Courtesy: AP
31st Anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Leak, December 2, 2015
In the words of the victims and defenders
The tragedy, what actually happened ?
The escape of about 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) – a highly toxic chemical – from a storage tank on the premises of the pesticide plant of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) in Bhopal – the capital of Madhya Pradesh – on the night of December 2/3, 1984 resulted in disaster of mammoth proportions. Due to culpable criminal negligence manifest in an absence on the part of the plant management in taking adequate safety precautions, water and other impurities – that cause MIC to react violently – entered one of the MIC storage tanks resulting in exothermic reactions and forcing MIC and its reaction products to escape in the form of froth and lethal gases. The escaping poisonous gases, which were heavier than air, spread across 40 square kilometres of the area of Bhopal, covering about 36 of the 56 municipal wards, leaving in its wake more than 20,000 dead (over several years) and inflicting injuries in varying degree on about 550,000 others. About 900,000 persons had inhabited Bhopal then. The pernicious impact on the flora and fauna in the affected area was equally grave. UCIL was then under the control of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) – a U.S. multi-national company, which is currently wholly owned by the Dow Chemical Company (DOW), USA.
The struggle for justice and accountability by, with and for the survivors has encompassed issues of medical relief, rehabilitation, compensation, environmental remediation and justice. Over three decades, consecutive governments, state and central have simply rejected legitimate demands for a comprehensive assessment of the ramifications of the disaster to enable just remedial measures. The limited settlement of February 14/15, 1989 was rejected by survivors and rights groups representing them as paltry and a sham. Each gas-victim today, has been finally awarded less than one-fifth of the sum allotted even as per that settlement.
Year 2015 brought little progress during 2015 on the most pressing issues concerning the Bhopal gas-victims. This remains a matter of serious concern. The current status of issues such as health care, enhancement of compensation, rehabilitation, prosecution of the accused, remediation of the environment, etc., may be briefly recounted as follows:
Basic right to health denied
The gross indifference on the part of both the state and central governments to the health needs of the gas-victims continues to be as grim as ever. Apart from the fact that a fairly large health-infrastructure has been built in terms of buildings and number of hospital beds due to the pressure exerted over the years by organizations supporting the cause of the Bhopal gas victims, the quality of health care in terms of investigation, diagnosis, treatment, research and record-keeping continues to be abysmal. The persistent apathy of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the government of Madhya Pradesh in monitoring the health status of the Bhopal gas victims has been shocking.
Bhopal gas disaster survivors do not have the simple benefit of proper medical records (of each person) and even a health-booklet each to enable monitoring and treatment. Despite the showcase hospital infrastructure, clinics with computerization this simple and organised basic right remains unfulfilled.
The limited settlement of February 14/15, 1989 was rejected by survivors and rights groups representing them as paltry and a sham. Each gas-victim today, has been finally awarded less than one-fifth of the sum allotted even as per that settlement.
No proper protocol for treatment of each gas-related ailment has been evolved even 31 years after the disaster reflecting the chronic callousness and apathy of concerned authorities. Mere symptomatic treatment, over-medication due to lack of proper monitoring, and dispensing of sub-standard and spurious drugs has resulted in increasing number of renal failures among the gas-victims. Bhopal-disaster-related medical research, which the ICMR had thoughtlessly discontinued in 1994 and which the ICMR was compelled to revive in 2010, is yet to be pursued with the necessary vigour. The fact is that neither the ICMR nor the state government has any idea of the number of gas-victims suffering under each category of disease arising from respiratory, ophthalmic, gastro-intestinal, neurological, psychiatric, and other problems.
What is equally shocking is that even 31 years after the disaster, most of the gas-victims seeking treatment continue to be classed as suffering from ‘temporary injury’ in order to deny them compensation for permanent injury.
Legal Accountability
It was because of this utter insensitivity on the part of the union of India and the state of Madhya Pradesh that BGPMUS, the Bhopal Group for Information & Action (BGIA) and BGPSSS (as petitioners numbers one, two and three) had filed a writ petition (number 50 of 1998) before the Supreme Court on January 14, 1998. The petitioners pleaded for restarting of disaster-related medical research, monitoring & recording the health status of each gas-victim, improvement in health care facilities, appropriate protocol for treatment of each disaster-related ailment, etc. Fourteen years after the onset of the litigation, and after several interim directions, the Supreme Court finally issued a comprehensive directive on August 9, 2012 acceding to the above prayers of the petitioners. Necessary directions were issued to the union of India, the state of MP and to other concerned institutions in this regard. The petitioners were further directed to pursue the matter before the high court of Madhya Pradesh (MP) – writ petition number 15658 of 2012– a task that BGPMUS & BGPSSS are actively engaged in at present.
