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April 30, 2008
Bhopal: hundreds of new victims are born each year
Randeep Ramesh, The Guardian, April 30, 2008
Nida, 17 months old Bhopali girl with a congenital birth defect. Photograph: Money Sharma/EPA
· Children of victims suffer but have no health cover
· 23 years after disaster, site has still not been cleaned
Hundreds of children are still being born with birth defects as a result of the world's worst industrial disaster 23 years ago in the central Indian town of Bhopal, say campaigners. They are demanding that the Indian government provide immediate medical care and research the "hidden" health impacts.
More than two decades ago, white clouds of toxic gas escaped from American multinational Union Carbide's pesticide plant. The gas killed 5,000 people that night and 15,000 more in the following weeks - and doctors say that a new generation is being affected.
The true legacy of the disaster is only now coming to light. The Indian government stopped all research on the medical effects of the gas cloud 14 years ago, without explanation. Despite the country's supreme court ordering that the children of victims receive insurance, more than 100,000 remain without cover.
Satinath Sarangi of the Sambhavna Trust, which helps to rehabilitate victims, said that the Bhopal victims' penury and low social status meant few are prepared to help.
No one, he says, has taken responsibility for cleaning up the site and paying the high cost of medical bills.
"Because these people are poor or from a minority or lower caste no one seems to care. Their lives and their children are being sacrificed for the cause of industrial progress," Sarangi said.
Medical experts who had studied the effects of the gas on children born in communities affected by the gas cloud said there was now "no doubt of increased chance of the negative effects in children".
A 2003 study by the American Medical Association found that boys who were either exposed as toddlers to gases from the Bhopal pesticide plant or born to exposed parents were prone to "growth retardation".
Yesterday campaigners, who marched the 500 miles from Bhopal last month and vow to sit in protest in Delhi until the government acts, held a press conference to highlight a new fight for compensation for families whose children have been born with "congenital birth defects".
One of the mothers, Kesar Bhai, held her 12-year-old son Suraj in her arms. She had inhaled the noxious fumes in 1984 and was hospitalised but recovered. Her son, Suraj, was born brain damaged and cannot sit or talk.
"My husband is a labourer. We have no money to spend on our son. He cannot even eat on his own. I get free medical care for my breathing difficulties because I am a gas victim. My child does not get any help but he has been affected," she said.
Other children's growth had been stunted, said campaigners, because there has been still no clean-up of the Bhopal plant despite a promise from the prime minister in 2006. So far, less than 20% of the funds set aside to dismantle and make safe the plant have been spent.
The disused Union Carbide factory contains about 8,000 tonnes of carcinogenic chemicals which continue to leach out and contaminate water supplies used by 30,000 local people. The clean-up has been stalled by a mixture of bureaucratic indifference, legal actions and rows over corporate responsibility.
Dow Chemicals, which bought Union Carbide in 2001, says it is not responsible, arguing that because the plant is on government land it is up to the state to clean it up. However, the Indian government's chemicals and fertilisers ministry has said in court that Dow should pay 1 billion rupees, or £13m, to dismantle the factory and restore the fields.
Backstory
On December 2 1984, the sleeping citizens of Bhopal were enveloped by a lethal fog of poisonous gas spewing from a pesticide plant owned by American multinational Union Carbide. The gas was methyl isocyanate, which when inhaled produces an extremely acidic reaction attacking the internal organs, especially the lungs. This stops oxygen entering the blood, and victims drown in their own body fluids. The Indian government is still pursuing Warren Anderson, the former chief executive of Union Carbide, who keeps a low profile in retirement in New York and Florida. Union Carbide paid a lump sum of $470m in an out-of-court settlement with the Indian government in 1989. When the money was distributed among 570,000 people in 2005, most recipients got little more than £600. Dow, one of the world's largest chemical companies, purchased Union Carbide in 2001. Campaigners then covered its Mumbai offices with red paint, saying it was the "blood of Bhopal". Dow says it never owned or operated the Bhopal plant and it has no responsibility for the events in 1984.
Posted by tim at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)
Bhopal victims present ‘clinching’ proof of apathy
Children of gas-hit parents continue to suffer from disorders
NEW DELHI: Parents of children from Bhopal with serious birth defects presented what they claimed to be evidence of the Government’s criminal negligence towards the next generation of Union Carbide victims at a press conference here on Tuesday.
Present at the press conference were also parents who were exposed to methyl isocyanate and other toxic gases during the 1984 gas leak disaster and those who continue to be exposed to toxic chemicals and heavy metals like mercury in their drinking water from the community hand-pumps.
“The Central Government is fully aware that the children of gas-affected parents suffer from congenital physical and mental growth disorders. For its part, the State Government provided official assistance for heart surgery and congenital brain anomalies to merely 27 children under a programme called Special Assistance to At Risk Children. However, that was terminated in 1997 citing financial constraints,” complained a parent.
The parents of children born with brain damage, mental retardation and cleft lip and palette said the Government continues to disregard a Supreme Court order of 1991 that directed medical insurance for at least one lakh children born to gas-exposed parents.
Among other things, the parents are demanding from the Government special medical assistance, community-based rehabilitation centres and monetary help besides research and monitoring programmes aimed at assessing the magnitude of the problem and early detection of such defects.
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Posted by tim at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)
April 26, 2008
RTI drive to raise Bhopal gas tragedy issue
Press Trust of India, April 26, 2008
At least a thousand applications to be file to ask what action has been taken by the govt
In an effort to draw attention to the plight of the survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy, a major RTI campaign will be undertaken and at least a thousand applications will be filed in the next one week seeking information on the action taken by the government.
RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal, who along with the survivors of the gas leak in 1984 is launching the massive RTI campaign, said answers will be sought from the government on what it has done to rehabilitate the victims.
The RTI applications will seek information on issues like the dumped chemicals at the Union Carbide factory site poisoning the environment, gas-leak survivors being asked to pay for their healthcare and why the government was not ensuring that the Union Carbide and Dow Chemicals provided adequate compensation.
Moreover, 50 persons from Bhopal, who marched 800 km from the Madhya Pradesh capital to reach Delhi on March 28, had asked the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) for an appointment as early as February 20.
Since then, more than 1,700 people have sent faxes to the PMO in support of the Bhopal ‘Padyatris'.
"These RTI applications will be sent to the PMO next week to find out what the prime minister has done to keep his word in the last two years," said Kejriwal.
Story Comments Total Post : 1
Posted By : gnsetty on 27 April,2008
This has been LONG OVERDUE.All the politicians guilty in this tragedy must be exposed.First in the list is Arjun Singh, as CM of MP at the time,when he enjoyed free hospitality of club-style bungalow in UC compound and granted all permissions for first manufacturing world 's largest quantity of deadly chemical at UC Bhopal and allowed it to be stored for months when even a small quantity of that chemical was NOT allowed to be stored in any developed country or any country for that matter.
Posted by tim at 02:45 PM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2008
Panel to decide Dow proposal fate as gas tragedy shadow still looms
Gireesh Chandra Prasad, Economic Times, April 25, 2008
NEW DELHI: US giant Dow Chemicals may have to wait for an independent commission’s views before it could firm up plans for mega investments in India. The government is expected to appoint a high-powered committee to comprehensively look into issues relating to the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, including Dow’s liability to clean up the site.
The American chemical major, with the support of the US government and Indian industry, had been persuading New Delhi to take a view that it is not liable to clearing the site of the toxicity that persists there.
A group of ministers headed by Union human resources development minister Arjun Singh heard NGOs last Thursday, where the activists demanded an independent examination of all issues. The ministerial panel and the government of Madhya Pradesh are inclined to appoint a commission, sources told ET.
