THE MARATHON

A JOINT PROJECT OF BHOPAL THE BHOPAL MEDICAL APPEAL AND THE BHOPAL GROUP MARATHON: FOR INFORMATION & ACTION A marathon of suffering measured not in miles but in years BHOPAL SITE: ’s toxic wastes are still making damaged babies BHOPAL WHEN SACHIN GAMES: GOES INTO BAT The children A tale of sportsmanship who can’t play games courage and fair play BEYOND BELIEF That Carbide’s owner should be sponsoring the Paralympics

A cry for Bhopal THE BHOPAL MARATHON WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP

By request of the people who come for care to the Sambhavna Clinic and the Chingari Trust Rehabilitation Centre, this report is dedicated to you, who generously support the medical work in Bhopal.

We also remember Ward Morehouse, tireless crusader for justice in Bhopal, who died on June 30, 2012, aged 82, while swimming in his favourite pond.

Sources, Citations & Documents Sources and citations for all footnoted articles are given at the end of this report. Full versions of all quoted documents and an online version may be found at www.bhopalmarathon.org Acronyms ADL Arthur D Little, Consultants IMCB International Medical Commission for Bhopal BGIA Bhopal Group for Information & Action IOC International Olympic Committee BGPMUS Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog IPC Indian Penal Code Sangathan JNCH Jawaharlal Nehru Cancer Hospital, Bhopal BGPMPSM Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sang- LOCOG London Organising Committee for the harsh Morcha Olympic & Paralympic Games BGPMSKS Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Kar- PFT Pulmonary function test Photos machari Sangh MIC RAGHU RAI BGPNPBSM Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit MP , state of MAUDE DORR Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha MPPCB Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board ALEX MASI BMA Bhopal Medical Appeal NEERI National Environmental Engineering MICHA PATAULT BMHT Bhopal Hospital Trust Research Insitute, Nagpur ANDY MOXON BMHRC Bhopal Memorial Hospital & PPT Permanent People’s Tribunal DAN SINHA Research Centre RTI Right to Information request PAUL BULLIVANT CJM Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bhopal SC Supreme Court of PRAKASH HATVALNE CSIR Centre for Scientific & Industrial Research SEC Securities & Exchange Commission, New York ANDY SPYRA EIIL Eveready Industries (India) Limited SEP Solar evaporation ponds in Bhopal ETT Exercise tolerance test TDCC The RACHNA DHINGRA FERA Foreign Exchange & Regulation Act, 1974 UCAP Union Carbide Asia Pacific NINO ELLISON FIR First Information Report of a crime UCC Union Carbide Corporation (US) GoI UCE Union Carbide (Eastern) Hong Kong Editorial GoM Group of Ministers on Bhopal UCIL Union Carbide (India) Ltd BHOPAL SURVIVORS, ICJB International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal ZGKSM Zahreeli Gas Kan Sangharsh Morcha ( FRIENDS & SUPPORTERS ICMR Indian Council of Medical Research Gas Disaster Struggle Committee)

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In 1984 at the LA Olympics, Sebastian Coe ran 1,500 metres in 3 minutes, 32.53 seconds. He won the Gold Medal and set a new Olympic record. That same year began the long torment of the Bhopalis. On a cold December night in they began running for their lives and many have known not an hour of comfort since. We see them at our clinics, breathless, racked with pain. Had Seb Coe (now Lord Coe, Chairman of the London Games organisers LOCOG) not stopped after 1,500 metres, but kept running for 10,000 days, or 148,000 marathons, he would by now know what it feels like to be a Bhopali. The Bhopal Marathon: an ordeal of pain measured not in miles but years EDITORIAL For almost thirty years some of the The ‘nothing people’ have literally salute the Games that unite us all in poorest people on earth, sick, living nothing. Their efforts to gain medical delight at the health, strength, beauty on the edge of hunger, without funds, care and justice through the courts and grace of the young contestants wealthy friends or political influence, have been opposed and obstructed in from all round the world. All of these have been fighting for their lives and every possible way by Union Carbide things we believe the association with fundamental human rights against a whose gases killed their families and Dow debases and disgraces.’ multinational giant backed by the whose toxic wastes contaminate their governments and economic elites of drinking water. Now Carbide’s 100% Why this report is needed two powerful nations. owner Dow Chemical is honoured as On Feb 2, 2008, India’s Ministry Union Carbide and (since 2001) its an international sponsor of the ‘most of Law advised the government that owner Dow Chemical have it all – sustainable ever Olympic Games’. ‘irrespective of the manner in which wealth, power, influence. They have The Bhopalis are not opposed to UCC (Union Carbide Corporation) the funds to advertise to millions and the Olympic Games. They say, ‘We has merged or has been acquired by the access to whisper in the ears of celebrate the Olympics, their ancient Dow Chemical, if there is any legal li- presidents and prime ministers. sanctity and nobility of spirit. We ability, it would have to be (contd. p.5) 2 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Start 1984

7 GHOSTS OF “THAT NIGHT” 8 AZIZA’S STORY 10 REMEMBRANCE 12 AFTER THE GAS

Right-to-Information request reveals that Union Carbide dictated the settlement terms within weeks of gas leak 1989