Governments defy SC directives
Shockingly, even 39 months after the Supreme Court had passed the said order dated August 9, 2012, neither the central nor the state government(s) has taken the necessary steps to comply fully with all the directions of the Court. What is most appalling and disheartening is that even 31 years after the disaster, proper health records of the gas-victims are not being maintained and, although claims are being made to the contrary, the fact is that gas-victims do not have a hard copy of his/her complete medical record in his/her possession.
It is because of this failure of the respondents to comply with the said order of the Supreme Court dated August 9, 2012, BGPMUS & BGPSSS were compelled to file a contempt petition (No.832 of 2015) on May 15,2015 against the concerned officials of the government of India and Madhya Pradesh and allied institutions such as ICMR, NIREH and BMHRC.
Chronology of the contempt petition
May 15,2015 contempt petition against concerned officials of the government of India and Madhya Pradesh and allied institutions such as ICMR, NIREH and BMHRC filed by BGPMUS & BGPSSS
October 27, 2015 contempt petition admitted, notice issued, petitioners asked to filed rejoinder
September 16, 2015 the chief secretary, government of MP, and the secretary, Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief & Rehabilitation Department (BGTRRD), who are respondent numbers 3 & 4, had already filed their reply
November 30, 2015 since, the responses in the Reply filed by the said Respondents were mostly false and misleading, petitioner no.2; BGIA filed an application under article 266 of the Constitution urging the high court to take suo motu action against respondent nos.3 & 4 under sections 191 and 193 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for committing perjury. The application has been admitted. The next date for hearing is January 12, 2016
The persistent apathy of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the government of Madhya Pradesh in monitoring the health status of the Bhopal gas victims has been shocking.
Illegal Drug Trials
In 2008, a shocking discovery came to light. The illegal manner in which secret drug trials were being conducted on gas-victims at BMHRC in the period between 2004-2008. Following the exposure, authorities at BMHRC have been making every effort to shield the culprits. BGPMUS & BGPSSS have sought a detailed inquiry into this unsavory incident of using the gas-victims as guinea pigs and have demanded stringent action against the guilty. To legally pursue the matter, BGPMUS & BGPSSS have become interveners in writ petition (C) No.33 of 2012, which was filed to oppose unregulated drug trials in the country, especially by multinational drug companies, and it is currently pending before the Supreme Court.
Compensation
Twenty-one years after the unjust Bhopal Settlement of February 14/15 1989, the union of India had decided to file a curative petition [curative petition (civil) number 345-347 of 2010] before the Supreme Court on December 3, 2010. This followed a huge public campaign and public outcry (even by the electronic media that has been fairly silent since). This petition challenged the terms of the settlement on grounds that it underestimated figures of both the dead and injured. The UOI has sought enhancement of compensation by an additional Rs.7728 crores over the 1989 settlement amount that was merely about Rs.705 crores. The petition has been admitted but has not yet been taken up for hearing, five years down.
There are significant points of difference in the two interventions. The BGPMUS and BGPSSS do support the UOI’s curative petition especially with regards the total casualty figure (i.e., 5,73,586 victims, including dead and injured) and on the modalities for enhancing compensation (i.e., that it should be based on the dollar-rupee exchange rate that prevailed at the time of the settlement). However, BGPMUS and BGPSSS have serious differences with the central government’s stand on the number of dead (just 5295 according to the curative petition) and the seriously injured (only 4944). The two survivors and human rights organizations also oppose the centre’s paltry claims for relief and rehabilitation and for environmental remediation.
Well documented figures by these organizations (BGPMUS and BGPSSS) put the dead at 20,000+ and seriously injured at 150,000+. These are also the figures (explained in detail) in the special leave petition (SLP No.12893 of 2010) currently pending and which will be heard only after the disposal of UOI’s Curative Petition. It is to remedy the attempts at dilution of the tragedy both in terms of numbers dead and gravity of the fallout that the organizations concerned have on October 24, 2013 filed an interlocutory application in the centre’s curative petition pointing out the serious inadequacies.
The centre’s conduct, when examined in detail, gets more and more murky. No attempts were made to place the relevant ICMR reports before the claim courts to enable them to fairly assess the types and gravity of injuries suffered by the Bhopal gas victims. In the absence of proper health booklets, which the ICMR and the state government had failed to provide to each gas-victim, circumstantial evidence would have been very valuable in determining the likely degree of injury suffered by a gas-victim.