The government would decide the structure of the commission in consultation with the law ministry, the sources said. The proposed commission would also look into issues of relief and rehabilitation, lack of co-ordination between various central and state agencies and the day-to-day difficulties of the affected people. It would also have powers to summon stakeholders and give directions. The commission’s report would also be tabled in Parliament.
Letting an independent commission take a view on contentious issues would absolve the government of criticism for putting investments before human rights, especially when general elections and various state assembly polls are expected soon. It would also help the government to take a balanced view on other rehabilitation issues where different government agencies have narrow administrative interests.
Dow’s efforts to be absolved of any legal liability for the slip of Union Carbide Corporation, which it acquired in 2001, has not met with much success as the chemicals and fertilizers ministry has not supported it. The ministry had also asked the company to pay Rs 100 crore as interim advance to clean up the site, which the company has not paid.
Posted by tim at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2008
Govt hand in glove with Dow Chemicals, say lawyers and retired judges
Express news service, April 24, 2008
Pune, April 23: Around 280 legal professionals, including retired judges and eminent lawyers from Pune and the state have submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister stating that the attempts by the Prime Minister's office to grant immunity to Dow Chemical from its Bhopal liabilities are unconstitutional and illegal.
In a press meet addressed in the city, activist Neeraj Jain (who represents Kick out Dow, Save Pune) said that a memorandum signed by lawyers, retired judges and law students from the state submitted at the Prime Minister's Office have clearly stated that the government is colluding with Dow Chemical to extinguish its legal liability in an exchange of promise to invest one billion dollars in India.
Dow has maintained that they have no connection with the Union Carbide Corporation, which was instrumental for the Bhopal gas tragedy, Jain said that in the memorandum the lawyers argue that the principles of "polluter pays" and strict and absolute liability for compensation of affected persons, and remediation of damaged health and environment are well established in Indian law.
"By virtue of this the successor company is responsible for the environmental clean-up of the Bhopal site as well as compensation and health reparations,'' said Jain.
Through this proposed settlement, the government cannot let the company off while failing to discharge its "own statutory duties of protecting the environment and holding the polluters liable.'' The movement is extending all support to the Bhopal gas tragedy survivors, who have put up a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.
Jain said that the government should immediately agree to the demands of tragedy survivors, pursue Union Carbide and Dow for their respective liabilities. In a press note, the movement also wants the government to investigate and take action against Dow for bribing Indian officers to register Dursban in India as well as cancel the permission given to start the Research and Development centre at Shinde Vasuli in Pune.
Posted by tim at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2008
Govt urgency to address Bhopal gas tragedy woes worries activists
Sreelatha Menon, Business Standard, April 23, 2008
THE OTHER INDIA
The Bhopal gas tragedy remains a live issue 23 years after toxic gases leaked out of a Union Carbide plant in December 1984. Recent developments indicate a desire on the part of the government to put an end to it. A series of reports looks at these developments and the continuing presence of 9,000 tonnes of toxic waste on the premises of the plant
There is a sense of urgency in the government to close the chapter on the 23-year-old Union Carbide gas leak case. There has been rapid movement on the government side even as 60-odd citizens from Bhopal, who walked all the way from the Madhya Pradesh's capital, have camped in Delhi since last month.
The Prime Minister's Office has held three meetings so far with the activists leading the agitation and a Group of Ministers on Bhopal, which seldom meets (it has met thrice so far in three years), decided to hold a hearing for the victims last week.
On April 17, the GoM headed by Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh, who was also the Madhya Pradesh chief minister when the ghastly chemical disaster took place, gave an assurance to the victims that their demand for a commission on Bhopal would be considered.
PMO sources now say that the PM is keen to address the issue as early as possible and is waiting for the recommendations of the GoM.
A delegation of the activists was heard out again by a PMO official on Monday.
The activists, though relieved by the progress, smell a rat in the sudden revival of interest in the issue and have already braced themselves with a petition signed by about 300 legal experts seeking legal liability for Dow Chemical.
Satinath Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action says: "The government had in 1989 made a settlement with Carbide where the latter was allowed to walk away from all liability for a measly $470 million. Now, it is similarly contemplating another settlement to bail out Carbide?s successor Dow Chemical for small change."
Dow had bought over the assets of Union Carbide and has maintained that it has no legal liability. However, the Union chemicals ministry has an application pending in the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking remediation from Dow Chemical for the damage caused by the gas leak.
It has asked for an initial deposit of Rs 100 crore for cleaning up of the toxic substances left behind by Carbide in Bhopal. This includes 9,000 tonnes of toxic substances buried in the premises of the Carbide plant, which continue to pollute the groundwater in the area.
Groundwater in about 3-km radius from the area has been affected by poisonous substances buried there, says Sarangi.
The ministry has steadfastly stood by its petition that Dow is liable and has even crossed swords with other ministries that have approved investment by Dow in India.
"I have always been against doing business with Dow or Carbide till this issue of liability is solved," Chemicals Minister Ramvilas Paswan told Business Standard.
"If it was left to me, I would find a solution to the whole issue of damage caused by Carbide, the pending clean-up and the relief measures in two days," he added.
But the PMO seems to be keen on moving even faster. Activists link this haste to the investment plans of Dow in India and the memorandums which were sent to the PMO last year by various ministers pleading the case of absolving Dow of the liability for the Bhopal leak.
A GoM meeting last week gave an assurance that the court alone could decide on the liability of Dow. But the activists do not want to take chances.
On Monday, they brought out a petition signed by about 300 legal experts, including former Justice Rajendra Sacchar, advocate Prashant Bhushan and advocate Indira Jaisingh as a preemptive move against a possible bailout for Dow.
Bhushan said: "It is obvious from documents available that Dow has tried to get people, right from Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi (who is a lawyer for Dow) to Ratan Tata, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and even Finance Minister P Chidambaram to plead on its behalf."
"It means absolving an offender because it means billions of dollars of investment for India," says Sarangi.
Posted by tim at 02:15 PM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2008
Memo on Bhopal: lawyers, retired judges question ‘immunity’ to Dow
Express News Service, April 22, 2008
NEW DELHI, APRIL 21: More than 200 retired judges and lawyers have signed a memorandum that says that the attempts made by the Government to grant “immunity” to Dow Chemical from its Bhopal liabilities are “unconstitutional and illegal”. The memorandum alleges that the Central Government is colluding with Dow Chemical to let it off its legal liability in an exchange for a promise to invest $ 1 billion in India.
The group has managed to procure documents under the RTI Act that show that Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, counsel for Dow Chemicals in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, and Ratan Tata, co-chairman of the US-India CEO Forum, believe that company has no legal liabilities. “Seen in the light of the case in Madhya Pradesh High Court, this collusion constitutes a Contempt of Court by the Government,” states the memorandum.
In 2005, the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals had asked the Madhya Pradesh HC to direct Dow Chemical to deposit Rs 100 crore as advance towards clean-up of contamination in Bhopal. A note prepared by former Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi refers to letters from Ratan Tata and from Dow Chemical to the Indian Ambassador in USA, highlighting Dow’s difficulty in investing in India unless the application filed by the Chemicals Department is withdrawn.
The Cabinet Secretary says, “Given the scope of future investments in the sector, it stands to reason that instead of continuing to agitate against these issues in court, due consideration be given to the prospect of settling them appropriately. An important aim is to remove uncertainties and pave the way for promoting investments in the sector.”
Addressing a press conference on Monday, Supreme Court Advocate Prashant Bhushan and former Rajya Sabha MP and senior journalist Kuldip Nayyar said that the Governments of India and Madhya Pradesh and Dow Chemical are “joint tort feasors” and are responsible for the condition of the Bhopal site and its surroundings. Through this proposed settlement, the Government of India is contemplating letting Dow off the hook, even while failing to discharge its own statutory duties of protecting the environment and holding the polluters liable.
