On the occasion of 36th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy, survivors decried the failure of state and central governments to get them adequate compensation and denial of their rights to proper medical care and social support.
Forming a human chain and burning effigies, the survivors on Thursday also condemned the continued evasion of legal liabilities by Dow Chemical Company, USA (present owner of Union Carbide Company) for the ongoing damage to the health of the survivors and pollution of the local soil and groundwater.
Meanwhile, speaking after the all-religion prayer meeting held to pay tributes to those killed in the worst industrial disaster of the world 36 years ago, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that the Rs 1,000 per month pension to the women widowed during the tragedy will be restarted.
The pension to about 5,000 women was stopped arbitrarily in December 2019 despite funds being available in the corpus allocated by the Union government, mainly because initially the plan was to give the pension for a fixed number of years. The widows and survivors' organisations have since made several representations to the government for restarting of the pension.
Chouhan also said that the memorial of the tragedy should be built soon, because it will be a symbol of lesson to the world that we should not create things that become a massive burden on us. “Often we forget that God has created the world for everyone. This world is as much for all animals and life forms as it is for people. We have to maintain balance between environment and development,” the CM said.
The survivors' organisations have pointed out various issues related to the tragedy survivors.
A human chain formed by the survivors on the 36th anniversary of Bhopal gas tragedy, in front of abandoned Union Carbide factory
“Dow Chemical’s market share that was down to 2.5 per cent in 2005 has steadily risen since 2015 to over 22 per cent of the Indian market. For sure, the prime minister’s coziness with Dow has got something to do with this,” said Rashida Bee, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh.
Alleging downplaying of figures of death of gas survivors due to COVID-19 by the Madhya Pradesh government, Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, said: “We dare the government officials to cite one instance in the last 36 years when we have stated something without factual and or scientific basis. This is nothing new, officials have been downplaying the figures of death and extent of health damage caused by Union Carbide and Dow ever since the morning of the disaster. The official figure of death is still five times lower than the actual and over 90 per cent of those exposed to Union Carbide’s gases have been categorized as needing just one visit to the hospital when they continue to suffer from grave diseases even now.”
Nawab Khan, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, said, “In the last ten years, officials of the state and central governments have promised in writing that they would revise the figures of death and health damage in the curative petition for additional compensation from the American corporations, pending in the Supreme Court. But nothing has been done. Meanwhile, all official research on long term health impact of the disaster has been stopped or suppressed, symptomatic medicines remain the mainstay of medical care of the survivors who receive no social support and there are no official plans to stop the ongoing contamination of soil and groundwater.”
“The effect of the Pandemic on the survivors in Bhopal and on people exposed to industrial pollution everywhere in the world has once again highlighted the urgent need for reigning in chemical corporations. In the last 36 years judicial institutions in India and USA have failed to make Union Carbide and Dow Chemical obey the laws of the land. As injustice and suffering continue in Bhopal, corporations are encouraged to continue committing crimes against humanity and the global environment,” said Nausheen Khan for the Children against Dow Carbide.
