Category: Community Blog
-
Right to Life dharna (Day Thirteen): a black Holi at the Tin Shed as survivors still wait for their demands to be met
Suresh Melettukochy and Pragya Bhagat,Bhopal, March 4, 2007 If yesterday was a die-in, then today is a resurrection. The day begins with a glorious lunar eclipse, a spectacle that lasts for three hours. A new moon, a new day, a new season. There is a fresh enthusiasm on this Holi, the Hindu festival celebrating the…
-
Right to Life dharna (Day Twelve): Die-in provokes unjust arrests and attracts global support for the survivors
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, March 3 2007 12:30 Eighty men and women lie on the burning asphalt under the midday sun, covered in white sheets. The entrance to Chief Minister Chauhan’s house is completely blocked by the living dead blanketed in shrouds. The police are present in hordes, holding their lathis and guns against their starched…
-
Right to Life dharna (Day Eleven): the ones in power remain mute as survivors demand a chance to earn a livelihood to feed their families
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, March 2, 2007 Government spending on economic rehabilitation of the gas survivors: Rs. 60 crores. Government spending on training the survivors in sixteen trades: Rs. 11 crores. Government spending on building one hundred and fifty-two work sheds to employ ten thousand people: Rs. 8 crores. The survivors doing an indefinite sit-in demanding…
-
Right to Live dharna (Day Ten): Arousing the interest of passers by, a policeman, the media and a comical stray puppy, but not the arrogant politicians who continue to ignore us and the Supreme Court
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, March 1, 2007 What have we accomplished in the last ten days? For one, the microphone has been put out of its comatose and is working again. We can be sure now that our voices won’t go unheard. The typical turnout has consisted mostly of women, but today a substantial number of…
-
Right to Life dharna (Day Nine): weakened and tired by struggle, then from nowhere and out of nothing laughter and strength return
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, February 28, 2007 The sound of rustling newspaper and the faint odor of Fevicol permeates the air. Paper bag making isn’t as exciting as it was three days ago; less than half the women sitting on the faded red and black carpets are folding and creasing. The rest have formed their social…
-
Right to Life dharna (Day Eight): Yoga brings relief and hope of recovery to those suffering from Union Carbide’s poison
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, February 27, 2007 Each day, the Tinshed tells a different story about the people present there. Stories about widowed women, handicapped children, and the sense of loss that hangs heavy in the air around the communities that have suffered for so long. Today’s story was not as dismal. It focused on the…
-
Right to Life dharna (Day Seven): Politicians ignore survivors as a former Union Carbide employee announces plans for a screenplay
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, February 26, 2007 It is a common practice for politicians to make promises they won’t keep. So it wasn’t a complete shock when the ministers of the Samajik Party spent ten hours talking about change and reform, but didn’t bother to mention or visit the fifty people a few feet away. The…
-
Right to Life dharna (Day Six): hope for those born deformed from the gas and the children of the water contaminated area perform for justice
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, February 25, 2007 There’s a multitude of reasons why the Bhopal Gas Disaster can be classified as a tragedy. Thousands of people died due to negligence by a multinational corporation whose current owner refuses to recognize the criminal liabilities its subsidiary faces. Tons of chemical waste still lurk beneath the surface, polluting…
-
Right to Life dharna (Day Five): expressions of solidarity from the ice cream man and staying put through a midnight rainstorm
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, Feb 24, 2007 Paper-bag-making was the highlight of the afternoon. The turn-out was mild but the products were close to perfection, the women having fine-tuned their skills after making multiple bags already. The ice-cream man who travels by the sit-in site daily and parks his cart across the street was staring intently…
-
Right to Life dharna (Day Four): A torchlight procession and old voices singing "Cuckuroo"
Pragya Bhagat, Bhopal, February 23, 2007 They work for the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karamchari Sangh (Bhopal Gas Affected Women’s Stationery Workers’ Union). Clad in dark burkhas with bright pinks and magentas peaking from underneath their cloaks, they gossip and laugh amongst themselves. It is hard to see the anger in their kohl-lined eyes.…
-
Right to Life dharna (Day Three): Making paper bags and a special film screening
INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE IN BHOPAL, BHOPAL,FEBRUARY 23, 2007 February 22, 2007 Rambai knows what it’s like when everyday is a battle. A year ago she was one of the marchers to Delhi, and today she is still denied what she was promised by the prime minister himself. There is a water tank in her…
-
Right to Life dharna (Day Two): Songs and a reunion of the padyatris who a year ago set out for Delhi
INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE IN BHOPAL, BHOPAL, FEBRUARY 22, 2007 February 21, 2007 The day began as each day in Bhopal typically does – with a piping hot glass of chai. Before the sun reached its zenith, trucks overflowing with the residents of gas-affected and water contaminated communities reached the Tinshed. There was singing and…
-
Right to Life dharna (Day One): Bhopal survivors launch their "Jeené ka Haq" sit-in with a procession through the city and songs
INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE IN BHOPAL, BHOPAL, FEBRUARY 21, 2007 DAY ONE: Imagine a throng of more than five hundred men, women, and children raising their clenched fists under the heat of the scorching sun. The road is clogged with flashing cameras, newspaper representatives taking interviews, and a group of khaki-clad police watching from a…
-
"Pissing dog" leads the boycott as shopkeepers throw out stocks of Tata tea ad salt
Bhopal, January 17, 2006 <img alt="450-DSC_0037.jpg" src="https://www.bhopal.net/blog_act/archives/450-DSC_0037.jpg" width="450" height="299" / I hope Ratan Tata reads bhopal.net, for these pictures will tell him exactly what the locals think of his move to let Dow Chemical off the Bhopal hook. Tata stands to make billions of dollars out of joint ventures with Dow – but Dow is…
-
The circle of poison continues
Bridget Hanna, TomPaine.Org, December 5, 200 Bridget Hanna is director of the Bhopal Memory Project, co-editor of The Bhopal Reader (2004), and a volunteer with the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal . She is currently a graduate student in the Department of Social Anthropology at Harvard University. It’s December again, time for Christmas music,…