Dow has argued that its wholly-owned subsidiary Union Carbide is a separate legal entity that handles its own liabilities, and that the Government of India should pursue Union Carbide and not Dow. “Dow’s argument is specious. Carbide has been an absconder since 1992. Dow knows very well that its subsidiary will not respond to summons from Indian courts,” said Nayyar.
“As a 100 per cent owner of Union Carbide after the merger, Dow is saddled with successor liability. Its attempts to use the corporate veil, separating Dow and Union Carbide, to evade liability is fraudulent,” added Bhushan.
Survivors of the 1984 Bhopal disaster, and victims of water contamination are currently camping in Jantar Mantar after an 800-km padyatra from Bhopal to Delhi. Besides their demand for an empowered commission to address rehabilitation issues, they also want the Government to pursue Union Carbide and Dow for their respective liabilities.
Posted by tim at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)
'Dow Chemicals seeking immunity in Bhopal gas tragedy'
New Delhi, April 22: A CPI member on Tuesday claimed that the US-based multinational Dow Chemicals is trying to seek immunity in the Bhopal gas tragedy case in return for investments in India.
"Today, Dow Chemicals is trying to influence the highest offices in the country - bargaining for immunity in return for investments," D Raja said in the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha.
He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had assured the survivors of the December 1984 gas tragedy that he would do everything within law to hold Union Carbide and Dow Chemicals accountable.
"In these two years of unkept promises, more than 720 people have died because of gas related illnesses," he said, adding several children have been born with grotesque deformities.
Raja alleged that by "manipulating" officials in the Agriculture Ministry, Dow Chemicals has managed to get registered three pesticides in India, one of which is banned in the US.
"Dursban, one of the three pesticides, is proven dangerous to children. It cannot be sold for home or garden use in the US but it is freely available in India," he said. Raja was supported by his Left party colleagues and SP.
Posted by tim at 01:27 PM | Comments (0)
Growing up in the shadow of Bhopal
Business Standard, April 22, 2008
Thirty-eight days of walking from Bhopal to New Delhi and 18 days of sitting in dharna at Jantar Mantar have not fatigued the people of Bhopal who have been camping in New Delhi to seek justice 24 years after the country’s worst industrial disaster at the Union Carbide chemicals plant ravaged their lives on the night of December 3, 1984.
The civil society groups which have been formed out of the victims’ projected the plight of the children of Bhopal last week to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The appeal also drew attention to the absence of any studies or measures to quantify the impact of the leak on people’s health.
The civil society groups describe the children of Bhopal as victims of two disasters. While the first one was the gas leak itself, the other is the continuing contamination of the ground water near the Carbide plant site.
“While more than 500,000 people were exposed to the poisonous gases, at least 25,000 – many of whom are not gas victims – are being poisoned by the contaminated groundwater,” says Rachna Dhingra of the International Campaign for Bhopal, which is among the agitating groups.
The twin demands being made by the victims are the setting up of a commission dedicated to the rehabilitation and fixing the liability for the disaster on Dow Chemicals, which bought over assets of Union Carbide.
In 1991, the Indian Council for Medical Research abruptly terminated research on the health issues faced by children born to affected parents after the disaster. This was despite the fact that the research’s prinicipal investigator recommended continued monitoring on the basis of findings that confirmed substantial deficits in physical and mental development among children born to the victims, says Dhingra.
Recognising the spate of birth defects, and physical and mental development disorders among second generation victims, the Supreme Court had, in 1991, ordered that at least 100,000 children born after the disaster should be brought under medical insurance cover.
Till date, not a single child has been covered. No schemes exist to extend social support to families with children requiring special care. Between 1992 and 1997, fourteen children received official assistance for heart surgery and thirteen for diagnosis of congenital brain anomalies, under a program called SPARC (Special Assistance to At Risk Children). The programme was terminated in 1997 citing financial constraints.
Of the 65 children examined in a medical camp in December 2006 by Matthew Varghese of St. Stephens Hospital, New Delhi, 31 were found to be suffering from brain damage. Most were residents of contamination-affected areas and brought to the medical camp organised by Chingari Trust.
“The government has categorically refused to extend social pension to families with children requiring special care,” says Rashida Bee, who is also the president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationary Karmachari Sangh.
Posted by tim at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2008
Bhopal GoM back demand for Commission
Business Standard, April 18, 2008
Representatives of the three organisations working among people affected in Bhopal by the Union Carbide tragedy expressed satisfaction with the response of the group of ministers (GoM) on Bhopal. The organisations had led a march of 50 Bhopal survivors and their supporters from Bhopal to Delhi, and have been on dharna at Jantar Mantar for 20 days.
The GoM assured the delegation that it would endorse and forward the demand of the people of Bhopal for a special commission to address rehabilitation and legal action against Dow and Carbide to the Prime Minister. The GoM said it would have the law ministry examine the draft bill prepared by the Bhopal organisations before tabling in Parliament.
The GoM also emphasised that it has never conceded the Madhya Pradesh government's request for inclusion of 20 additional municipal wards in Bhopal as gas-affected. The group clarified that it had requested the MP government to submit data regarding gas-related deaths and injuries in the 20 wards but no such data has been submitted till date.
GoM chairman and Human Resources Minister Arjun Singh said that a special commission for Bhopal is justified despite the lack of precedent for any such commission because the Bhopal disaster itself is of an unprecedented nature.
The GoM also expressed its support for demand of the three organisations for legal action against Dow and Carbide. Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan assured the Bhopal delegation that the government will continue its efforts to make Dow Chemical pay the Rs 100 crore as advance for environmental remediation.
Paswan also admitted that after the recent fire incident at a toxic waste facility in Ankleshwar that was destined to receive Bhopal wastes, any attempts to send wastes anywhere else in India will be met with opposition from local residents.
Earlier, speaking to Business Standard, Paswan regretted that a rehabilitation package for Bhopal has not been announced 24 years after the tragedy. He said that he was also against any business dealings with Dow Chemicals or Union Carbide which has been bought over by Dow. Carbide owned the gas plant in Bhopal when the leak took place causing the disaster.
Representatives from the three organisations currently sitting on dharna at Jantar Mantar have, till date, met Ram Vilas Paswan (Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister), Chief Secretary to Prime Minister T K A Nair, Rajya Sabha MPs Rahul Gandhi and Sandeep Dixit, national secretary of the Communist Party of India D Raja, general secretary of All India Forward Bloc Devarajan, national president of BJP Rajnath Singh, Lok Sabha MP Hanan Mollah, and Cabinet Secretary Chandrasekhar. Minister of State for the PMO Prithviraj Chavan will meet the Bhopal delegation on 18 April.
Posted by tim at 02:39 PM | Comments (0)
Bhopal gas leak victims step up their campaign in Delhi for justice
New Delhi, Apr 18 (ANI): Victims of the Bhopal gas leak case have stepped up their campaign for justice in New Delhi.
Seeking justice and rehabilitation, the survivors camping have been in the capital for the past few days.
They voiced their dissatisfaction over the promises made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“Earlier, the Prime Minister had accepted our demands, but none of our issues have been resolved. Our first demand is that a special commission should be formed to take care of our medical expenses and the treatment, said Hajri Bi, a protestor.
Also there should be an investigation. Apart from this it should also provide financial assistance to old people, physically challenged and widows like pension. The area should be cleansed and clean water should be made available,” he added.
They also demanded action against the companies like Union Carbide and Dow Chemicals that are responsible for the condition of the victims.
Over 3,500 people died in the days and weeks after toxic fumes spewed out of a pesticide plant in Bhopal on the night of December 2, 1984.
Officials say, nearly 15,000 people have died since then suffering from cancer and other diseases.
Activists claim that the death toll has reached to 33,000 and toxins from thousands of tonnes of chemicals lying in and around the site have seeped into the ground water.