On all these serious issues, this 31st anniversary of the tragedy, the organizations and Survivors make a collective plea that the curative petition, pending before the Supreme Court for the last five years, should be heard without delay. Before this, the health booklet with his/ her complete medical record should be issued to each gas-victim. Without this, the victim survivors would not be able to access fair compensation that is awarded in terms of the category and degree of injury that can be seen from the individual health record. Today the victims simply do not have the empirical means to prove the extent of injury and the category it falls under.
Hence, the computerisation of health records and coordination between the records contained in various hospitals and clinics treating gas-victims before providing each gas-victim with his/her complete medical records is an immediate need.
Environmental Remediation
Toxic waste that was generated during UCIL’s operation from 1969 to 1984 was dumped in and around the plant leading to severe soil and water contamination. A comprehensive study to estimate the extent and gravity of the damage has not yet been carried out by either the centre or the state government, though thirty one years have passed. Instead, the magnitude of the problem has been grossly underestimated by making it appear that the total toxic waste that needs to be safely disposed of is only about 345 tonnes that is stored at the plant site.
This issue has also been agitated before the Supreme Court both independently in the SLP as also in the intervention in the curative petition.
Survivor organizations have argued that the current proposal to incinerate/bury the toxic waste near Indore is wholly misconceived and it would only result in shifting the problem from Bhopal to Indore. On the contrary, in a preliminary study that was jointly carried out by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, and the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad, during 2009-2010, it was estimated that “the total quantum of contaminated soil requiring remediation amounts to 11,00,000 MT [metric tonnes]”(p.68). Since the Government of India has submitted that the private incinerator at Pitampur (Indore) has been suitably upgraded to prevent any toxic emission, the Supreme Court has permitted test-incineration of toxic waste currently stored at the Bhopal plant. The results of the tests are awaited.
Bhopal gas disaster survivors do not have the simple benefit of proper medical records (of each person) and even a health-booklet each to enable monitoring and treatment.
Based on the “Polluter Pays Principle”, it is the duty and responsibility of the Dow Chemical Company, USA, which currently owns UCC, to meet the cost of remediating comprehensively the affected environment in and around the UCIL plant with the latest available remediation technology. Similarly, the cost of providing safe-drinking water to the affected population residing in and around the former UCIL plant too has to be borne by DOW. However, the responsibility for providing safe drinking water to the affected population is entirely that of the state government. However, the state government is yet to fulfill that responsibility since supply of safe-drinking water to the affected areas is still very erratic. Moreover, the victims of contaminated water have still not been made eligible for free medical treatment.
Remediation of the estimated 11,00,000 MT of contaminated soil is a far more difficult task. At the initiative of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Delhi, a preliminary attempt was made in April 2013 to bring together on a common platform the various stakeholders (including BGPMUS & BGPSSS) and experts to prepare an Action Plan to remediate the degraded environment. While a draft Action Plan has been worked out, it requires further refinement as well as inputs from other experts and stakeholders, including the government of Madhya Pradesh. The stoic indifference of the state government to this daunting task is alarming. In situ decontamination of the toxic waste (including the contaminated soil & groundwater) using closed-loop remediation technologies is a possibility. With inputs and technical help from UN Environment Programme, cleaning up of the contaminated site in Bhopal is quite feasible. However, the entire costs for the cleanup should be ultimately borne by Dow Chemicals.
Relief and rehabilitation
The State Government has failed to address adequately and with sensitivity a host of socio-economic problems that confronts the chronically sick, the elderly, the differently abled, the widowed, and other vulnerable sections among the gas-victims. The pittance, which was disbursed as compensation in most instances to these sections was never enough to take care of their daily needs. Finding gainful employment in accordance with the reduced capacity to work and to lead a dignified life has been a serious challenge. The state government needs to give far more attention and provide far larger support to the most vulnerable sections of gas-victims than in the past.
On the 31st anniversary of this man-made-disaster, the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan (BGPMUS) and the Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti (BGPSSS) pay their homage to the deceased victims and reiterate their determination to continue to uphold the cause of the survivors and to seek justice for the hapless victims.
(This article has been prepared based on the detailed press release by Abdul Jabbar and ND Jayaprakash of the BGPMUS and BGPSSS respectively. They can be contacted at jabbar.bhopal@gmail.com / jaypdsf@gmail.com)