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August 17, 2006

Oh little brother

BY TERRY ALLAN, AUGUST 10, 2006

I first met Sunil in early 1988, three years after the gas disaster. I was with a friend and we were trying to find an activist named Sathyu who lived in JP Nagar. We started asking around and this gang of young boys appeared and offered to get him for us. Sunil was one of the gang. He must have been about 15 at the time. Later when we met Sathyu we heard that Sunil had lost most of his family and was bringing up his younger sister and baby brother, who had also survived, on his own. Sunil was hanging around while we talked. He was curious but shy, listening and interjecting bits to fill in the stories that Sathyu was telling us about the Bhopalis’ struggles to get compensation and health care from Union Carbide. These were the years before the sell-out settlement was reached, when the citizens were trying to set up their own health clinics only to have them raided and destroyed by the government. Sunil was there, on the front lines. He laid the symbolic foundation stone of the first People’s Clinic (it was made of poles, thatch, and scrap materials) on the grounds of the abandoned factory. He was marching in protests, organizing, and trying to scratch up enough to sustain himself, his brother and sister. When you lose everything, you grow up fast, but in so many ways Sunil was still a child. Sathyu worried about Sunil and kept a close watch on him. He often talked about killing himself and fell into deep depressions.

Sunil with torch leads the march at an anniversary commemoration

My heart went out to Sunil that day. His eyes revealed his kind heart and open soul. I wanted to hug him tightly like a big sister, but he was too shy.

I visited Bhopal many years later in 1999. I met Sunil again. Now a grown young man, Sunil had struggled with his mental health and fits of depression. He couldn’t hold down a job, but was active doing various things for the fledgling Sambhavna Clinic. He had attempted suicide a number of times. Sathyu tried to find help for him, but it wasn’t easy. The government never recognized mental health problems as one of the effects of the gas disaster, so there was no counseling or psychiatric help available. During especially difficult times Sunil lived with Sathyu, who kept him close and involved and loved him like a big brother.

Sunil carries the fight "Against Corporate Crime and Toxic Terror

In 2002, I returned to Bhopal again to stay for three years. I was helping Sambhavna set up a garden to grow herbs for its Ayurvedic medicines. Sunil was as sweet and shy as ever, proud of small accomplishments, and often made fun of himself. Sambhavna had affiliated with a psychiatrist and Sunil was under care for paranoid schizophrenia. The drugs made him spacey, and sometimes he would stop taking them and fall into a deep depression. After one such bout we convinced him to come out of hiding and join the garden crew. He helped us in the garden for a good three months and seemed to improve quite a bit. He enjoyed the companionship, but could also work off by himself when he was feeling overwhelmed. He always hummed a tuneless song, to quiet the voices in his head, and sighed “oohh Ma”. He chewed betel nut and tobacco constantly, and would proudly display the brown mouth lesions that arose from this heavy habit. He often joked that he was now immune to any chemical poisons or toxins the world could throw at him. A year later, after an attempt to kill himself by eating rat poison, he commented that “Rat poison tastes sweet”.

Sunil working in the Sambhavna garden

Most days withdrawn, Sunil would suddenly light up, eager to tell his story to a journalist or writer. He always had the most deeply insightful things to say about the whole Bhopal struggle, and the daily lives of survivors. But it might take days for him to recover from an interview, from the memories. And then he would worry self-consciously about what would be written about him.

If Sunil was careless for himself, he was full of love for his friends and small family. He loved playing with young children, and had an idea that he wanted to raise puppies. He was immensely proud of his younger brother Sanjay, who has grown up into a fine young man and is doing very well in his studies. And his sister is married and living in Lucknow with her young family. Perhaps he felt that his responsibilities were fulfilled.

Sunil, you were the thread that tied me to Bhopal all of these years. Despite your discomfort, I hugged you as often as I could these past three years, and was rewarded with your shy smile and embarrassed blush. You survived the disaster and the poisons, but you couldn’t survive yourself. Oh little brother! now I need to hug you and cry on your shoulder, for all of us. I will love you forever and never forget you. Oh little brother, I hope you have finally found your peace. Oh little brother.

Posted by bhola at 12:19 AM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2006

Bhopal activist dies with broken dreams

K S SHAINI, BBC NEWS, AUGUST 17, 2006

Sunil Kumar Verma, 34, was found hanging from the ceiling of his modest home in Bhopal, the capital of India's Madhya Pradesh state, on the evening of 26 July.

He was wearing his favourite T-shirt. It said in bold relief "No more Bhopals".

