Leading up to December 3rd, 2004, 20 years after the infamous Union Carbide tragedy in Bhopal, we review the state of the victims, ask ourselves whether justice has been done and wonder whether the rest of us would rather forget about it. We begin a series of articles on the aftermath of Bhopal with a review of the tragedy.

December 3rd, 1984. In the wee hours of the morning, a deadly gas leaked from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal and spread through the city. People woke up to the sound of their kids crying, the wheezing of their family members, an ache, a sting in their eyes and lungs and hearts. Some people just lay down and died; others tried their utmost to save themselves and their families, their children from the noxious fumes of methyl isocyanate and sundry other gases. Within the next few hours, by the time the gas cleared, it left in its wake, approximately 8000 people dead and millions suffering from the effects. Which they still do although it has been almost 20 years since the leak occurred.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning, or somewhere closer to it.
The Union Carbide plant started functioning in 1967 to manufacture pesticides, using methyl isocyanate (MIC). It had survived a few scares since then, most famously once on October 5, 1982 when a leak affected hundreds of people who lived in the neighborhoods surrounding the plant. This was during a “safety week” when top Union Carbide officials from the US and Asia were in Bhopal. In December 1981, a leak of phosgene had killed one worker, Ashraf Khan. Although claimed to be a “sister plant” of Union Carbide’s plant in Institute, West Virginia, the security measures in the two plants were not the same, neither were the staff-training programs nor the maintenance measures.

A local journalist, Rajkumar Keswani who occasionally wrote for Jansatta, a Hindi daily had repeatedly warned about the risks posed by the Union Carbide plant to life and the living in Bhopal. His last article was published in June 1984 and was titled “Bhopal on the brink of a disaster”. December 3rd 1984 was the date on which the city fell over the edge. Most of us know the facts and the numbers. 8000 people died that night, men, women, children. Since then, another 20,000 have died from the effects of the leak. 150,000 people suffered serious long-term health effects, and about one-third of them are too sick to work for a living.

Union Carbide, which is now a fully-owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, has always maintained that the disaster was a result of sabotage. It says so on its website for the Bhopal disaster, www.bhopal.com (Refer to http://www.bhopal.com/pdfs/casestdy.pdf for the report which states the above.) The victims and governmental and non-governmental organizations believe and say that the leak was a result of negligence and poor safety measures practiced by Union Carbide (UC). There would have been equal reason to believe either of the two versions except that 20 years on, there is conclusive evidence pointing towards negligence on the part of UC.

That is one aspect of the disaster- the cause. But what happened of the affected people after the leak? Were they able to go back to their old homes, and pick up the remains of their old lives, however shambolic those might be? No, because there was no life that could be lived in the affected parts of Bhopal. The toxic effects of the leak exist even today, in the soil, the water and the air. The ground water has been contaminated to the extent that half a glas of that water burns the mouth, the throat and the tongue, and causes immediate skin rashes. (Dominique Lapierre, author of “Five past midnight in Bhopal”) The soil is poisonous because of the leaching of Sevin (a pesticide) into the soil, and contains toxic chemicals like dichlorobenzene and aromatic phthalates which are injurious to the lungs, liver and kidneys and can cause cancer.

There are serious long-term health effects on the people. “Serious health effects” include lung disorders, vision impairment, hormonal imbalances, stunted growth, lack of motor coordination, skin diseases. Even today, 20 years on, mothers cannot breastfeed their kids because their milk contains traces of lead and mercury. Shakeel, a 17-year old teenager has the physical size of an 8-year old. The ground water is contaminated, and has been since before the time the leak occurred. Neha, an 8-year old girl has had oozing sores on her hand since birth, sores that will not heal. Some women have periods 2 or 3 times a month, and some like 33-year old Shahjahan has not had one for 8 years. Often mothers give birth to children with congenital defects.

Most of the people living in neighborhoods like Atal Ayub Nagar, Jayprakash Nagar, the Railway Colony live in a constant reminder of the disaster that occurred almost 2 decades ago. These were the communities that were the worst affected by the gases, owing to their proximity to the Union Carbide plant. And the treatment of a lot of these people cannot be done properly because the chemical composition of the gases that leaked are not known. In spite of repeated pleas to UC, and now Dow, those have not been divulged on the grounds that the composition of the gases is a “trade secret”. Dow also refuses to divulge the results of its extensive MIC-testing to Indian doctors.

A $3-billion settlement was reduced to $470 millions in an out of court settlement negotiated between the Government of India and UC, without involving the survivors. This sum translates to $1170 for death and $520 for injury. Of this amount, $280 millions still lies with the Govt. of India, which on Dow’s suggestion might be used by the Govt. to clean up the toxic mess in the vicinity of the factory. A spokesperson for Dow, Kathy Hunt when asked about it once said that “$500 is plenty good for an Indian.”. $5000 over the course of 20 years translates to ~7cents a day.

During these 20 years, the survivors have been battling for their rights, battling against Union Carbide and now Dow, against the Government of India in the courts of justice. They have formed organizations (eg. Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh) and have been aided in their efforts by other organizations (eg. International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal). People across the world have joined in this struggle and helped in whatever way possible.

These are some aspects of the disaster that is Bhopal. But the complete question of Bhopal is much bigger than these already enormous survival issues confronting the people who survived, or their children. I know that this article does not present a litany of the facts, in a comprehensive manner. But then this is not a collection of facts, this is about the lives of people, people who live in a constant reminder of a heart-breaking event that occurred 20 years ago. Bhopal is the biggest industrial disaster ever and the survivors still bear the scars of it. That is not done. The entities responsible for this state of affairs need to pay back. The rule of the jungle (however much the cynics and the realists may argue) does not have sway. Entities cannot get by with such callous disregard of the lives of other humans.

At the same time, the issue of Bhopal is not just about these people, or that affected area. It raises much more overwhelming questions about the methods of industry, the role of local governments in today’s industrial age, the continuous debate on the sustainability of the environment, the role of the media and many more. These and other questions would be looked at in a series of articles, focusing on the different aspects of the Bhopal issue.

At this point, the survivors’ organizations have the following demands from Dow and the Government of India.
From Dow Chemical:
# Trial of prime accused, Warren Anderson, then-CEO of UC, in the Bhopal criminal court.
# Provide information on the gases that leaked.
# Provide long-term health care.
# Clean up the contaminants from the ground water and the soil in the affected areas.
# Provide economic and social support.

From the Government of India:
# Distribute the remainder of the compensation funds to the affected populace.
# Scrap the announcement by the Welfare Comissioner, Bhopal Gas Victims that wrongfully denies compensation to over 10,000 victims.
# Release the findings of the research conducted on affected persons by the Indian Council for Medical research.
# Support the class action suit filed by the survivors against UC and Warren Anderson in the US.

Tathagata Mitra