In 1984, Union Carbide had accepted moral responsibility for the tragedy and established a 100 million dollar charitable trust fund to build a hospital for the victims. The company was later taken over by Dow Chemicals.
The company also paid 470 million dollars to the Indian Government in 1989 in a settlement reached after a protracted legal battle. The victims, on an average, received 25,000 rupees in case of illness and 100,000 rupees or so in case of a death in the family.
Michigan-based Dow Chemical says it is not responsible for the clean up as it never owned or operated the plant. The State government owns the abandoned plant. (ANI)
Posted by tim at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2008
Child pens letter in blood to Indian PM about plight of Bhopal gas disaster survivors
Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net, 17 April, 2008
Bhopal: An 11-year old girl Yasmin on Wednesday penned a letter to the Prime Minister of India in blood to get him to meet the long-standing demands of survivors of 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, the world's worst industrial disaster.
The survivors of Bhopal gas tragedy after 38 days of "padyatra" (foot-march) from Bhopal to New Delhi, and 18 days on"dharna" (sit-in) at Jantar Mantar there with no response from the Prime Minister the letter was penned in blood by Yasmin to stir his conscious over their pathetic plight. The blood was drawn from survivors of the 1984 disaster, and those like Yasmin, who are affected by ground-water contamination in Bhopal.
School children hold the banner
The foot-march was organized by three NGOs namely Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha and Bhopal Group for Information and Action working for the survivors of Bhopal disaster.
This letter and letters written by more than 500 children from Delhi and Chennai schools are to be submitted to the Prime Minister's office by a delegation of children. The letters urge the Prime Minister to deliver on promises he made two years ago and do justice in Bhopal.
"Children of Bhopal have the dubious distinction of being victims of two of the world's worst disasters -- one caused by Union Carbide's toxic gases, and the other by the thousands of tons of toxic wastes abandoned by Carbide in Bhopal," said Yasmin. While more than 500,000 people were exposed to the poison gases, at least 25000 – many of whom are not gas victims – are being poisoned by the contaminated groundwater.
Yasmin and other Bhopal children were joined by more than 100 Delhi school children in a rally from Jantar Mantar to Parliament Street in New Delhi to highlight the effects of Union Carbide's poisons on successive generations of children born in water contamination affected areas or to gas-affected parents.
According to Ms Rachna Dhingra of NGO Bhopal Group for Information and Action several studies and expert opinions from doctors confirm that the poison gas from 1984 and the toxins in the ground-water can cross the placental barrier and affect the developing fetus. In the years after the disaster, several scientists reported chromosomal aberrations among gas-exposed people. Such changes in genetic make-up could result in defects manifesting themselves in future generations.
In 1991, the Indian Council for Medical Research abruptly terminated research on the health effects on children born to exposed parents after the disaster. This was despite the fact that the research's Principal Investigator recommended continued monitoring on the basis of findings that confirmed substantial deficits in physical growth and mental development among children born to gas-affected persons, Ms Rachna Dhingra pointed out.
Satinath Sarangi, also of Bhopal Group for Information and Action, said a study published by Sambhavna Trust Clinic in the Journal of American Medical Association in 2003 found that male children born to gas-affected parents were shorter, lighter, thinner and had smaller heads compared to children of un-exposed parents.
Recognizing the spate of birth defects, and physical and mental development disorders among the second generation of the gas exposed, the Supreme Court had, in 1991, ordered that at least 100,000 children born after the disaster should be brought under medical insurance cover. Till date, not one child has been covered, Sarangi added.
Meanwhile, no schemes exist to extend social support to families with children requiring special care. Between 1992 and 1997, 14 children had received official assistance for heart surgery and 13 for diagnosis of congenital brain anomalies, under a program called SPARC (Special Assistance to At Risk Children). But this program was terminated in 1997 citing financial constraints.
A 2002 study by the Fact Finding Mission on Bhopal found trichloroethene and chloroform in the groundwater, and mercury and chloroform in the breast milk of nursing women. All these chemicals can cause birth defects, and have the potential to damage the brain and/or cause cancer. Indeed, out of 65 children examined in a medical camp in December 2006 by Dr. Matthew Varghese of St. Stephens Hospital, New Delhi, 31 children suffered from brain damage. Most were residents of contamination-affected areas, and were brought to the medical camp organized by Chingari Trust. Chingari is a charitable organization set up to provide medical assistance to children with birth defects born to exposed parents by Rashida Bee and Champa Devi with the money they received along with the Goldman Environmental prize in 2004.
"The Government has categorically refused to extend social pension to families with children requiring special care," said Rashida Bee, who is also the president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh, one of the co-organizers of the "padyatra" to Delhi, and the ongoing strike in Jantar Mantar.
According to Bhopal survivors’ organizations, the Government has not allocated any money for care of children affected by the exposure of their parents. "The number of children requiring such care will only grow, given that more than 25,000 Bhopalis have been condemned to drinking toxic water," said Rashida Bee.
Bhopal survivors currently camped out at Jantar Mantar have reportedly said they will not return to Bhopal until the PM declares setting up of an empowered commission for provision of medical, social, economic and environmental rehabilitation to the people poisoned by Union Carbide and their children for the next 30 years. (pervezbari@eth.net)
Posted by tim at 02:53 PM | Comments (0)
A letter in blood to Manmohan
Aarti Dhar, The Hindu, Apr 17, 2008
NEW DELHI: After walking for 38 days from Bhopal to reach New Delhi and staying a fortnight at Jantar Mantar here, Yasmin penned a letter in blood to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The aim: To get Dr. Singh meet gas leak victims and survivors and impress upon him the urgency to keep promises he made two years ago.
The blood for the letter written by the girl on Wednesday was purportedly drawn from the survivors of the 1984 disaster and those like Yasmin affected by groundwater contamination.
The letter is among those written by more than 150 school children from Delhi and Chennai. The children have urged Dr. Singh to spare an hour for the victims and keep his promises.
“Children of Bhopal have been victims of two of the world’s worst disasters — one caused by the Union Carbide’s toxic gases, and the other by the thousands of tonnes of toxic wastes abandoned by the company,” Yasmin told reporters. While more than 5,00,000 people were exposed to the poisonous gases, at least 25,000 — many of whom were not gas victims — were being poisoned by contaminated groundwater, she said.
In the years after the disaster, several scientists reported chromosomal aberrations among the gas-exposed people. Such changes in the genetic make-up could result in defects in future generations. In 1991, the Indian Council for Medical Research abruptly terminated research on the health effects on children born to parents after the disaster. This was despite the ICMR Principal Investigator recommending monitoring on the basis of findings that confirmed substantial growth problems in children.
Posted by tim at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)
Relief measures for Bhopal gas victims reviewed
New Delhi, April 17 (IANS) A group of ministers (GoM) headed by Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh met here Thursday after a gap of three years to review the relief measures for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. “The central government should consider annual allocation of Rs.50 crore (Rs.500 million) to the state government for meeting the health expenses of the gas victims and their rehabilitation or should set up a Rs.600 crore (Rs.6 billion) corpus fund for them,” said Ajay Bishnoi, Madhya Pradesh’s Minister for Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation.
“The last meeting of the GoM held in May 2005 had decided to extend the benefits to residents of more areas of Bhopal. It is yet to be implemented,” he told reporters after the meeting at the Madhya Pradesh Bhawan here.
Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Ram Vilas Paswan, Labour and Employment Minister Oscar Fernandes, and Madhya Pradesh Minister Ajay Bishnoi participated in the meeting.
The central government July 9, 2004 set up the GoM to monitor and implement the relief and rehabilitation measures for the victims.
The disaster occurred on the intervening night of Dec 2-3, 1984, when over 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate and other poisonous gases spewed out of Union Carbide’s subsidiary pesticide plant in Bhopal, killing approximately 3,800 people instantly.
