Bhopal survivors' groups and supporters This article is based on The Peoples' Movement in Bhopal which was written in 1994 by Satinath Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action. The collective response of the survivors over the first two decades after the 1984 disaster appears to have gone through four distinct phases (1) spontaneous protests in the immediate aftermath, (2) organised under middle-class leaders for the following two years, (3) the formation of survivor-led organisations, and (4) the emergence of survivors' groups as models of self-help and leaders of a worldwide campaign for justice in Bhopal.
Spontaneous protests - the immediate aftermath On the morning of the disaster, December 3rd 1984, after the sun had risen and the gas clouds had thinned, an angry gathering of over one thousand survivors marched to the gates of the Union Carbide factory. They had hardly any information on who was running the factory and how, and even less on its hazardous nature. When the marchers reached the factory a decision was taken to burn it down. The factory officials in panic spread a rumour that the gases had started leaking again. In confusion, the crowd fled away from the factory in an re-enactment of the previous night's mass panic.
Spontaneous collective protests, mostly leaderless, continued in different communities without any overall inter-community organisation. In small groups, survivors demonstrated at government offices calling for medical care, monetary assistance and immediate hanging of the killers of Bhopal whose names, and particularly that of the chairman of the corporation, were widely known within the first three days. With the declaration of Operation Faith — the neutralisation of the remaining toxic chemicals — there was once again widespread fear and chaos from December 10, 1984. Over 400,000 survivors left Bhopal in less than two days. Small numbers opted to stay at the government relief camps set up in New-Bhopal, the modern city that sprawls away to the east of the old city. The camps provided a place for the survivors from different communities to come together and protest against the near absence of government efforts to provide relief and care.
Hundreds of people marched to the governor's residence on December 16 and then again two days later. A small number of Bhopal activists played a role in facilitating collective decisions and action. By the end of the month these activitists were to arrogate more powers to themselves and initiate the second phase of the movement in Bhopal in which spontaneous protests found encouragement only on rare occasions. The first organised response Within the first week of the disaster, about thirty individuals with varying leftist persuasions met in two groups to found two organisations — Nagarik Rahat Aur Punarvas Committee (NRPC) and the Zahreeli Gas Kand Sangharsh Morcha (ZGKSM or Morcha for short) with distinct agendas. Though a few locals were involved in the founding of the organisations, out-of-town and New-Bhopal activists played a dominant role in outlining the respective “politics” of the organisations. For NPRC, provision of relief and rehabilitation was to be the main issue. The Morcha, or more correctly its leaders, stressed the need for a political organisation of the survivors that would take up issues of justice, access to scientific information, medical care, and legal intervention. Though there was reason and space for both organisations to co-exist and support each other's work, internecine conflicts started brewing from their inception. Survivor-led organisations emerge Left to fend for themselves after the exodus of the middle-class leaders and activists, the survivors were soon to organise themselves to continue with the struggle in Bhopal. Initially concerned with immediate problems of jobs, pensions for destitutes and regularising of employment at rehabilitation centres, the four organisations that formed were soon to take up medical care, monetary relief, criminal liability, compensation, environmental rehabilitation and corruption by government officials as their rallying points. The organisations grew in strength and effectiveness and two of them — Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan and Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha - had over 100,000 members within the first two years of their formation. While these organisations resembled the earlier ones in size, range of concerns and ability to pressure the government, as things turned out, their resemblance did not end there. In fact, these organisations resembled traditional Indian extended families in many of their features and their leaders had even less respect for democratic functioning. Conflicts between organisations grew as their leaders competed with each other to be the sole representative of the survivors. In contrast with organisations formed earlier, women outnumbered men several times over. Defying traditions of their respective religions and family bondage, Muslim and Hindu women survivors played an active and sustained role in the organisations. Conscious of the need for research, documentation and monitoring activities as they were, the survivors' organisations in the third phase did not have the necessary skill and training to be able to carry them out. Dissemination of information was limited to the minimum required for