48 A LETTER TO 46 A MAN DESTINED 44 SURVIVORS GET A PITTANCE 42 CARBIDE DICTATES UNION CARBIDE TO BURN SETTLEMENT TERMS

1989 1990

49 NEGATIVE POSITIVE 50 THE LONG WALK OF 54 THE COMPENSATION 56 LIVES DISSOLVE IN THE BHOPALI WOMEN NIGHTMARE THE ACID OF INJUSTICE

82 COMMUNITY WORK 80 THE ANCIENT SCIENCE 78 USING YOGA 76 WOMEN’S HEALTH OF INSTEAD OF DRUGS

1997 1999

84 COMPENSATION 86 THE POISONING OF 88 STUDY 90 A-Z OF CHEMICALS NIGHTMARE GOES ON A NEW GENERATION FINALLY REVEALS TRUTH &

110 POLICE BEAT PEOPLE 108 WOMEN TAKE THE 106 THE UNION CARBIDE FACTORY SITE 18-20 TRYING TO CLEAN FACTORY BROOM TO DOW YEARS AFTER THE 1984 GAS LEAK

2003 2004

112 BEATEN GREENPEACE 114 BHOPALIS PORTRAYED 115 SUNIL’S ESCAPE FROM MAN & JOURNALIST SPEAK AS TERRORISTS THE LAND OF RICE GRUEL WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 3

Free clinic set up by victims to give injections is torn down by police, its records handed to Carbide 1985

20 ANDERSON’S ESCAPE 22 LIE & LET DIE 24 ANTIDOTE SCANDAL 26 THE FIRST FREE CLINIC IS DESTROYED BY POLICE

1985 1989

40 BHOPAL VICTIMS 36 VOICES FROM 32 EDGE OF 31 PREGNANT WOMEN 28 HELL’S ANGELS BETRAYED THE ABYSS THE VOLCANO BEATEN

Union Carbide discovers contamination of soil & water, warns nobody, its silence will last ten years 1990

58 SATHYU & SUNIL 60 UNION CARBIDE’S 64 THE FATE OF ATAL 66 TOXIC LAKES GO TO PRISON 2ND DISASTER AYUB NAGAR OF DEATH

1996 1994

74 MODERN 72 THE SAMBHAVNA 70 OUR FIRST APPEAL 68 HEALTH DISASTER & AN ANCIENT SECRET CLINIC OPENS ROARS ON

In 2000 Sambhavna began mobilising water-affected communities to campaign for their right to safe water 2000 2001

92 SAMBHAVNA CAMPAIGN 94 INTERVIEW WITH A 96 THE VANISHINGS FOR CLEAN WATER FRIGHTENED MAN OF UNION CARBIDE

2002 2003

105 WHAT DOES THE 104 “500 IS PLENTY 102 THE STORY OF 100 THE DANCE OF COMPENSATION BUY? GOOD FOR AN INDIAN” MEHBOOB BEE THE SEVERAL VEILS 116 THE CASE OF THE 118 PORTRAITS IN PAIN 126 FLAMES NOT FLOWERS, 134 RASHIDA BEE & BUNGLED RESURRECTION THE WOMEN OF BHOPAL CHAMPADEVI SHUKLHA

2006

142 THE CHINGARI 140 THE NEW SAMBHAVNA 138 HIS FRIENDS SAY 136 OUR FIGHT FOR TRUST BEGINS WORK CLINIC: A HAVEN OF PEACE FAREWELL TO SUNIL CLEAN WATER AND LIFE

2008 2009

144 CHILDREN OF ORIYA 146 500 MILES ON FOOT TO 154 GANDHIJI, THANK GOD 156 ‘WHY DO THESE BASTI SING FOR GANDHIJI : THE 2nd PADYATRA YOU NEVER LIVED TO SEE THIS PEOPLE TORMENT US?’

2011 2010

162 DECEMBER 3, 2011 161 ‘I WON’T PAY ONE 160 DEAR MRS BANO, HERE 158 SAMBHAVNA ‘STOP THE TRAINS!’ PENNY TO BHOPAL VICTIMS’ IS YOUR COMPENSATION RESEARCH STUDIES

2012

164 JUSTICE IN A WORLD 166 HOW A CHILD GROWS 168 WHEN SACHIN 170 THE STORIES OF OF DEMON RULERS TO LOVE HIS LIFE GOES IN TO BAT MINAKSHI AND ISHRAT

174 ‘DEAR MR LORD COE, 172 A NEW BOOK OF HERE’S WHY WE BURNED YOU’ PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALEX MASI

