In their statement released today, seven Bhopal survivors’ organisations have condemened the Government’s hastily flung together plan to calm public outrage by appearing to offer additional compensation to the Bhopal survivors.
In fact less than ten percent of people known to be exposed to Union Carbide’s toxic gases will receive any of this extra largesse. And it will be distributed by the same flawed system that proved itself to be unfair, biased, corrupt, slow, inefficient and utterly inadequate.
“The GoM has based its decision on the notoriously flawed system of damage assessment that was designed to downplay and diminish the death and injury caused by Union Carbide Corporation. It has made no recommendations regarding review of death claims or registration of exposure related death claims after 1997, when such registration was arbitrarily stopped. “The GoM has denied any additional compensation to 521,000 [91%] survivors who received a paltry sum of Rs. 25, 000 for life long injuries,” said Abdul Jabbar, convenor of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan.
COMPENSATION DISBURSEMENT, PROBLEMS & POSSIBILITIES – BHOPAL GROUP FOR INFORMATION AND ACTION, 1991
COVER
i – BHOPAL GROUP FOR INFORMATION AND ACTION
ii – CONTENTS
iii – List of Appendices and Tables
iv – Map showing gas-affected areas of Bhopal
1 – INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
– The Bhopal Gas Disaster is an unprecedented event
– Government’s response fraught with apathy and lack of innovation
2 – Durga Bai
3 – Disbursement of compensation is a task of unprecented magnitude
– OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
– Data Collection
4 – Photos, Shakti Nagar, New Gandhi Nagar
5 – Study Population, Methodology, Findings and Discussion
– PROBLEMS IN IDENTIFICATION OF GAS VICTIMS
– i. Children born after the disaster
6 – ii Incomplete coverage by surveys, claim registration and issuance of ration cards
7 – iii. Substantial number of residents are not receiving interim relief
8 – PROBLEM IN AFFIXATION OF COMPENSATION AMOUNTS
– i. Medical examination of gas victims is incomplete
– ii. Essential tests have not been carried out on a large majority of the medically-examined population
9 -iii. A large majority of the medically-examined population has not been informed about the categories alloted to them
10 -iv. Medical categorization of claimants reveals gross underestimation of injuries
– 3. USE PATTERN OF GOVERNMENT MEDICARE
11 – CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
– i. Alternative scheme for disbursement of compensation
12 – ii. Watchdog committee needed to monitor disbursement
– iii. Medical Commission should be set up to supervise and monitor healthcare of victims
– REFERENCES
13 – APPENDIX I: CRITIQUE OF MEDICAL CATEGORIZATION
– The process of injury assessment followed by the Madhya Pradesh government is faulty
– Is a rational assessment of injury possible?
14 – Basis for interim relief
– APPENDIX II: ENCROACHMENT ON CIVIL RIGHTS
– Report of an investigation into “Anti-Encroachment Drive” by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, M.P., June 1991
15 – The re-victimization of the victims
– The demolition of houses
– Terror and protest
16 – Why were these slums chosen for demolition?
– Legal procedure not followed
17 – Supreme Court order
– Rehabilitation
– CONCLUSIONS
18, 19, 20, 21 – APPENDIX III: SCHEDULE OF SURVEY
22, 23 – APPENDIX !V: HEALTH DAMAGE DUE TO BHOPAL GAS DISASTER – REVIEW OF MEDICAL RESEARCH
24– APPENDIX V: A NOTE ON THE PAYMENT OF COMPENSATION TO THE BHOPAL GAS VICTIMS
– Final disbursement based on the proposed scheme will lead to major delays
– The proposed scheme will lead to a denial of adequate compensation to the majority of the victims
– The scheme will give rise to large scale corruption
– The scheme is susceptible to abuse by non-victim persons
25 – Alternative scheme for disbursement of compensation
– Outline of alternative scheme
– ADVANTAGES OF THE ALTERNATIVE SCHEME
– The scheme outlined will provide for a fair level of compensation and cause the least disruption to the life of the community
– The alternative scheme will enable compensation to be received immediately
– The alternative scheme curtails the involvement of middlemen
– The alternative scheme safeguards the interests of the gas victims
26 – APPENDIX VI: WARD WISE CATEGORIZATION FIGURES PRESENTED BY THE DIRECTORATE OF CLAIMS, M.P. GOVERNMENT, UP TO DECEMBER 30, 1989
27 – APPENDIX VII: THIRD WORLD NETWORK FEATURES – CASE EXAMPLES OF VICTIMS OF CATEGORIZATION
– Suleman Khan
– Shakila Bi
– Premlata
– Bhojraj
28 – Chhotelal
– Narayani Bai
– Aladin
29 – TABLES
– Table I: Number of male and female residents in the three bastis and number of children born after the gas disaster
– Table II: Number and percentage of people not covered by ICMR and TISS surveys, claim registration and issuance of ration cards
– Table III: Number and percentage of people not receiving interim relief
30 – Table IV: Number and percentage of people left out of medical examination
– Table V: Number of persons and percentage of medically examined population administered specific examinations
– Table VI: Number and percentage of people who have not received notification about their categories
31 – Table VII: Number of persons and percentage of notified population receiving different categories
– Table VIII: Number and percentage of people visiting government hospitals and private clinics
32 – ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ERRATA
BACK COVER
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