Category: Community Blog
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Indefinite Fast (Day Fourteen)/ Right to Life dharna (Day Twenty-seven): the five fasters are held prisoners without charge in the hospital, visited by the Collector and browbeaten by police, including the thug who made rape threats
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, March 18, 2007 After all the developments that took place yesterday, it seems like a week has gone by. In reality, however, it has only been twelve hours since we heard the Collector promise a meeting with the Chief Minister today. The morning at the Tinshed is mellow compared to the hysteria…
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Statement of Support and Call to Action from the Madyha Pradesh Mahila Manch, a platform of women’s groups and individuals working for women’s rights
March 17, 2007 We condemn the police and the government for trying to crush peaceful protest and for their complete apathy towards the plight of the gas and water affected, and we condemn the way in which the police manhandled the fasters and illegally detained them. No one was allowed to meet the fasters in…
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Indefinite Fast (Day Thirteen)/ Right to Life dharna (Day Twenty-six): Five of the six hunger strikers are roughly arrested, imprisoned in hospital in a clear breach of the law by the authorities
Pragya Bhagat,Bhopal, March 17,2007 The “13” was being safety pinned to the Right to Live banner as two truckloads of police screeched to a halt in front of our tent. People were still rubbing their tired eyes when they were surrounded by the fifty policemen. Rachna was sleeping as one policeman grabbed her arms while…
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Indefinite Fast (Day Twelve)/ Right to Life dharna (Day Twenty-five): Theatre activist moves crowds with depictions of the pain and suffering of the innocent people poisoned, and the District Magistrates arrive with a note for the fasters
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, March 16, 2007 Watching people die is not the hardest thing in life. Being a victim of bureaucratic power games is not the hardest thing in life. Losing your family to needless violence is not the hardest thing in life. The hardest thing is driving from your home to work, and driving…
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Indefinite Fast (Day Ten)/ Right to Life dharna (Day Twenty-three): Thousands demonstrate before the Chief Minister’s residence, and still there is no response to the six who continue the hunger strike for survivors’ rights to safe water and healthcare
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, March 14, 2007 Imagine an ocean of angry faces quaking with fervor. As the merciless heat beats down on their weathered skin, they squint to look ahead, and keep moving on. This is what the drivers and pedestrians of New Bhopal saw today as a group of about 1200 people conveyed a…
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Indefinite Fast (Day Nine)/ Right to Life dharna (Day Twenty-two): Narmada activist Medha Patkar comes out in solidarity with the survivors as thousands of international supporters flood the MP government with phone calls and faxes
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, March 13, 2007 Where are they? The question has been asked by the doctor, the police, and general visitors to the tent. The six fasters are nowhere to be seen. As we wait for news from their end, groups of men, women, and children socialise amongst themselves. A light drizzle seeps through…
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Indefinite Fast (Day Eight)/ Right to Life dharna (Day Twenty-One): A one-thirty am police raid is the only official response to fasters the day the Chief Minister had promised to put an acceptance of survivors’ demands in writing
Pragya Bhagat, March 12, 2007 Today is the day for the Principal Secretary to prove himself as a man of integrity. Today is the day the Chief Minister could accept the survivors’ demands with a few flicks of his pen. Today is the day when the fasters might start eating again. Today might be the…
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Indefinite Fast (Day Seven)/ Right to Life dharna (Day Twenty): Fasters are garlanded by community supporters as survivors continue to wait for the State Government to fulfill their demands as promised
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, March 11, 2007 A week. That is how long the marchers to New Delhi had to fast in order for the Prime Minister to agree to meet with them. Seven excruciating days of gut wrenching pain and physical degeneration is what it took for Manmohan Singh to accept four of the six…
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Indefinite Fast (Day Six)/ Right to Life dharna (Day Nineteen): Fasters refuse to be taken to hospital and are promised written agreement to their demands in two days time
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, March 10, 2007 They come, they go. Four times, then five, then six. The police are a constant presence at the Tinshed today. We will forcibly take you to the hospital if you don’t eat something. Break your indefinite fast. No, the six reply.
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Indefinite Fast (Day Five)/ Right to Life dharna (Day Eighteen): Tension rises at the Tinshed as more come to join the struggle and weakening fasters resolutely await their meeting with the Chief Minister
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, March 9, 2007 The police are regular visitors now, “ensuring our safety” as they like to call it. The doctors visit fairly often too, examining and testing the six fasters whose bodies grow weaker by the day. Walking has become an arduous chore, so they lie in blankets, waiting. They wait for…
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Indefinite Fast (Day Four)/ Right to Life dharna (Day Seventeen): Women lead the fight for justice from the sit-in to the streets, seven organisations come out in support of survivors, and politicians continue to evade responsibility
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, March 8, 2007 How does one begin to describe the women of Bhopal? Their motto “We are flames, not flowers” falls short of portraying their gutsy bravado. They are pillars of strength, clad in brightly-colored saris and dark burkhas. Their scalp bleeds with red vermillion and their hijabs reveal only their eyes…
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Indefinite Fast (Day Three)/ Right to Life dharna (Day Sixteen): Survivors take to the streets as the six fasters hunger for justice for those poisoned by Union Carbide
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, March 7, 2007 When asked why he brings the police with him during check-ups, Dr. Praday says it is for our own protection. “Look,” he explains, “you are going on a hunger strike against the government. But this government wants to make sure you are safe and your life isn’t in danger.…
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Indefinite Fast (Day Two)/ Right to Life dharna (Day Fifteen): Community supports hunger strikers, and the government sends police escorted doctors to monitor the condition of fasters as survivors wonder where these doctors are the rest of the time
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, March 6, 2007 When the body is not being provided with food, it goes through various lines of defense in order to stay alive. The body stores glucose -its primary fuel – in the form of glycogen in the liver. When the carbohydrates from a meal are digested, the liver converts the…
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Indefinite Fast (Day One)/ Right to Life dharna (Day Fourteen): Six representatives of the people poisoned by Union Carbide go on an indefinite hunger strike until their demands are met
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, March 5, 2007 Her mehndi-colored hair matches her feisty personality. But there was a time when her locks weren’t a rusty orange, but a rich black instead. Shehzadi Bi spent her younger days in Bidisha Dilla, one of four children in a farming community. Her fondest memories as a child are of…
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Fighting for a cause
Bindu Shajan Perappandan, The Hindu, New Delhi, March 5, 2007 A woman who rolled out `beedies’, Rashida Bee was turned into an activist by the Bhopal gas tragedy that saw her lose six members of her family, says Bindu Shajan Perappadan Rashida Bee would have continued rolling out “beedies” from her small hut in Bhopal…