The incident, one of the world’s worst industrial disasters, left thousands suffering from chronic exposure. Contaminated groundwater around the plant area still continues to affect public health. Over 15,000 people have died since.
Over 100 school kids Wednesday participated in a rally here in support of the gas tragedy survivors who marched from Bhopal to Delhi, demanding rehabilitation and compensation for them and their children.
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April 16, 2008
Delhi school kids march for Bhopal gas tragedy victims
New Delhi, April 16 (IANS) Over 100 school kids participated in a rally here Wednesday in support of the Bhopal gas tragedy survivors who marched from Bhopal to Delhi, demanding rehabilitation and compensation for them and their children. Echoing the marchers’ demands for an empowered commission to provide medical, social, economic and environmental rehabilitation to those who have suffered since the 1984 tragedy, the children took the march from Jantar Mantar to Parliament Street in the heart of the capital.
“We had all heard of the Bhopal gas tragedy. But after hearing the tales from the people themselves, especially from children, we feel strongly for their cause,” said Raghav Sharma, a student of Shri Ram school.
The tragedy dates back to Dec 3, 1984, when a Union Carbide subsidiary pesticide plant in Bhopal released 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate gas, killing approximately 3,800 people.
The incident, known as one of the world’s worst industrial disasters, left hundreds of thousands suffering from chronic exposure. Contaminated groundwater around the plant area still continues to infect people with various diseases.
Of the 50 people who took the month-long Bhopal-Delhi march or padyatra of 800 km, five were children.
Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action said the kids who participated in the march were 11-year-olds.
“The marchers, including the children, have just one demand - that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh keep his promises that he made to the people of Bhopal when they took a similar march two years back,” Dhingra told IANS.
Yasmin, one of the 11-year-old marchers, has written a letter to the prime minister in blood, urging him to keep his promises.
“Children of Bhopal are victims of two of the world’s worst disasters. One was caused by the Union Carbide’s toxic gases and the other by the water that is still contaminated due to the tragedy,” Yasmin said.
This letter, along with others echoing similar sentiments and written by school students of Delhi and Chennai, will be submitted to Manmohan Singh by a delegation of children.
The marchers submitted a letter earlier to the prime minister with 20 questions. These include queries like what measures have been taken to ensure medical care to victims of the tragedy and why the government has not taken any steps to prosecute Union Carbide?
Students of the Shri Ram School, Tagore International School and Blue Bells School were among those who participated in the rally.
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April 14, 2008
Activists protest highlighting issues of Bhopal gas victims
Trading Markets, April 14, 2008
New York, Apr 12, 2008 -- Several activist groups led by Amnesty International have held a demonstration here demanding measures by the Indian government to address issues concerning to the victims of 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
More one hundred activists and around 50 activist groups protested outside the Indian Consulate here yesterday and called for constitution of a special commission to look into matters like rehabilitation of the victims and quick legal action against Union Carbide and Dow Chemical.
Several thousand people were killed and injured when toxic methyl isocyanate gas was released from the Union Carbide plant on Dec 3, 1984.
Union Carbide has since been bought by Dow Chemicals and activists say the buyer has the same liability as the original company.
The organisers collected over 1000 signatures on a petition addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, accusing the government of not fulfilling the promises made to the victims two years ago when they organised a protest march from Bhopal to New Delhi, covering nearly 800 kilometers.
"In contrast, over the two years, your office has worked hard to clear a path for Dow Chemical in India. Though Union Carbide is criminal fugitive in India, your government has approved Dow's sale of Carbide Technology to Reliance Industries," the petition said.
The protesters also demanded cancellation of the approval given to Reliance to "purchase" Union Carbide's technology, "aggressively" hold Dow Chemical responsible for clean up of toxic areas in Bhopal and annul registration of four pesticide plants that Dow obtained licenses for by "paying bribes."
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April 12, 2008
Bhopal tragedy: Students protest in NY
Lalit K Jha, NDTV, April 12, 2008
New York -- The ghost of Bhopal gas tragedy, which killed thousands of people on the morning of December 3, 1984 refuses to die down.
A group of about 100 students from various universities in and around New York on Friday held a peaceful demonstration outside the Indian Consulate demanding the Indian Government for speedy justice to the victims of the tragic Bhopal disaster.
These students, members of the Amnesty International US Chapter, had identified Bhopal gas disaster as one of the five global hotspots for continued human rights violations for their ''Get on The Bus'' campaign this year. The other hot spots being; Burma, Sri Lanka, Darfur and Libya.
Displaying placards and banners and chanting slogans, these students said they are outraged at the mistreatment and neglect of Bhopal's survivors. As such they demanded that the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh should immediately meet the victims of the Bhopal disaster who have just concluded their second march to New Delhi.
''The Prime Minister refuses to meet them. On the other hand his Government has worked to clear the paths for the re-entry of Dow Chemicals in the country,'' Emily Setton, spokesperson for the protestors told NDTV.com.
Following the peaceful protest - that lasted about 40 minutes - a delegation of the demonstrators met officials of the Indian Consulate to submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister, Setton said.
Signed by some 800 students, the memorandum said: ''Though Union Carbide is a criminal fugitive in India, your government has approved Dow's sale of Carbide technology to Reliance Industries.''
As such students demanded this be cancelled by his Government.
''The Government should pursue the extradition of Warren Anderson and Union Carbide Corporation's representatives; work aggressively to hold Dow liable for clean-up in Bhopal; and cancel registration of the four pesticides that Dow obtained for by paying bribes,'' they demanded.
These students said their protest demonstration outside the Indian consulate was to show their solidarity and support to the survivors of the Bhopal tragedy, who are yet to get justice more than 23 years after the tragic incident.
Setton said Bhopal tragedy was selected by the students as one of the five issues for their campaign because they believe it is a watershed event for efforts to hold corporations and governments accountable for the consequences of their actions on people and the environment.
Signatories to the memorandum said they support the demands of the Bhopal victims for a special commission to address economic, medical, social and environmental rehabilitation and oversee the speedy provision of clean and free drinking water.
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April 01, 2008
Air, Water, Earth And The Sins Of The Powerful
Raghu Karnad, Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 13, Dated April 5, 2008
The factory that killed 15,000 in 1984 is still poisoning new victims. As survivors march to Delhi, RAGHU KARNAD tells the chilling story of Bhopal's ongoing disaster
THERE IS a face of our democracy that you only see when you follow a 60-year-old woman marching 800 kilometres on swollen knees. That is the distance fromBhopal to Delhi, and she hopes that if she walks for a month, instead of taking the overnight train, she will remind Delhi about something in Bhopal. Not that the gas that leaked from the Union Carbide factory on December 2, 1984, killed 15,000 people. That is world history; that is not why she is marching. Some people remember that the five lakh Bhopalis who survived that night had their bodies ruined. This explains her swollen knees, her painful lungs, the sudden dizziness that occasionally drops her onto the roadside.
Fewer people heard that after being denied a hearing in court, after being denied a humane compensation, the gas peedith are spending their lives being denied medical care they were supposed to receive, being denied jobs they were trained to do, being denied justice. But there is another reason she is marching. Almost nobody ever heard that the factory which leaked poison into the air in 1984 [see box: The Story of that Night] has been leaking it, constantly, into the soil and water ever since.
For 23 years, the chemicals that went into Carbide's pesticide process have been ignored, left to leach into the groundwater. That groundwater feeds tubewells and handpumps from which 25,000 people in neighbouring areas drink. Most of these people were nowhere near the gas leak on December 2. They belong to a new category of victims, the paani peedith, and every year their numbers and their toxicity symptoms increase. Their existence is being denied altoget her. Everyone knows the Union Carbide gas leak killed more than 15,000 people. Almost nobody has heard that the killing never stopped. That is why the woman is marching.
