The organisations working among the survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster have written to the Chief Minister apprising him of the fact that 75% of the city’s COVID-19 deaths are of Bhopal gas victims and those exposed to MIC are bearing the brunt of this epidemic. The deaths of gas victims caused by the Novel CoronaVirus infection establishes the fact that after 35years the medical condition of gas victims is fragile as they have suffered permanent damage due to exposure to Union Carbide’s toxic gases. “It is precisely for this reason that we are requesting the Chief Minister to correct the figures in the curative petition pending in the Supreme Court and seek adequate compensation for 5,21,322 for the permanent injury caused to them by Union Carbide & Dow Chemical,” says Rashida Bee of Bhopal Gas Peedit Stationary Karmchari Sangh.
We, the survivors of Union Carbide’s gassing of Bhopal, have always feared that an economic system that continues to favour gain over planetary life and wellbeing would bring another Bhopal to another innocent and unsuspecting city. A political system that places the rights of corporations to break laws, pollute and plunder over the human rights to life and security will inevitably kill and maim again, and on a scale that cannot be hidden or denied.
Survivors of the Bhopal Gas Disaster are more vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19 due to respiratory and other health impacts of the Bhopal gas disaster.
In order to address the local impacts of the Pandemic, an Action Plan for a Community Based Response to COVID 19 in the population severely and moderately affected by the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal has been created. You can view it below or download it here.
In a letter addressed to Union Health Minister, Govt of India, DG-Indian Council of Medical Research, Secretary, Dept of Chemical & Petrochemicals (Bhopal Cell), Govt of India & to Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh & Principal Secretary, Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief & Rehabilitation, Govt of MP, Bhopal gas survivors organisations have asked the concerned officials to take immediate steps for
identification, testing of medical care of COVID-19 in the population affected by the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal. A copy of the letter has also been sent to the Chairman of Supreme Court appointed
Monitoring Committee for medical rehabilitation of Bhopal gas victims.
Hundreds of women survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster today flayed US President Trump in effigy with brooms on the occasion of his visit to India. Led by four local organizations, the survivors expressed their anger against the US government for refusing to serve summons issued by the Bhopal Court upon Dow Chemical, owner of Union Carbide. Madhya Pradesh Muslim Vikas Parishad, a local social service organization supported the demonstrators’ call for justice in the criminal case on the world’s worst industrial disaster.