176 Abandoned by the mighty, Bhopal’s special children have their own Olympics and everyone gets a medal. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 5 borne by Dow Chemical.’1 When that you acquire a company Lord Coe endorses Dow’s denial that where there is a bright line it inherits any of Union Carbide’s on the liability that was set- undischarged liabilities, he is in our tled way beyond your time, view pronouncing a verdict that can and to hook you in to that only properly be decided by a court. event, it's beyond belief that After meeting Dow lawyers and people are still trying that. PR people, and ignoring pleas to talk The obvious reason people to Bhopal survivors, Lord Coe told are trying that is because we the House of Commons Culture, are a healthy company with Media & Sport Committee, ‘At no deep pockets that people want a time did Dow operate, own or were second bite of the cherry on.’ involved with the [Union Carbide] In other words the Bhopal plant either at the time of the disaster survivors are greedy people, or crucially at the time of the full and who should be satisfied with final settlement…the Indian Supreme what compensation they have Court has upheld on two previous already had. You be the judge. occasions the [1989] settlement that The Bhopal Marathon was reached by the previous owners of that plant.’2 Pressed by MP Jim Rather than engage in a Sheridan, Lord Coe added, ‘I am not battle of soundbytes, which here as a spokesman for Dow.’ He neither the public nor media then repeated, ‘Dow were not the are well-informed enough to owners, operators or involved in the decode, we felt a better thing Aliya Bano, with her grandson holding a photo of site at the time of the disaster.’ to do was let the survivors tell her taken on the morning of the gas leak (please go their own stories of what has back to the picture on p. 1 then forward to p. 160) Decoding soundbytes been happening to them and what for It is not a story that (we may hope) The first part of what Lord Coe nearly 30 years they have been forced could ever happen in Britain and said was true , we think, beside the point. to endure. Their voices are backed by much of it is, to quote Mr Liveris, The Indian Ministry of Law opinion opinion pieces and analysis. utterly ‘beyond belief’. For our part quoted above is clear that Dow didn’t We want every journalist and MP we have carefully checked facts and need to have owned or operated the to have a copy, and hope that this will wherever possible given documentary plant in order potential to inherit any be a useful introduction to a difficult or photographic evidence. Where the Union Carbide liabilities. subject, valuable to anyone who story touches Union Carbide and His comment about the Supreme needs to understand three decades of Dow we have tried to tell it using their Court omits that only part of the 1989 tangled issues in the politics of own public statements and private Settlement was upheld and that in human misery. documents. Full versions of all 1991 the Court specifically reinstated No matter how much you know quoted documents are available at charges of culpable homicide against about Bhopal, you will be appalled. http://bhopalmarathon.org. 3 Union Carbide Corporation , which You will learn how the victims, Thanks to generous friends since 1992 has been refusing to appear trusting that their government would in court to answer them. come to their rescue, were instead let This big report has cost us and our down by politicians who appear from donors nothing. It has been paid for by Beyond Belief the beginning to have been colluding generous sponsors. The story it tells Dow’s CEO Andrew Liveris told with Union Carbide; how they were is not just of horror and cruelty, but Bloomberg4 that the attitude of the cheated by officials, bureaucrats and also of the noblest things in human Bhopal victims was ‘beyond belief’. quacks; how when their water was nature, compassion, joy, celebration ‘It was not us,’ said Liveris. ‘The found to be poisoned by chemicals and the power of love. By wish of the fact that you can speak back with leaking from Carbide’s abandoned Bhopalis this report is dedicated to science and fact rather than emotion factory, they were denied clean water our supporters and friends who make and hysteria is your only defense… in defiance of a Supreme Court order possible the wonderful healing work To keep coming back to the notion and beaten when they dared to protest. that is taking place in our two clinics. 6 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

START: MIDNIGHT 3 DECEMBER 1984

‘People ran in what they were wearing or in nothing at all. They were concerned only to save their lives so they just blindly ran. Even cows ran in panic, and crushed people. The road to the old city was a river of people, staggering as if in the last stages of a long race. We knew if we fell we would not get up again’. Champa Devi Shukla

‘Outside, it appeared that a large number of people had passed that way. Slippers, and shawls were strewn about. A thick white cloud enveloped everything and reduced the streetlamps to dim pinpricks of light.’ Aziza Sultan WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 7 Ghosts of That Night

DEATH CAME OUT OF a clear sky. Midnight, a cold wind blowing – the city’s poets would remember the cold of that night – the stars brilliant as they are in central India, even through the thin pall of cooking-fire smoke that hung above the city. Here and there, braziers were burning to warm those who were obliged to be out late. From the factory which so many had learned to fear, a thin plume of white vapour was streaming from a high structure. Caught by the wind, it became a haze and blew downward to mix with smokes coming from somewhere nearer to the ground. A dense fog formed. Nudged by the wind, it rolled across the road and into the alleys on the other side. Here the houses were packed close, ill- built, with badly-fitting doors and windows - plenty of gaps for the un- invited visitor to enter. As those within woke, coughing, their eyes burning, countless women’s voices were saying, ‘Hush sweetheart, it’s only someone burning chillies. Go back to sleep.’

