANI)

A teenager with autism swam from Sri Lanka’s Thalaimannar settlement to Tamil Nadu’s Dhanushkodi in 13 hours on Sunday, creating a new record, news agency ANI reported.

Jiya Rai, 13, from Mumbai, the daughter of an Indian Navy officer, swam in the Palk strait, between Thalaimannar and Rameswaram.

Rai covered the 29-kilometre distance to create awareness about autism, The Hindu reported.

The teenager had received immigration clearance from the authorities. She began her journey at 4.15 am and reached her destination by 5.20 pm.

"For the first three hours, it was difficult for her to swim,” the girl’s father Madan Rai told news agency ANI. “My daughter, who suffers from autism and has lost the ability to speak, said that she considered it a great achievement.”

Upon reaching her destination, the swimmer was greeted by a cheering crowd. Tamil Nadu’s police chief Sylendra Babu felicitated the teenager.

Babu described swimming in the Palk Strait as one of the greatest achievements. "It is also home to dangerous fish called milk sharks,” he said. “Similarly, there is a lot of jellyfish. And it is much easier to swim at night than during the day.”

The police officer added that there were more trekkers than swimmers in India. “The youth should come forward to achieve the feat of swimming,” he told ANI.

Rai is not new to setting records.

In 2020, she swam from the Bandra-Worli Sea Link in Mumbai to the Gateway of India, covering 36 kilometres in nearly 9 hours.

Rai is a recipient of the 2022 Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, the highest award in India for children.