Bhopal
a brief report

On the midnight of 2nd - 3rd December 1984, the worst industrial disaster of this century was caused by Union Carbide Corporation, USA in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, a city with about one million people. Over 40 tonnes of Methyl Isocyanate and other lethal gases including Hydrogen Cyanide, leaked from Carbide's pesticide factory in the northern end of the city killing over 8,000 people in its immediate aftermath and causing multisystemic injuries to over 500,000 people. The number of deaths has risen to over 16,000 in the subsequent years and there appears no end to the physical and mental suffering caused by exposure to the poisonous gases. Breathlessness, diminished vision , loss of appetite, pain, menstrual irregularities, recurre fever, persistent cough, neurological disorders, fatigue, weakness, anxiety and depression are the most common symptoms. Research findings on chromosomal aberrations suggest that the future generations of the survivors will possibly carry ravages of the industrial toxins.

Union Carbide continues to withhold toxicological information on the leaked gases thereby impeding medical treatment. The majority of those affected by the gases are people who earned their livelihood through hard physical labour and today their economic condition forces them to continue with their jobs, thus exposing themselves to further health risks. Little has changed in the living environment of the survivors, most of whom live in congested slums without facilities for safe drinking water, sanitation and clean air. Judicial systems in both USA and India have failed to ensure adequate compensation and justice for the survivors. The settlement amount, an average of US $ 940 for each survivor, paid by Union Carbide resulted in a nominal loss to its shareholders of merely 50 cents per share. Compensation sums awarded for personal injury have been unjust and inadequate and in over 90% of cases the victims have received only about 15,000 rupees (or about $430). Nearly two hundred thousand persons directly affected by Union Carbides gases remain to be compensated. For a large number of the victims the sums received as compensation have been spent in repaying debts incurred in medical treatment in the last several years.

Officials of Union Carbide who have been charged with manslaughter and other criminal offences are absconding from Indian courts where criminal proceedings against them been pending for the last fifteen years. Every week in a public park in the city , hundreds of gas-affected women hold public meetings calling for the trial of the prime-accused Warren Anderson, former Chairman of the corporation, who is known to be on vacation at Vero Beach, Fl, USA.