This picture by French photographer Micha Patault, was taken in J.P. Nagar, where the death-toll was most savage. Terrified people surged from their homes into the darkness and gas. Bodies were crushed. Children’s hands were torn from their parents’ grasp. Families were whirled apart and destroyed. No emergency instructions had been given. There was no alarm. Micha’s long exposure captures passers by as ghostly shapes, recalling those whose lives ended here more than 27 years ago. 8 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

‘I began bleeding and Aziza’s Story lost my baby right there in the street as I ran’

shawls were strewn about. A thick white cloud enveloped everything, reducing the streetlamps to dim points of light. Our family got split up. One sister-in-law ran one way and the rest of us another. I saw lots and lots of people running, they were screaming for help, vomiting, falling down, unconscious. We’d gone about 500 metres whenmy father-in-lawsaw a truck and told us to climb on We couldn’t and in the confusion instead of lifting up his grandson Mansoor, he grabbed another little boy who was running around on his own. My mother-in-law was vomiting. She was a heart patient and was still two kilometres away, much of it uphill. Mohsin was still unconscious. Ruby was holding on to my tunic, she did not once let go. We walked another 500 metres and came to the Bhopal Talkies crossing. Mohsin was being sick on This is the story you hear again and again in Bhopal. A terror me. Ruby was also vomiting. We had just one thought, to reach Hamidia. experienced individually, shared by thousands. People woke At the Bhopal Talkies crossing we in darkness with an invisible fire searing their eyes and lungs. all fell on the ground and just lay Aziza Sultan is a staff member at the Sambhavna Clinic. On there. I was two months pregnant and to my horror and shame I felt myself that night she was a young mother expecting her third child. having a right there in the middle of the street. I WOKE COUGHING BADLY. In the hand. My sister-in-law was holding half light the room was filled with a two children and my father-in-law What is happening? white cloud. I heard a great noise of lifted up his favourite grandson who We couldn’t talk to each other or people shouting. ‘Run, run’. My eyes was five years old. even see, our eyes were so bad.We were burning. Each breath felt as if I were wondering what had gone was breathing in fire. Screaming for help wrong, who had done this. We had no Mohsin, my baby son, began to We went out in our night clothes. idea that there was a gas leak from cough. All our family were coughing Nothing else. It was very cold but we Union Carbide. We realised that if and groaning. The house was already did not feel it. We didn’t shut the we remained at the Bhopal Talkies full of white mist. My mother-in-law house, nothing mattered but to run. crossing we would die because we said we must go to Hamidia hospital. Outside in the lane, it appeared could see so many people lying on I carried Mohsin on my hip and took that a large number of people had the ground who appeared to be dead. hold of my little daughter Ruby’s passed that way. Shoes, slippers and Trucks overflowing with people WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 9 were passing. Somehow we got back we went on towards Kamla Park, as ‘We are in control of the gas leak to our feet. My body was covered everyone was running that way. from Union Carbide. Go back to with blood. Blood was all over me. I your houses.’ By then it was dawn. couldn’t control my bowels and the Walking on bodies One man about 35 years old took faeces ran down my legs, mixing with At Rani Kamla Pati ka Mahal, the us to his home. Our eyes were closed the blood. road was so thick with dead bodies and swollen. We were still feeling as We took the Safia College road that we were forced to step on them. if someone was trying to strangle us, and walked about half a kilometer. The park between the upper and breathing was extremely difficult. There we saw a moving vehicle, a lower lakes was full of bodies lying This man gave me clothes to wear large three-wheeler, crawling slowly on the ground. People from nearby and hot water to wash myself. He up a hill. It was already crowded, full areas were bringing out their quilts made us tea but we couldn’t drink – of people. We managed to climb on and bedcovers and covering people our throats were on fire. Soon it was board and I fell on to some man’s lap. to protect them from the gas cloud. light, but we were helpless because I was covered with my blood and We collapsed onto a pile of dried we could not see. The man and his faeces and vomit from my children. leaves near a garbage dump and fell son gave us a bottle of drinking water At the top of the hill the vehicle unconscious. I recall that men came and led us back to our house. gave way under the weight of people. and lifted me and my children. They When we got home we saw that the We started walking again and got carried us to a better place and trees had shed their leaves, which to Hamidia hospital at about 2 or wrapped me up in a quilt. looked as if they had been burnt. 2.30 am. Mohsin was unconscious, We lay there for a long time, then Milk had turned light green and we Ruby was still clinging to my kurta. heard this loud announcement from threw it away. All food left in the There was no one to ask for help so a public address system on a jeep. house was also thrown away. So the night of terror ended, but as the sun rose over Bhopal, none of us knew nor could ever have guessed what lay ahead. It never occurred to us that we would get no help, not from Union Carbide nor elsewhere, that the company would not be punished and we would be left to live or die. ‘That night’ was over, but the years of death and suffering had just begun. 10 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Light came to city streets full of scenes from an apocalypse. Bodies lay in heaps, limbs twisted and faces contorted in agony. In some places, the streets were so strewn with dead bodies that it was impossible to walk without stepping on them. The sun came up on , blinded people making their way to the hospitals. The gas had unstrung their nervous systems as they fled, and they had urine and faeces running down their legs. Some, desperate to relieve the agony in their eyes, were washing them in sewage water from the open drains. Sunita woke up two days later in a hospital, calling for her children. Rakesh was dead. His small body had already been buried. Puja died next day. Raju had not reached the Elvis died hospital, nor ever came home. His family took the picture you see here and walked the streets asking, ‘Have you seen this boy, the one they call in Bhopal Elvis?’ But there were thousands of dead lying in streets and houses with no one to identify them. The bodies ELVIS WASN’THISREALNAME, of were taken by municipal trucks to course, but it’s what everyone called burial- and burning-grounds. One him. Raju ‘Elvis’ Thanwar, the film- of the drivers of those trucks told us: mad son of Mullu Thanwar. He was ‘We picked up the bodies with our 18 years old and worked as a daily own hands. Every time we lifted one wage labourer at the straw board up it gave out gas. The bodies had all mill near the Bhopal bus stand. Raju turned blue, and had froth oozing spoke no English, but he knew the from their mouths. We could fit 120 words to all Elvis’s songs. bodies into one truck and we filled On the night of the disaster, Raju and emptied each truck five times a was at the home of his elder sister day. There were eight trucks on duty. Sunita. Her husband Mulchand was This carried on with exactly the same away from home. Around midnight intensity for three to four days, each Sunita’s young son Rakesh and day at midnight the military took daughter Puja woke crying. Sunita over.’ The army dumped bodies in opened her eyes into a darkness full the jungles to be eaten by animals or of invisible fire. It was agony to and rivers, where they formed log- breathe. ‘We were retching,’ she says. jams against the arches of bridges. ‘Froth came out of our mouths, our Pictures of the unidentified dead lungs were burning. Raju and I took were published on posters, hundreds the kids and began running with the to a page. On such a poster his family crowd. Each step was murder. The finally recognised Raju. gas was destroying us. We got to Pir On his forehead was taped a scrap Gate, that’s all I remember.’ of paper marked ‘570’. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 11

