New Delhi: Four organisations comprising survivors of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal led a rally to the abandoned factory site on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the harrowing incident. In late November, the organisations filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court for adequate compensation to survivors, many of whom suffer from cancer and kidney diseases as a result of gas exposure.
These diseases, they have said, were wrongfully characterised as temporary.
In a chemical accident on the night between December 2 and 3, at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal of Madhya Pradesh, over 500,000 people were exposed to the highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas.
‘Actively protected Union Carbide’
On December 2, the marchers at the rally denounced regional, national and international leaders and international relief organisations for what they said was their continued involvement in denial of justice and a life of dignity for the survivors.
“Successive US Presidents starting from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama have actively protected Union Carbide and Dow Chemical from prosecution in India,” said Rashida Bee, president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, in a press release.
Balkrishna Namdeo of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogee Sangharsh Morcha said that while in 2008, the Manmohan Singh government moved to set up the Medical Commission on Bhopal for the long-term medical, economic and social rehabilitation of the survivors of Bhopal, then chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s opposition to the project allegedly stalled it.
“Today, all scientific studies are pointing out ongoing illnesses and continuing deaths among the half million survivors and health impacts on their children. A Medical Commission in 2008 would have prevented the medical disaster we are witnessing today. Will Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is now a minister in the Central cabinet, take responsibility for the ongoing plight of the Bhopal survivors and their children?” Namdeo asked.
‘Dow is growing’
Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action alleged that Dow Chemical’s business has grown in India during the Narendra Modi regime.
“During these 10 years, the Bhopal groundwater that should be cleaned up by Dow Chemical, according to the ‘polluter pays’ principle, has moved three-kilometres into the city. Dow Chemical is selling Union Carbide’s properties to Indian PSUs such as IOCL, GAIL and GACL for the last two years. It is claiming that US corporations are not answerable to Indian courts,” Dhingra added.
Among their list of demands on the 40th anniversary of the incident, the organisations have asked to ensure that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeks harshest measures against Dow Chemical in the criminal case related to the gas disaster.
Nawab Khan of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha said that international organisations have shown remarkable apathy.
“Had the poison in Bhopal spread due to an Act of God, international agencies such as WHO would have had set up specialised health care and long term research centres to provide relief and the picture after 40 years would have been very different. But it is clear that international relief agencies also treat victims of corporate crime in the same manner as corporations and governments – as expendable people,” Khan said.
Compensation
The groups have also held that the wrongful categorisation of injuries has led them to move Supreme Court at this juncture.
Bee noted how according to official records, 90% of the 11, 278 survivors who were diagnosed with cancers and 91% of 1855 survivors diagnosed with fatal kidney diseases – and were paid compensation by the government for the same – “have only received Rs. 25,000 as compensation.”
This, Dhingra added, is despite the fact that Union Carbide’s own documents clearly state that health damage due to methyl isocyanate exposure is permanent in nature. “Yet 93% of the claimants for compensation have been considered by the official agency to have suffered only “temporary” injury,” she noted.