Sunil was a survivor of the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak - and a victim, suffering serious mental illness in the 16 years since the disaster.

The end came without him realising his dream of seeing anyone brought to justice over the world's worst industrial accident.

Satyanath Sarangi, president of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA) and a close friend, says that Sunil felt strongly that people responsible for the gas disaster should be punished.

In an interview in 1985, Sunil said: "The people must know who was responsible for the gas disaster - who killed their loved ones?

And those who are found responsible must be hanged. What is the use of all the money if those who have killed so many go scot-free?"

No one had faced trial over the leak by the time Sunil hanged himself.

Difficult survival

Born in Bhopal in 1972, the son of a carpenter, Sunil was living with his family in JP Nagar, just across from the plant run by Union Carbide, now a subsidiary of Dow Chemicals, when the gas leak occurred.

They all escaped in panic as the poisonous cloud of methyl isocyanate gas descended on the slum settlement in Madhya Pradesh's state capital in the middle of the freezing night.

All the family members got separated. With his eyes burning and his chest exploding with pain, Sunil managed to board a bus that took him to Hoshangabad, about 70km away.

He lost consciousness and was taken to the district hospital.

He returned to Bhopal a week later to find both his parents, three sisters and two brothers dead.

His younger siblings, a sister aged 10 and a brother of two-and-half, were the only survivors. The 13-year-old Sunil was now the head of the family.

Some relatives took the children to Lucknow but soon the initial sympathy of the relatives wore off and they faced regular abuse.

The three came back to their home in Bhopal and survived on the generosity of their neighbours, who were mostly Muslims.

Relentless campaigner

Sunil's sister and brother moved to the SOS village - a shelter set up by a charity to house orphans of the gas tragedy - while Sunil began his struggle for survival.

Sunil Kumar Verma campaigning for Bhopal gas victims
Sunil started campaigning for victims' rights from a young age

He managed to study into his mid teens and his home soon became a safe haven for children who were physically abused by parents and orphans of the tragedy.

Sunil would open the philosophical discussion saying, "Is it better to have parents that beat you, or to have no parents at all?" says Mr Sarangi, remembering Sunil's strong views.

At the age of 13, Sunil got involved in campaigning for the rights of gas victims. In 1987, he formed "Children Against Carbide", which got together orphans and youngsters affected by the disaster.

In 1986 Sunil, a petitioner in the Bhopal civil suit, was sent to New York by the Indian government to the US to testify in the gas tragedy case before Judge John Keenan.

He also attended every anniversary rally of the tragedy, even when his condition worsened, said Mr Sarangi.

Generous friend

In 1989 Sunil toured the world to garner support against the settlement agreed between the Indian Government and Union Carbide.

He was arrested in Houston for trying to deliver an environmental report during Union Carbide's annual meeting. He was released after hundreds of people called the city's mayor to protest against his arrest .

He also toured India, speaking for those in need. Sunil, along with orphans of the tragedy, sat on a hunger strike in Bhopal for six days in 2003, demanding the jobs promised by the government for survivors of the tragedy.

Although Sunil earned money in small lending and retailing ventures but was known for his generosity, says Shahid Noor, Sunil's friend.

"When the government finally granted him a house as part of a gas relief scheme, he gifted his home in JP Nagar, free of cost, to a homeless friend. And, whatever, I am today is due to the encouragement of Sunil", says Shahid .

Sunil had an exceptionally sharp mind and an uncanny memory and scanned newspapers for information about the Bhopal case.

He also worked as a volunteer at the Sambhavna Trust Clinic for survivors and even though he was unemployed at that time, he refused to take money for his work.

Sanjay, Sunil's younger brother who graduated from college this year, says, "I reached here with the support and blessings of Sunil."

"Though himself unmarried, he was very keen that his younger brother should find a suitable wife", says Irshad, Sunil's close friend and the last person to see him alive.

Sunil's memory

In March 1997 Sunil started "hearing voices in his head". He also suffered from insomnia and imagined people were plotting to kill him. By June 1997 his condition worsened and he often ran away from home.

He had also attempted suicide several times. He was finally diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia - a mental illness which affected many gas survivors - and began treatment.

When he hanged himself, he left a note saying he was committing suicide not because he was mentally unsound but with all his wits about him.

After Sunil's death many people from Holland, US, South Africa and other countries have come forward to raise funds in his memory to establish a mental health centre, says Mr Sarangi.

Posted by bhola at 07:15 PM | Comments (0)