Survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy have launched a 37-day campaign ahead of the 37th anniversary, to highlight their concern over compensation, criminal justice, medical, economic and social rehabilitation and remediation of polluted land and water in and around the abandoned Union Carbide factory.
Through the campaign, which was launched on October 26, four organisations of the survivors will pose 37 questions – one every day – to the Union and state governments, seeking their response. The campaign will continue till December 2, the anniversary of the gas tragedy.
Thousands were killed and lakhs maimed for life by the disaster that involved leakage of deadly methyl isocynate (MiC) gas from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984. The survivors and even their next generations are struggling with various diseases, many of them fatal over the years, due to inhalation of the deadly gas. Also, people in the vicinity of the now abandoned factory are suffering from the land and water polluted by the toxic waste dumped by the factory on and around its campus.
Survivors have over the years demanded adequate compensation, rehabilitation and environmental remediation, but apart from two instalments of initial compensation for selected survivors (and kin of deceased), nothing concrete has come to them, the organisations say. The campaign, ‘For justice and a life of dignity for the survivors’, aims to highlight above mentioned points and seeks response of governments on them.
A group of survivors sit near the DIG Bungalow on Berasia Road in Bhopal every day and put up placards posing the questions in English and Hindi.
Even after 37 years, the mainstay of healthcare of the survivors continue to be symptomatic drugs that provide temporary relief, if at all, the organisations said. "Why are there still no treatment protocols for the proper treatment of gas victims, who as a result, get only symptomatic treatments that often harm them?"
Rashida Bee, president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationary Karmchari Sangh, said, “While both Central and state governments agreed in 2010 that the American corporations had to pay additional compensation, neither has filed an application for urgent hearing of the curative petition pending before the Supreme Court till today. We want to know why the governments have chosen not to get the petition heard for the last 11 years.”
“Dow Chemical USA’s business in India has grown dramatically in the last seven years. In these seven years, the company has ignored six summons issued by the Bhopal District Court to appear in the criminal case on the disaster,” said Shehzadi Bee of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha. “So, we want to ask how the Indian government is allowing a company that does not obey laws of the land to do business in this country?” she said.
Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information & Action questioned the Union and state government’s integrity and lack of common sense in assessing the number of deaths due to exposure-related illnesses. “In its curative petition, Madhya Pradesh government claims that 5,295 people died due to the gas tragedy. On the other hand, it provides pensions to 5,000 women who have been widowed due to the disaster. So, how is it possible that the gas only killed 5,000 married men and only 295 women, when children and unmarried men were killed due to the disaster? We will pose all such questions during the campaign."
Nousheen Khan of Children against Dow Carbide, said, “We want to know that despite being entitled by laws in India and USA to seek compensation from Dow Chemical for the polluted land, why has the MP Government never filed a claim against the corporation?”