Thanks to all those who gave pictures of their lost loved ones for this page, made with tears.We remember each of the people, almost 25,000 of them, who died on that night or of injuries in all the years following. Be at peace, dears, we shall never ever forget you.

Ourdeadhavefaces andnames,theyare not just numbers. 12 THE BHOPAL MARATHON After the gas

Sathyu Sarangi is a metallurgical engineer who on hearing news of the gas disaster, dropped everything he was doing and came to Bhopal to help for a week. Nearly three decades later he is still there. In this article he tells what it was like to arrive the day after the disaster, how from day one, he saw efforts to help the survivors being obstructed by Union Carbide and the state government, how the spirit of resistance spread among the survivors, and how many battles begun three decades ago in the aftermath of catastrophe still continue to this day.

WHEN I ARRIVED in Bhopal soon people on it seemed to know little of Carbide plant, which was surrounded after the disaster, I was unprepared. what had actually happened at our by densely populated communities Rushing to the city from the town destination. The magnitude of the that were badly affected by the leak. four hours away where I worked in an disaster was not realised at the time, The enormity of pain all around, NGO, I had very little information some of the repercussions are still and my helplessness to offer any kind (the news on the government radio coming to light nearly 30 years later. of assistance, was numbing. I just station had drastically downplayed As I walked out of the station, I stood at the station exit and stared. the tragedy), almost no local contacts could see thousands of people in My head and hands finally began to and only a hundred-odd rupees in my utter pain – their eyes swollen, tears work again when I saw hundreds of pocket. I had only a few clothes. I streaming, huddling with family and people helping the victims. Young didn’t think I’d be staying in the city friends. I saw some try to walk with and old, mostly men, from various for much more than a week, helping unsteady steps, before falling down – social and religious organisations out with emergency relief. whether unconscious or dead, I did and many more unaffiliated, were The day after the gas leak, the train not try to figure out. The station was busy caring for the survivors. A bus to Bhopal was nearly empty. The few just 1.5 kilometres from the Union stop just outside the railway station WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 13

had come to Bhopal from elsewhere. An organisation committed to the people’s struggle for rehabilitation and justice was formed. An activist scientist, a lawyer and the head of a left political party, were chosen to lead the group, which automatically began to attract victims into its fold. Other newly formed organisations were busy distributing relief material, doing preliminary medical research and running emergency clinics. Medical help denied SOON AFTERWARDS, we heard that a German toxicologist had arrived in had become a medical relief camp, do, he did not stop digging mass Bhopal bringing with him 50,000 where survivors could get milk, fruit, graves for three days and three nights, ampoules of sodium thiosulphate. water and words of comfort. Medical unmindful of what the work was Administered intravenously it helped supplies were limited to eye drops doing to his unpractised hands. I excrete ingested during the gas and antacids for the burning in the must have been in a similar state of leak and thus provided relief. eyes and stomach, and tablets for mind. It was only several days later While the ampoules were quickly breathlessness. These were little use, that I began to make some sense dished out to government officials so most of the volunteers focused on amidst the chaos and uncertainty: Is and people they knew, the director of lifting survivors to passing vehicles, the water safe to drink? Is the food health services, claiming that he was to be taken to Hamidia Hospital. okay to eat? Many mothers had died, apprehensive of possible side effects, I joined them for a while, then went into one of the areas near the station. There, the situation was very much worse. Open a door at random, and you were apt to see an entire family sprawled on the floor – some unconscious, some groaning, few able to speak. I ran back to the main street and soon had more than 50 volunteers join me in carrying people from their homes and into passing vehicles. Not one of the drivers of cars, trucks or auto-rickshaws refused to take a suffering person to the hospital. many aborted as they ran, but what of passed an edict against administering Finding ways to help the unborn babies who had no place it to common survivors. to escape to from the poison clouds, Our own research, with much help THE EVENING SKY on my first day were they okay? And I found things from scientist friends, showed that in Bhopal was lit by mass cremation to do amidst the millions of tasks that there were no side effects, and that pyres. I was told they’d been burning needed urgently to be done. sodium thiosulphate could indeed be non-stop since the previous day. I met Through chance encounters and effective in removing from a man whose hands were covered with word-of-mouth I met local students, the bloodstream – thus saving lives blisters. He lived next to a Muslim activists, social and political workers, of thousands – especially of unborn graveyard. Not knowing what else to as well as volunteers like myself who babies. But scientific debate wilted in 14 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