HOPE AND FUTILITY: March 16, 2008. Padyatris rest at a school in Farah, after a 28 kilometer trek from Agra. The marchers are aged between 11 and 82
AS YOU READ this, 50 padyatris between the ages of 11 and 82 will be entering New Delhi. For a month, they have been hitting the highway at 5 am, marching until the sun burns the neck like a rash, breaking for a nap, then marching again until Delhi is 25 km nearer. They've been sleeping in school houses, wedding halls, open fields. Most are in ill-health from exposure to toxic gas or water: what keeps them going is sweet tea in the morning, painkillers at night and a fierce desire to hold their Prime Minister to account. This is not the first time they have made the padyatra: it is a Bhopal survivors' tradition. In 2006, a group marched to Delhi and presented their demands to Manmohan Singh.
In essence, the demands were: provide support to the survivors. Clean up the toxic waste at the plant. Give water to the communities whose water it has poisoned. Take legal action against Dow Chemicals, which bought over Union Carbide in 2001. They say the Prime Minister nodded as they read out the first three, and when they reached the fourth, he placed his hands over his ears. He would not endorse any bans or any arrangements for the special prosecution of Dow. Many of the padyatris from 2006 are marching again this year, to remind him of those promises.
There has been a little progress on the first three demands – not much, but enough to put the survivors' movement on its strongest footing in years. But as it turned out, that fourth demand is a wedge under the door. Ever since 2001, Dow Chemicals has maintained that while it acquired Carbide's assets, it did not inherit its liabilities. The survivors are det ermined to see Dow held to account. The Cen tre is determined to see it let off. For two years, the tangled question of Dow's liability has ensnarled progress on every other front.
NATHIBAI, HER HUSBAND and their three-year-old son Sonu left their village in 1990 and moved to Atal Ayub Nagar. This mohalla presses up against the wall of a dilapidated factory, and terrible stories about what had happened there were repeated to Nathibai often. Many of her neighbours were gas peedith – survivors of that night – their lives were pitiful, wasted waiting in lines at the hospitals. The factory still looked desolate, perhaps haunted, but the compound was full of ponds and birdsong.
IT WAS two years before Sonu began having problems. He never learnt to talk, and although he continued to grow, he became uncontrolled and erratic. His mind was regressing; he droo led and was incontinent. Today he is 21, but mentally still an infant. Nathibai is around 50, but looks two decades older. She can never leave Sonu alone. Some times he becomes violent, striking and scratching her. Doctors never explained what was wrong. Something was poisoning the community.
Children who had been healthy for years developed neurological conditions, even regres sed into mental disability. New borns had low birthweight, grew too slowly, suffered from cerebral palsy and deformities. Healthy children began to behave in frighteningly abnormal ways, with disorders like Pica: com pulsively eating mud, faeces, bone, even glass. People who had never been near the gas found their families beginning to sicken, and sometimes die. In two wards – 18 communities– there was a slow escalation of the rate of anaemia, skin disease and cancer. Girls in their late teens had not started menstruating and women in their mid-thirties had stopped. Entire communities sagged under fatigue, nausea and bodily pain. 'Now people here just stay ill constantly,' Nathibai says, 'There is no respite.'
WILDFLOWERS GROW INSIDE the Union Carbide compound; palash trees are in full bloom and look like dynamite suspended mid-explosion.Cowherds graze cattle on the thick brush until guards come by and threaten them. The rust monsters tower above this pastoral scene, skeletal arrangements of girders, inscrutable valves, disembowelled regulators and long, long intestines of rusted piping. Nostril-singeing chemicals cling to the machinery, especially the huge, corroded storage vats in the processing plant. In the summer, says the guard, the wind blows a stinging scent through their quarters. They develop headaches, and become dizzy on their rounds. He knows the word – dichlorobenzene – even though he was never warned about toxicity when first posted here. He hustles us on, 'It is not good to stay here long.' An hour wandering through the buildings leaves you swooning like a seven-year-old smoking a cigarette.
GROUND ZERO: The cobwebbed, cluttered floor of the Union Carbide laboratory is symbolic of 23 years of criminal evasion. 386 tonnes of deadly chemical waste still lie in sacks in the factory premise. Outside, a toxic landfill, seeps its poisons into the groundwater. But a state commissioned survey declared the groundwater safe for drinking
THREE YEARS ago, all the visible toxic material scattered around the premises was gathered together in one vast warehouse. The guard teases we won't find what we're looking for – it's all been locked up. But he leads us to the building and to a peep-hole in the wall. Hidden under tarpaulin sheets, sackfuls of chemicals are heaped like haystacks, one heap after another, as far as the eye can see in the dim interior light. In any case, the guard is wrong. There is a barren field in the north-east corner, from where you can throw a stone in three directions and hit someone's jhuggi. This is where, in the mid-90s, Carbide made a landfill for the industrial residue excavated from their solar evaporation ponds. It was buried and soil was bulldozed on top.
Today a depression has formed in the earth, where toxic tar is creeping back to the surface. It looks gratifyingly evil, like a small prehistoric tar pit, reliquified and shimmering in the March sun. It is not shallow – place a large rock in the puddle and it is slowly swallowed, until the tar closes over it like a mouth. How is it possible that Ground Zero of the worst industrial disaster in history was left so vividly and potently contaminated?
After 1984, the Carbide management had only one thing on its mind: to get out of India before its liability was fully calculated. This required them, on the one hand, to restrict proof of the extent of damage and, on the other, to unload assets as fast as possible. They did both ruthlessly. For example, Carbide refused to disclose proprietary research that would help doctors understand the physiological effects of gas exposure and treat victims. It disrupted independent research on drugs like sodium thiosulphate, which would have helped detoxify victims but would also have proved that the gas entered the bloodstream and caused multiple- organ damage.
The Indian Council of Medical Research began a study on the impact of the gas on the next generation – this was mysteriously cancelled when results began to point to extreme damage. Satinath Sarangi, 54, is one of the principal leaders of the Bhopal survivors' movement. He abandoned a doctorate in metallurgy at Benares Hindu University to arrive in Bhopal the day after the gas leak. He co-founded the clinic that ran the improvised sodium thiosulphate trials –
until it was raided by the police and every single datasheet confiscated. Today, by compulsion, he is a self-trained physician, lawyer and detective.
TOUGH KNIGHT: Satinath Sarangi, now 54, heard about the gas leak and reached Bhopal in two days. He has stayed for 23 years as one of the principal leaders of the survivors’ movement, and has often been arrested and beaten by the police for his campaigning
'Carbide had the best emergency response you could imagine for bringing down the appearance of damage,' Sarangi says. 'It was like there was a Department of Dirty Deeds dedicated to this, a system in readiness – and it involved scientists and researchers, which makes it seem even more evil.' Sarangi can spend hourslisting the ways the company co-opted the government to suppress evidence of damage. 'First it happened with the gas deaths, then with the gas injuries, now with the contamination.' Carbide was relieved of all civil liabilities after paying a $470 million settlement – leaving each bereaved family with Rs 63,000, and each injured person with Rs 25,000. Warren Anderson, Carbide's CEO, could not be extradited, so their criminal liabilities were immaterial.
WHAT THAT left was the actual factory site. A month after the gas leak, the gates were padlocked, the factory abandoned in suspended animation. The dial for tank E-610, which had released the lethal methyl isocyanate (MIC), stayed stuck on Overload. All the chemical ingredients of Sevin, the pesticide end-product, stayed exactly where they had been that night – in warehouses full of iron drums and sacks, inside the pipes and the tanks of the actual plant. Residual waste sat in solar evaporation ponds. For a decade, only time touched the factory: the sacks ruptured and the pipes corroded, loosing the chemicals onto the ground.
