Children in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul talk about the victims of the gas disaster in Bhopal and the responsibilities of Dow.

The gas leak at Bhopal which happened 20 years ago, is still a part of the collective consciousness of so many of us. On December 3rd, 2004, the 20th anniversary of the 20th disaster was marked by a huge range of events across the globe; most importantly, it was an opportunity for people committed to the vision of justice for the people of Bhopal, to come together and reaffirm that vision.

At the School of India for Languages and Culture (SILC) in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, some of the students (who were all born after 1984) spoke about the disaster. Although most of them had just a vague idea about the disaster, they made an effort to learn about Bhopal and then discussed it over a couple of sessions. Some of them wrote letters, addressed to Dow Chemical, expressing their regret at the way the people of Bhopal had been denied justice, and what they meant by justice.

All of them were of the opinion that Dow has to own up to the disaster, and clean up the city. As Praveen Bains, an 8th grader at Lake Junior High said “Dow is responsible for Union Carbide’s responsibilities; Dow bought Union Carbide, so it (Bhopal) is their problem now.” Cleaning up meant studying the contamination of the ground water, and then putting up units to purge the groundwater of all those contaminants. (The groundwater in Bhopal has been found to contain traces of lead, mercury, dichlorobenzene, among other things.) The old drums containing Sevin, the pesticide that was made at the Bhopal factory should be removed so as to prevent further leaching of chemicals into the ground. As someone who feels very strongly about nature and dislikes any sort of pollution of nature, Anjali Bains said that it is imperative that Dow clean up the site, and the ground water and “make sure no chemicals are hurting anyone”.

They were of all the opinion that Dow should release information of the constituents of the gases that leaked on Dec 3rd, 1984. This would help in understanding the proper treatment for the people, who suffer from a lot of ailments which cannot be treated properly as the causes cannot be properly determined. Rajan Nayar, one of the students who was a part of the discussion said that “Dow should be forced to release the information of the gases; if they don’t, I would put them in jail. So then it would be an eye for an eye.” The judicial systems of the U.S. of A. and India have to make sure that Dow releases this information.

Compensation of the survivors was another point that the students of SILC discussed; the affected have to be given more than compensation worth of $500, which is what the survivors have been given. People also should be compensated for the cost of the medical treatment, which is a huge drain on the resources of the people of Bhopal. Anjali said that not only this but “Dow should also provide monthly compensation to the people who cannot work because of the effects of the gas leak”. And if these do not happen, the judicial systems have to step up. Aishwarya Menon said “Dow should be sued in courts of law until they compensate for all the problems caused by the gas leak”.

All the students felt that more needed to be done to ensure a reasonable life for the people of Bhopal. They felt that what had happened till date was clearly not enough. Aishwarya had this to say about the measures implemented, as yet in Bhopal “Justice? That’s not justice.”

Yet in their words, there is a hope and an unwavering confidence that things will be set right. As Kunal Tandon said “If Dow accomplishes all of these (above) things, the people of Madhya Pradesh will have better health. And hopefully, Dow will do all of that.” Here’s to that.

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