The true death toll: the testimony of Mohammed Karim I used to drive a truck to dispose of dirt and There were eight trucks on duty so that is waste. It was a special truck – I also used to 4,800 bodies a day. It carried on for exactly pick up unclaimed dead bodies from the the same intensity for three to four days, and mortuary, I was used to doing it. That night each night at midnight the military took [3rd December 1984] I put in thousands of over. 50 to 60 drivers were all working. bodies that we dumped – in one grave we Some people were picking up bodies and would put 5-6 bodies, and we burnt piles some animals. We took a bulldozer and dug and piles with logs. Many bodies were pits to bury all the animals, but the bodies burnt without being identified – Muslims we picked up with our own hands. Every were burnt and Hindus were buried. time we picked one up it gave out gas. The They [the government] said ‘leave your bodies had all turned blue, and had froth wives and children in your houses and go on oozing from their mouths. In some houses duty’. We used to be on duty till 12:00 at everyone had died so there was no one to night and after that the military trucks used break the locks. In one a six month old girl to come and dump the bodies in the Nar- had survived and everybody else (mother, mada river. This went on for three to four father and siblings) was dead. I broke the days. Even on the 16th [of December 1984] locks. At least 15–20,000 people died in we had to come back again. They gave us those first few days. What they said in the 500 rupees for this but then they took it papers was absolutely wrong. What could I back from our wages. have done? I was a government servant. We would fit 120 bodies in one truck and What the government said was absolutely this we would fill and empty five times a day. wrong but what could I do? WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 15 the overheated environment and in We watched, helpless, as thousands resumed in the factory, a government the face of powerful vested interests. and thousands of people left their helicopter sprayed water from the sky, (See LIE & LET DIE pp. 22-27) homes again, fleeing a second time jute screens were placed above the It seemed clear to us that Union from the city before the factory could factory walls and water tankers Carbide did not want the antidote be restarted. sprayed water along major streets. given and results monitored as it A number of survivor activists we Survivors commented that the jute would establish that the gases had not had befriended stayed behind with us screens would not even stop beedi just injured eyes and lungs (as Carbide to guard their neighbourhoods from smoke, let alone any leaking gases, wanted us to believe) but almost all thieves, including from policemen, and wondered whether the poison gas the organs by getting into the blood who had begun to steal things from would be co-operative enough to stream. Those who managed to give abandoned homes. keep to the wet roads. the sodium thiosulphate injections Sitting round log fires through the ‘The big picture’ through clinics we had set up were winter nights, provided with wet rags arrested. Medical issues in Bhopal in for possible emergencies, we shared ANOTHERDRAMA was unfolding at those early days were deeply political. stories and ruminated in clichés about that time. On the road leading to the Bodies dumped uncounted life, death and the meaning of it all. factory, workers from the Rashtriya

