Forty-five of the 60 COVID-19 deaths reported in Bhopal till June 11 were of Bhopal gas tragedy affected people, an analysis by four organisations working for the survivors has shown.
Also, three deaths were of those who were born to gas-affected parents, the analysis says. As on June 21, the death toll in Bhopal is 83.
Further, the analysis shows that about 81 per cent of the gas victims who died due to COVID-19, were suffering from comorbidities (other diseases of serious nature contributing to death) as a result of gas exposure.
Saying that the analysis proves that majority of the survivors are facing serious long-term health impact of the tragedy and are thus, far more vulnerable to infections like COVID-19, survivors’ organisations have urged Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to put up correct figures of ‘permanent injuries’ among tragedy survivors before the Supreme Court.
A curative petition is pending in the Supreme Court for enhanced compensation to the gas tragedy survivors, and organisations representing them have been claiming that the number of survivors with long-term health impact of the tragedy was far higher than that mentioned in the court.
They have been demanding considerably higher compensation for about 5.22 lakh survivors who were put in ‘minor injury’ category (those people who had to be treated only temporarily at the hospital right after the tragedy in December 1984) in the petition before the apex court.
Only about 30,000 survivors were categorised as having ‘permanent injury’—that is, they are facing lifelong serious health impact.
“If most of the gas exposed people really had only temporary problems or minor injuries, why are so many of them succumbing to COVID-19? It is clear that the exposure to poisonous gas has left them vulnerable for lifetime. Therefore, all 5, 21, 322 lakh survivors listed in Supreme Court should be treated as having permanent injuries and receive due compensation. We have written to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in this regard,” Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group of Information and Action (BGIA), one of the organisations working for the survivors, said while speaking to THE WEEK.
Dhingra also points out that the organisations had—on March 21 and April 23—written to the state and central authorities about the vulnerability of the gas tragedy survivors and sought enhanced testing and monitoring for them. Consequent to a petition by them, the MP High Court had directed that all survivors reporting to the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre should be put to COVID-9 test. “But even now, every day, the BMHRC refuses to admit survivors to its emergency wards and refers them to the Hamidia Hospital. At least five survivors have died due to this criminally negligent attitude. Action should be initiated in this regard, too,” she says.
Other organisations that have given the joint memorandum to the chief minister are Bhopal Gas Peedit Stationery Karmachari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha and Children against Dow-Carbide.
The analysis by the organisations brings out more shocking details. For example, 85 per cent of the deceased below 60 years of age and 82 per cent below 40 years of age were gas tragedy survivors, indicating their high vulnerability.
According to earlier studies, gas victims suffering from disease of lungs, heart, kidney and brain are 3-6 times more than non-gas victims. The current analysis shows that among those dead of COVID-19, 40 per cent of gas victims and only 6.5 per cent of non-gas victims, suffered from one comorbidity related to heart, lungs, brain or kidney, while 20 per cent of gas victims and 6.5 per cent of non-gas victims suffered two such comorbidities.
The analysis further shows that 75 per cent of the gas victims died within five days of being admitted to hospital. Of all the deaths within 24 hrs of admission, 84 per cent were gas victims, while of all the deaths within 2-5 day hospital days, 71.4 per cent were gas victims.