immediate mobilisation of people around particular issues. The involvement of a large number of women presented the possibility of organising their wide ranging production skills into income generating cooperatives. However, the organisations chose to depend upon and pressure the government into providing jobs to the Bhopal survivors. Even the closure of the sewing centres by the government in July 1992, did not prompt any initiatives for helping survivors to become self supporting. With time the two major organisations became involved with party politics and the popular response to the disaster was almost back to the traditional politics of Bhopal. Survivors' organisations reach out to the world Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh The Bhopal Association of Gas-Affected Women Stationery Workers (which is how it name translates into English) is a trade union formed by gas-affected women who in the aftermath of the gas-disaster had taken up a government offer of vocational training. Before "that night" many of them had worked rolling beedis (leaf rolled cigarettes), but the gas had left most of them chronically breathless, their lungs scarred, inhaling tobacco dust made these problems worse and forced them to seek alternative ways of making a iiving. After the women were trained they discovered there were no jobs for them. The government told them they would have to fend for themselves. Thus the union was formed and began its long struggle for work and equal rights. This story is told in detail in the account of their 1989 padyatra to Delhi to see then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The BGPMSKS has, under its leaders Rasheeda Bee and Champa Devi Shukla (respectively Muslim and Hindu), been in the forefront of the Bhopal struggle since the beginning. In 2004 its two leaders were awarded the International Goldman Prize in recognition of their work. Bhopal ki Aawaaz Bhopal ki Aawaaz (the Voice of Bhopal) is an association of people orphaned by the Union Carbide gas leak of 1984. The orphans, when they were children, were often paraded before visiting dignitaries at state functions. Great promises were made to them, but none kept. They eventually formed Bhopal ki Aawaaz as a self-help group. It is a leading member of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB) and has begun setting up income-generating projects, of which the first was the hiring out of solar lanterns to market stall holders in Bhopal. Bhopal ki Aawaaz is publicly represented by Shahid Noor. In 2002, Shahid and the other orphans went on hunger strike to press their grievances to the Madhya Pradesh government. This is his appeal to the world from that time. Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangarsh Samiti The Bhopal Gas Affected People's Committee campaigns for the rights of the survivors. It is led by Syed M. Irfan, who has been active in the cause since the disaster. In January 1985 Irfan bhai, as he is known (it means "Irfan brother") together with other survivors petitioned the Madhya Pradesh government for medical and monetary aid, a plea which fell on deaf ears. Speaking twenty years later, in 2005, when the Indian government had finally written to a US court supporting the notion that Union Carbide should be made to pay for the clean up of the factory, Irfan bhai said, "Our victories this year are an indication of our strength. We've forced the Indian government to support our claims in a New York court for a clean-up by Carbide and we've won the fight for distribution of the balance of compensation and for supply of clean water. We are not going to stop campaigning until justice is done for all the gas- and water-affected people in Bhopal." Survivors' organisations as models of self-help Remarkable things have come from the efforts of the survivors to help themselves. After years of being cold-shouldered from politicians and company officials alike, the survivors realised that they had effectively been written off as expendable. They appealed to ordinary people around the world to help them solve their own problems. They have created their own medical facility which has won international awards for its work, and other charities. The Sambhavna Trust Clinic The Chingari Trust The Chirag Trust Yaad-e-Haadsaa Museum of Remembrance The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB) is an alliance of organisations led by survivors' groups and dedicated to the achievement of justice, fair compensation, proper medical care and a life of dignity for the victims of Union Carbide and Dow Chemical. For more information on the ICJB, see here. Despite the involvement of influential organisations like Greenpeace and latterly Amnesty International, with the Bhopal cause, it is the survivors' organisations which have always led the struggle. Campaigns created in the poor shantytowns of Bhopal - such as the inspired Jhadoo Maro Dow Ko! ("Hit Dow with a broom, sweep Dow away") have made an impact worldwide. The ICJB in the United States is growing stronger by the day with some 70 schools and colleges linked the student campaign run from the studentsforbhopal website. The US based wing of the ICJB has its own highly-recommended website, www.icjb.org. A tribute to the spirit of the survivors The influential news magazine Outlook India sums it up thus:
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