T HEDUMPING of dead bodies by the authorities, to downplay the scale of the disaster, were quickly common knowledge. Failing safety systems, poor maintenance, as well as faulty design and slack practices – all these pointed to the criminal negligence of Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other Union Carbide and its management – No faith Hindu fundamentalist organisations but the release on insignicant bail of OPERATION FAITH kicked off with marched chanting alongside a truck Warren Anderson, then chairman of great fanfare. As production in which a havan (the burning of Union Carbide, who visited wood, incense and ghee) Bhopal four days after the was being performed. They disaster, and was escorted claimed it would purify the out of the city under massive poisoned air. We managed security the very same day, to stop them before they got seemed to confirm that the anywhere near the factory. government was colluding With no sense of irony, with the corporation. the same government that We also were unsuccessful had announced Operation in stopping Operation Faith, Faith, stating there was no the government’s plan, just cause for panic, at the same days after the disaster, to let time mobilised buses from Union Carbide turn the MIC all over the state to rush left in the other two unsafe people away. tanks into . The government, unused We had the testimony of to dissent from a normally scientists that MIC, the raw easygoing population, tried material used to manufacture to disempower those who Sevin pesticide, could safely were organising the people be neutralised with caustic by siting relief camps set up soda. However, we were few, for those driven out of their and the government, despite homes in a far off part of the all that had happened still city, a ploy that back-fired preferred to repose its faith in spectacularly as our mass Carbide’s tainted science. mobilisations began. In the 16 THE BHOPAL MARATHON camps, people from several different They discussed the many ways that signing retainer forms – forms that neighbourhoods came together and common people could change this, many could barely see through their began powerfully to share their pain ranging from exposure of crimes to swollen eyes, let alone read, as they and bitter resentment against Union working alongside other victimised were written in English, which most Carbide corporation and the uncaring communities to fight legal and extra- people couldn’t understand. The fine politicians and government of the legal battles for the benefit of all. print gave up to 40% of any eventual state of Madhya Pradesh. compensation to the lawyers as legal People spoke of the ‘big picture’ – A plague of lawyers fees. The ambulance-chasers soon plunder and pillage for profit – and A PLAGUE of American lawyers now amassed bundles of forms marked the collusion between Union Carbide descended on Bhopal. Through local with Xs and thumb prints. and local bigwigs. agents, they cajoled survivors into As competition hotted up among Justice in alligator boots & a polka-dot tie

ENTER MR MELVIN BELLI. Into disaster anywhere in the world, businessman is a pretty cruel, un- the horrors of Bhopal, the mass ethical customer. He is the son of a death and torment of thousands, oozes the extraordinary figure of one of America's leading lawyers, a courtroom whale proclaiming that he is here to bring justice and money to those poor little bastards who have suffered at the hands of those sons of bitches. ‘We shall knock the stuffing out of them. There is no doubt that we will win, for Union Carbide have absolute liability. Only questions are the amount of damages – we're going for $15 billion – and the place of the trial. We’ll try for California. I know my juries there and I like my someone will call us. I want to get bitch. He is concerned only with judges. It is my home. I like to see this case tried in the US and get these profit.’ my two Italian greyhounds. They Indian people American damages for Mr Belli stepped outside to be sleep with me.’ the abuse of an American process.’ photographed, saw a poor woman Mr Belli arrived yesterday. He He told us that his law firm has and gave her a 20 rupee note (about cut a singular figure, a bulky white- represented many famous people £1.60). He said it was a Christmas haired man in a black suit with a red and reeled off the names of film present and she could buy cigars. silk lining, his feet encased in black stars. ‘But these people in India are One of the US lawyers in Bhopal alligator skin boots, a white polka- nobodies. Some poor little bastard said that Mr Belli ‘uses people’. Mr dot tie lying across his aldermanic living in a railroad shack goes home Belli replied loftily, ‘When you get paunch. On his way to a devastated to find his wife and child dead. Now to 77, have two Italian greyhounds community, numbed and mourning Union Carbide have the effrontery to and have read as many books as I after the greatest of industrial disas- offer a fucking orphanage and a have and have as many friends ters, there was something grotesque million dollars. It is a monumental among lawyers and judges, and have about his American law court show- goof typical of American philosophy. had as many cases as I have, you bizzery and intemperate language. You can hear them saying, “We gave don't have to justify yourself.’ ‘I had an idea I was going to get a a million dollars for an orphanage. piece of this case the morning I went Man, we got out of that one easy.” TREVOR FISHLOCK to the office,’ he announced. ‘Any Well, it won't wash. The American The Times, London, 11 December 1984 WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 17 these lawyers, they began doling out more than a few hundreds marching from local, national and international blankets and then cash to entice their on the seat of power to get a response. supporters, we volunteers had places new clients, all promising millions of to sleep and meals; but we spent most dollars in eventual compensation. Carbide’s lies and deceit of our time in the communities of M EANWHILE , Union Carbide was survivors we had by then befriended. People discover their power in full swing with its PR campaign. Perhaps it sounds odd, but amidst ITWAS interesting to observe how Corporate officials were telling the all the sadness these evenings were the disaster and its aftermath quickly world’s media that the leaked gases quite enjoyable, with people often became a crash course in the politics were like tear gas, and unlikely to singing songs, playing music and of corporations and governments. cause lasting damage. (See pp. 22-27) sharing stories full of rare humour. The role of governments and their Medical professionals were flown attitude towards common citizens, to Bhopal by the corporation. I never March on the Chief Minister self-serving politicians, factory bosses saw them help treat any victims, they D URINGMY third week in Bhopal, who did not care about workers and appeared to be there to endorse the we began planning a march to Chief other people’s lives, the poor being corporate view in press conferences. Minister Arjun Singh’s house. We forced to fight for their rights – such The press reported (p.23) that Carbide decided to hold it on 3 January 1985, issues were suddenly being discussed on every street corner. When supplies to the camps were suddenly cut off and the camps were wound up within a week of the disaster, hundreds of survivors marched demanding that was buying up Bhopal doctors. a month after the disaster, which we Governor K. M. Chandy request urgent If the magnitude and complexity would observe as Condemnation Day. help from the central government. of the disaster were overwhelming, It would be a chance to challenge the Instead, there came orders to close coping with Union Carbide’s spin was state government’s criminal neglect down the relief camps. Operation equally challenging. of the survivors, and to demand that Faith was over and the government With such a lot going on, and so it make arrangements for immediate wanted people back in their homes. much to be vigilant about, there was health care for people suffering from As weeks went by, there remained little time to ponder my own future. eye damage, breathing problems, no doubt that, left to its own devices, Questions as to whether, how and immune and neurological disorders, the local government would continue how long to stay on in Bhopal never cardiac problems, injured lungs and to neglect survivors and it would take entered my mind. Thanks to gifts the spate of difficult births. As we 18 THE BHOPAL MARATHON moved from house to house, from one to bring food. In the bastis, women neighbourhood to the next, we found breathless and choking more than that the local people did not need usual from the smoky wood hearths much convincing – only desperate were slapping dough for chapattis, health problems could stop most of not just for their own families but for them joining the rally. strangers as well. The march commenced with a few Families with little to give hundred people near the now-closed cared for orphaned children who Union Carbide factory. As we went on, had joined the dharna. Truck more and more groups of people drivers slid quietly away from holding hand-scrawled banners and their delivery runs to fetch food chanting slogans joined the march. and firewood and people from By the time we had covered half the the shanties. Children found distance (4 km) in about two hours, new friends to play with, and the march had swelled to over 10,000 together they would chant the people. Our procession was far from slogans they had begun to learn: orderly – people were ‘Dolaar kee chaal ne, zahar gholaa everywhere – traffic Bhopaal mein’ (Greed for dollars stood still. So many spews poison over Bhopal) and slogans were chanted ‘Kaarbaaid ke khunee panje tod do by so many groups mar do’ (Carbide’s bloodstained that it was impossible hands – strike them! break them!). to hear any clearly; A few volunteer doctors tended but what was very to the sick, and there was always a clear was that these team ready to carry people to the cries came out of deep hospital. anger and despair. Electricians rigged up wires People kept joining from streetlights to power loud- in waves, By the time speakers used for logistics and we were climbing up jokes and announcing the latest on the hill to the chief the negotiations with Bhopal’s minister’s palatial & politicians and bureaucrats. heavily guarded house, there were Soon breathless poets were reciting more than 15,000 survivors with us – poems of dignity and power; women far too many for the police to handle. who had rarely left their homes or The magic protest showed their faces to strangers spoke of their anger against the foreign company On arrival, we sought a meeting with and complicit government. the chief minister – it was not I was happy to absorb granted. We decided to sit on a this magic, all the bustling dharna outside the minister’s human activity, intense residence. Thousands of voices communication and, most vowed not to move until the of all, the powerful spirit of chief minister agreed to our survival and cooperation. demands. Thus began one of By the third day of our my most memorable weeks in dharna, the government Bhopal. Among the rocks and began to give way. Arjun bushes on the hillside outside Singh initially agreed to a the chief minister’s residence, meeting with a delegation people sat in small groups. of the leaders, but the mass Some began to look for wood insisted that he speak to all to light fires, and teams set off of them. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 19