Pesticide is a form of poison, so it should come as no surprise that its ingredients, like MIC, were highly toxic: mercury, dichlorobenzene, hexachlorocyclohexanes, lead. On nights of heavy rain, the factory became a toxic marsh. The land had been given to Carbide on lease by the state government; in order to relinquish it,Carbide needed the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) to certify the land was not contaminated. In 1989, and then again in 1994, the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) of Nagpur was asked to measure soil and water contamination.
Carbide had been privately testing their own samples, and found high levels of naphthol and Sevin. But NEERI's reports summarily acquitted Carbide. It said the soil in the area was clayey and impermeable, and would keep contaminants from reaching the groundwater table for at least 23 years. It declared that 'the water meets the drinking water quality criteria.' This was such cavalier logic that even Carbide's consultant, Arthur D. Little (ADL), found it insupportable. In a private response to NEERI, they urged: 'The sentence 'The groundwater appears to be suitable for drinking purposes' is too strong,' and, 'The conclusions regarding travel time to the water may significantly underestimate the potential for contamination… clay is only present to a depth of 6.1 meters… The worst case scenario travel time would be 2 years.' But NEERI's final report included none of ADL's revisions.
The MPPCB, a body so corrupt it was fired en masse three years later and its chairman arrested, looked at the flimsy report and discharged Carbide's lease: the land became the problem of the Madhya Pradesh government. Since then, the NEERI report has been the touchstone for both Carbide and government officials. Both use it as proof that there is no groundwater contamination, or if there is, it is not on account of the factory waste. They steadfastly ignored the multiple studies that found contamination present and growing – that was to be expected from pesky activist groups like the Boston-based Citizens' Environmental Laboratory and Greenpeace. In 2002, the Delhibased Srishti environmental research group found heavy metals, the pesticide HCH-BHC and volatile organic compounds (such as dichlorobenzene) in samples of soil, groundwater, vegetables and breastmilk collected in the areas. But the NEERI report overrode all contrary indications. The issue of cleaning up was mothballed. The official response became: of course, people in these areas are sick. The poor always are.
THERE WAS little urgency for the first 20 years about planning the 'site remediation'. According to Digvijay Singh, the CM of Madhya Pradesh from 1993 to 2003, the main issue during that span was funding.'There were very few experts, and the foreign firms we contacted wanted to charge 30 million dollars.' Singh also believes that the contamination issue 'is being played up by activist groups for publicity and funds.' Scepticism persists among the state officerswhose support matters most.
Ajay Vishnoi, the BJP Minister of Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation, denies the contamination firmly. 'A total survey has just been conducted, but it has not been announced yet. What has been reported to us is that there is no contamination of the groundwater in any of the tubewells in those areas,' he said, adding, 'beyond tolerable limits.' Arif Aqeel, the former Minister of Gas Tragedy Relief, has an even slicker response to claims of water contamination. 'While I was the Minister, the locals were complaining. They asked me to come drink the water myself,' he says, chuckling, 'I asked, this water is bad? And I drank two glasses right in front of the entire media, in front of the public. If there had been something wrong with it, I'd also have had the problem – but nothing happened at all.' Sarangi was there to watch Aqeel drink the water. He swears in all seriousness that the Gas Minister excused himself straight away, went around back and vomited it.
OUT OF THE factory gates, and a few minutes later we are in Atal Ayub Nagar, across the wall from the tarpit. It is one of 18 communities ranged around the factory's northern perimeter, collectively home to 25,000 people. Ninety percent of residents, including Nathibai's family, draw water from its wells. It tasted like phenyl was mixed into it, and often it had an oily sheen.'But what other water was there?' Nathibai explains,'Eventually we stopped tasting it.'
It is eerie to be a visitor in a community of illness. The adults suffer diseases that are mostly internal and invisible. Some, from foot to knee and hand to elbow, have skin that burns and is cracked so deep it bleeds. But the horror is what has happened to the young: every alley has households with children with developmental problems – like five-year-old Amit, who cannot walk or talk and whose parents are still praying; older ones, like 32-year-old Munni Bai, who was a normal teenager before 'her mind was lost.' She can no longer feed herself.
ONLY IN the last few years have state officials been compelled to acknowledge that this is happening. At first, all that happened was that workers came through, painted the hand-pumps red, painted – 'Paani peene yogya nahi hai' – and left. In 2004, the recalcitrant MPPCB admitted it had found pesticide in water-samples from around the plant. IIT Kanpur found high concentrations of endosulphan in the breast milk of mothers. The same year, acting on a contamination report from its monitoring committee, the Supreme Court directed the state government to provide clean drinking water to the contaminated areas.
Fourteen crores were allocated to pipe water in from the Kolar reservoir; in none of these areas has that arrived, but some are serviced by tankers or water piped from the Rasla Kheri bypass. The day we visited Annu Nagar, the Rasla Kheri water was cloudy pink. Where the tankers go, each family receives less than four litres per day. On days when the pipes are empty or the tankers missing, residents return to their handpumps, and mothers urge their children not to drink. As we crossed from Atal Ayub Nagar to Annu Nagar, we passed a child pissing on the railway track, his urine almost orange.
THE LONG MARCH: Chote Khan, 67, has lost his mother and two grandchildren to the Carbide disaster. Both he and his wife suffer from acute dizziness. Yet, he believes the yatra will yield some result
EARLIER THIS YEAR, VS Sampath, secretary, Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals as well as Chair of the Central Task Force on Bhopal, addressed a CII conference. In his speech, he said that India needs to attract Rs 80,000 crore of investment in the petrochemical sector. Sampath refused to be interviewed for this story. But one could guess that he does not consider this a good time to antagonise the world's second-largest chemical manufacturer. On the contrary, the government has been most patient with Dow's errors. For example, last year Dow disclosed that its Indian subsidiary, DE-Nocil, had slipped more than Rs 80 lakh under the table to Indian officials to get approval for three pesticide products – including one called Dursban. Local people were charged with bribery and criminal conspiracy, but no action was ever taken to revoke the product approval.
Dursban was banned in the United States in 2000, after it was found that exposure to it caused headaches, vomiting, and diarrhoea, and risked permanent neurological damage to children. It is still manufactured and sold here. Dow has already begun investing in major new projects, including an R&D facility in Shinde-Vasuli in Maharashtra, where it is already embroiled in controversy. Civil society groups claim it concealed information about 20 hazardous chemicals it would manufacture at the plant. Last month, the residents of Shinde- Vasuli dug up their own roads to keep out Dow's construction teams.
IT WAS A SMALL, upstart motion that finally gave the issue of site remediation a shot in the arm. In 2004, a PIL filed in the Jabalpur High Court requested that the Court direct the government to get on with the clean-up. The Court's proactive instructions in this case had two effects: they threw a new momentum behind the survivors' efforts to haul Dow back into the picture. They also revealed the Central government's determination to keep Dow out of it. Among the Court's first actions, it directed the formation of a Central government Task Force to implement the clean-up. To advise it, the Court constituted a Technical Sub-Committee, which included the eminent biologist PM Bhargava.
When the Sub-Committee drew up a list of recommendations, the topmost was that Dow be made responsible for taking the surface waste and contaminated soil out of country for disposal; and that it should pay for the long-term decontamination of the water, which might take upto 20 years. This was endorsed unanimously.'My strong view is that there is simply no alternative to Dow doing this,' Bhargava says. 'No one in this country has the expertise to evaluate the waste, and we have no capacity to incinerate waste of this kind and quantity. Besides, the principle is simple – the polluter pays.'
