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Skeletons in the cup board ATehelka cover on the Bhopal Gastragedy

Print Email to Friend | Posted on 26 November 2011

CURRENT AFFAIRS BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY

Hard days night: Bhopal Gas survivors stil l haveit raw

Its been 27 years and the government is sti ll busy making token gestures. Wi ll t he

Bhopal survivors ever taste justice, asks Shonal i Ghosal

With the 27th anniversary of the Bhopal Gas

Tragedy coming up on 3 December, a new movement,

the Rail Roko (Stop the trains) Andolan, is set to

begin. Organised by the International Campaign for

J ustice in Bhopal, a coalition of peoples

organisations, non-profit groups and individuals,

activists and survivors plan to go to their closest

railway tracks and stand in front of any train on the

Delhi or Mumbai route. But why stop trains passing

through Bhopal? To get adequate compensation from

Union Carbide Corporation and The Dow Chemical

Company, is the first of 10 reasons listed on its

website.

Another important reason for the movement is to

compel the Madhya P radesh (MP ) government to

present correct data to the Supreme Court in the

ongoing Curative Petition, which is scheduled for next

hearing in December. The government submits

figures like 5,000 dead when their own figures and

those obtained from the Indian Council of Medical

Lik

THE R

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ka - India's Independent Weekly News Magazin http://www.tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=Ws261111B

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Research (ICMR) show that at least 16,000 people

have died so far, says Nawab Khan (65) of the

Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha.

Stranger still, he claims, is the fact that the

government says that approximately 5,30,000 people

who had suffered severe disabilities and health

conditions, have made a full recovery. How do people

whove got the toxic methyl isocyanate gas in their

lungs, in their blood for 27 years make a full recovery

all of a sudden? he asks. Khan, who lost his wife to

cancer in 1989 and then his son to tuberculosis in

1991, is a survivor of the tragedy.

You can only form the minds of reasoning animals

upon Facts, said a character from Charles Dickens

Hard Times. But the horrifying facts and figures of the

Bhopal tragedy dont count for much. Nothing haschanged. With the countrys attention span directly

proportional to the newest, rising figures and

important dates, the survivors struggle continues,

undeterred, as they still fight to meet their health care

needs, for better compensation, for justice. But what keeps a peoples movement

going on for this long against the mighty state and the big-bad (and foreign) Union

Carbide Corporation, now owned by Dow Chemicals?

One of the many answers lies in 27-year-old survivor Sanjay Vermas question. If not

today, well die tomorrow, so why dont we just die fighting? J ust six months old onthe night of the disaster, Sanjay lost seven family members that night: his parents,

three sisters and two brothers. Tuberculosis, cancer, lung failure, theyre all common

here. Ive met people who say they would have been lucky to have died that night, at

least theyre not dying every day, he says. He doesnt care much for official

statistics. Raised by his grandmother, he knows that not many care for the Bhopal

survivors pad yatras in 2006 and 2008 nor does it shake up the country if they go on

a hunger strike for seven days. Thats a liberty only the A-team enjoys. Nonetheless,

he still joins every yatra, every rally that he can and plans to attend the Rail Roko

Andolan too.

Another survivor, Shahid Noor (33) was nine

when he lost his parents and his seven-and-

a-half-year-old brother on the fateful night.

Tuberculosis is common in the new

generation as is cancer. Today its his/her

turn, tomorrow could be mine, he says with

a matter-of-fact nonchalance. The Chief

Minister said he would give jobs to the

Norwegian gas in GermanyStatoil makes it possible to useunconventional gas in Germany.

goodideas.statoil.com


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Resolute souls An image from the Rail Rokomovement website

Bhopal survivors since many of us are

handicapped to such an extent that we cant

work. But even that hasnt been given. For

us, there is no option but to fight, he adds. But they arent the only ones with bitter

resentment against the governments inaction.

The frustration of injustice works as a unifying factor among most survivors. The

government is cheating us. Weve tried to meet and talk but they simply arentinterested in giving us correct compensation, says Hazra Bi (55), a survivor from the

infamous J ai Prakash Nagar Colony, which falls within a kilometer-radius of the Union

Carbide plant. Her voice trembles as she remembers the night when she ran away

with her three children leaving her 11-month-old son behind. When he was rescued

later, he had already inhaled a lot of smoke, but survived. He now has a four-year-old

daughter who is so physically and mentally handicapped that she cant even stand on

her own. She isnt entitled to separate compensation; she wasnt there on the night of

3 December, 1984.

Similarly, 42-year-old survivor, Gauhar Parveen, struggles to support her 14-year-old

daughter who has been bleeding for about four years. Id rather have died that night.

I wouldnt have had my daughter and she wouldnt be suffering, she says. P arveen is

currently being treated for cancer at Bhopal Memorial hospital and like most others,

cannot afford private treatment. Union Carbide said that the people who were

exposed to the gases that night had been ruined for life. Despite that the Rs 25,000

compensation from the company was given as if they were doing charity, putting Rs

200 every month in the bank, she exclaims.

While second and third generation effects are mostly ignored in the compensation

paid by the company, some who have been directly affected are considered ineligible

for compensation as defined by categories. J agdish Newa (41), a survivor, remembers

the military trucks that came to load dead bodies. Weve seen around 100-150 people

dead right in front of our eyes. Weve inhaled these toxic gases that the foreign

company spread and our government wants to protect them, he fumes. Newa has

already had a bypass surgery but is apparently not entitled to compensation under

the clauses prescribed by the government.

Mai gas peedit aur paani peedit hu, (Im a gas, poisonous water survivor) she says

even before she gives us her name. That is 55-year-old Baanu bis first and foremostidentity. Baanu bi has lost five family members including her husband and has two

sons, 26 and 28, who are both physically incapable of work. I wanted to educate

them but my dreams died in my heart. We cant afford education when were

perpetually unwell, she says. The Rs 25,000 compensation hasnt helped her much

either. It takes about Rs 1 lakh for just one persons hospital bills for a month. I wish

wed died too, adds Baanu.

Worn out, disabled and grievously injured, the people continue to fight. Its not


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difficult to keep the movement alive in Bhopal where people are struggling with life

and death every day. The hospitals they have to run to, their handicapped children

are a constant reminder, says Rashida Bi from Bhopal Gas Victims Women' Stationery

Workers' Association.

The media and the rest of the country, however, is another story. People drinking

poisonous water isnt news, but a 7 J une verdict, which is known, is a big deal and

then it dies down. If at all, the situation has only changed because the peoples fightis on, says Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group of Information and Action. Whatever

their individual reasons, whether it is to get adequate compensation or to set an

example for other imminent disasters, the message for the Rail Roko Andolan is clear.

Theyve suffered for too long. Theyll do whatever it takes to get justice. This is it.

Enough.

Shonali Ghosal i s a Trainee Correspondent with Tehelka.

[email protected]

Print Email to Friend | Posted on 26 November 2011

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