Mysteriously, when the minutes of the meeting were presented to the Task Force, the suggestion involving Dow had fallen from first to last in the order. The Task Force ignored it, preferring instead a proposal to incinerate some of the waste at an industrial incinerator in Ankleshwar, Gujarat, and to bury the remainder in a sealed tank in Pitampur, MP. Preparations for this went ahead full-steam until the end of last year, when the Gujarat Pollution Control Board took stock of its facility and suddenly refused to participate. 'It's very clear that the government isn't interested in Dow's responsibility,' Bhargava says, 'but the incineration in Gujarat could have been another disaster.'
The Gujarat PCB's rejection has not yet sunk in – in Bhopal and in Delhi, officers insist the plan is moving ahead. There has been no talk of an alternative. The Jabalpur High Court put in motion another chain of events, which again revealed that on questions of Dow's liability, the government had its hands over its ears. This time its soft spot for Dow was not just the Central Insecticides Board or the Task Force on Bhopal. It was the most powerful men on the Union Cabinet. When Alok Pratap's PIL was registered, Dow found, to their horror, that they had been named as one of the respondents. This was the first time since their acquisition of Union Carbide that Dow had been impleaded in a case relating to Bhopal.
To represent them, they secured the services of Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the Congress Party spokesperson. The High Court was restless to see action on the clean-up front – but who was going to pay? To general surprise, in an application in May 2005, the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers (MoCF) coolly suggested that Dow pay the government an advance amount of Rs 100 crore. Work could then begin. They could pay the difference afterwards.
THIS WAS exactly the kind of payment against which, for years, Dow had barricaded itself with deadly seriousness. "' We all ask the same question: 'Why isn't this site cleaned up?' "says Dow's spokesperson Scot Wheeler. 'As owners of the site, it is the government of Madhya Pradesh that has the ability and, more importantly, the authority to clean up the site.' Ever since it bought out Carbide, Dow has emphasised that it never owned or operated the Bhopal plant. 'Union Carbide Corporation had stopped doing business in India long before Dow acquired UCC's shares in 2001,' says Wheeler. 'UCC remains a separate company, which manages its own liabilities.'
In the United States, however, barely a year after completing the acquisition, Dow settled an asbestos-related lawsuit that had been filed against Union Carbide in Texas. The MoCF proposition was a nightmare sprung to life – not because Dow, which made Rs 11,600 crore in profits last year, was daunted by a pay-out of Rs 100 crore, but because of the precedent such a payment would set. What might litigants expect them to pay for once their gates of liability were cracked open? For further clean-up costs, if the Rs 100 crore were to fall short?
Last year Yashveer Singh, the officer incharge of the MoCF Bhopal wing, guessed that final costs might reach Rs 500 crore. What if Dow were asked to pay compensation and medical expenses for the victims of the groundwater contamination? Where might it end? It was time for lateral thinking. The MoCF was dragging Dow into the harsh light of liability because it needed the money. If the money could somehow be arranged, the MoCF would relent and Dow would be back in the clear. Dow made its move around the time of the high-powered US-India CEO Forum in New York, in October 2006. The Forum, a bilateral government initiative to encourage trade and investment, is co-chaired by Ratan Tata, the benevolent giant of Indian business. Dow CEO Andrew Liveris was a member as well.
On July 9, months before the Forum began, Tata wrote to Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, about resolving the'legacy issues' of Bhopal. In his letter to the FM, he made a striking offer: 'We should be concerned about the lack of action on remediation of the old Union Carbide disaster site… I believe that responsible corporates in the private sector and in the public sector might be willing to contribute to this initiative in the national interest and Tatas would be willing to spearhead and contribute to such an exercise.'
At the Forum, Dow held a meeting to discuss its liability problem. Afterwards, Ratan Tata resumed the correspondence. In another letter from him to MS Ahlu walia, copied to the PMO:'It is critical for [Dow] to have the MoCF withdraw their application for a financial deposit by Dow against the remediation cost, as that application implies that the GoI views Dow as liable in the Bhopal Gas Disaster case… My offer for the Tatas to lead and find funding… still stands. Perhaps it could break the deadlock?'
The Cabinet leapt at Tata's overture. Chidambaram gave his support. So did Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi. MS Ahluwalia said: 'The Chairman of Dow indicated that they would be willing to contribute to such an effort voluntarily, but not under the cloud of legal liability.' Minister of Commerce & Industry Kamal Nath came right out with it: 'While I would not like to comment on whether Dow has a legal responsibility or not, as it is for the courts to decide, with a view to sending an appropriate signal to Dow Chemicals, which is exploring investing substantially in India, and to the American business community, I would urge that a group... look at this matter in a holistic manner.' The idea quickly fizzled out after the press and activist groups caught wind of it.
By January 2007, the Tatas were playing defence. They released a statement regretting the 'considerable misalignment and misunderstanding' of Tata's offer, which was 'no different from any public-spirited initiative to clean a polluted river or a site damaged by some abnormal phenomenon.' The Tatas' reputation for philanthropy did not incline the survivors to believe in Ratan Tata's public spiritedness. In their eyes, Tata's corporate responsibility only arrived in time to relieve Dow's corporate liability. A clearer picture never emerged about what motivated Ratan Tata to offer his shareholders' money to clean up the Carbide site – and to enable Dow to contribute voluntarily to a cost it might have to pay involuntarily if the court finds it liable. But it was made quite clear that key Cabinet Ministers are ready to work to keep Dow out of trouble in the 'holistic' interest, even to the extent of helping it evade judicial process.
If a national economy could accept a bribe, this is what it would look like. Then again, would it be so terrible if somebody else cleaned up the plant? At this point, many officials say, the survivors are their own worst enemies. Their desire to see Dow's atonement is limiting the scope for quicker alternative solutions. Ratan Tata's consortium might have begun the clean up already. Arif Aqeel has ideas about why the survivors pursue Dow, even though it prolongs their poisoning.'What I'm saying is clean it up! Let Dow do it, let the Indian government do it, let a foreign country come and do it,' he says. 'But once the chemicals are gone, certain leaders will be unemployed, they won't have anything to do without their zindabad-murdabad.' The government wrings its hands and says the same – why are they making this so difficult?
GATHERING FORCE: Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Purush Sangarsh Morcha — one of the three leading groups fighting for survivors’ rights —meets every Wednesday in a warehouse across the road from the Union Carbide factory. It is no easy task to keep a fight going for 23 long years
The answer to that depends on another question: who are these people? Two views contend. Either they are the typical poor: exploited and misled, as always, but this time by activist leaders who are careerists or ideologues. Or, they arepeople in whom tragedy and poverty, and also education and leadership, have realised a potential for participatory citizenship. Survivors talk about 'moral responsibility' less often than the media makes it seem. More often, they talk about deterrence – making sure Bhopal never happens again.
Their insistence on Dow's liability is not vindictive; it is to ensure that their own personal justice becomes a precedent for wider justice. Jabbar Khan, who is marching with his daughters, says: 'If Dow is let off now, it will go somewhere else in the country and Bhopal will be repeated. We don't just want to be paid off. We want justice to be done. Even if we have to wait another 20 years.' Many of the survivors, whether or not they articulate it this way, are insisting on corporate and industrial liability.
That is why they have allied with other groups – mercury survivors from Cuddalore, Endosulphan survivors from Kasargode – people even more obscure and powerless than them. Some of the marchers – like 82-year-old Shantha Bai, who marches with her sari hitched up above her sneakers, and with a pace so fierce they call her the Bhopal Express – may not survive to see vindication even if it comes. Their fight stopped being about personal recompense a long time ago. To a great extent it is about the lives of their children, and their children's children. There is also a whole country to be saved from contaminated lives.
As you read this, the padyatris will have entered Delhi, carrying 20 questions to put to their Prime Minister. They can anticipate what his answers will be. Reaching Delhi may not mean the end of their road. But neither will it mean the end of their tether. If your swollen knees have carried you 800 kilometres, they will not fail you when it is time to stand your ground.
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 13, Dated April 5, 2008
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