At last he capitulated and came out before the vast crowd of survivors, thousands of whom poured into his residence to goggle at its fine rooms and opulent furnishings. People had learned that government could be made to listen to them. No regrets

THUSBEGAN the three decades of my involvement with the survivors of the Bhopal gas leak. In early-1986, I left the ZGKSM (Poison Gas Disaster Struggle Committee) and founded the Bhopal Group for Information and Action. Given the intensely political nature of health issues, as exemplified by the sodium thiosulphate scandal (see pp. 24-25), it was many years before we could set up the Sambhavna Trust. This was finally achieved in 1995 thanks to donations collected from concerned individuals by the newly set up Bhopal Medical Appeal. (See pp 71-83). I can’t remember exactly when, but at some point during that week of dharna I decided to be part of this community of pain, suffering, sharing , joy and hope. Not once in the years since then have I regretted my decision.

Sathyu Sarangi is Managing Trustee of the Sambhavna Trust, which runs the free Sambhavna Trust Clinic in Bhopal. 20 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

The strange voyage of Warren Anderson

Anderson flew to Bhopal on December 7, was arrested and held at Carbide’s luxury lakeside guest house. Hours later the press camped at the front gate learned he had left Bhopal. No one saw him go, but according to a reporter who was there1, the back gate leading to the lake was off its hinges. When the Chief Minister was asked if Anderson had been rowed across, his only reply was an enigmatic smile. Here, in a fictional piece, we speculate about what might have been passing through Warren Anderson’s mind on that strange trip.

As the boat pulled away, with sunset pretty confident of that because you say something in Indian. Something beginning to settle on the water, you had sought and received assurances like, I’m so sorry for what happened.’ must still not have been sure that you from a shaken Indian government. ‘Don’t say sorry,’ the lawyers will were going to escape. This was the Lily wanted you to stay home in have chorused. ‘Go ahead, express craziest thing yet in a nightmare that bed but you drove to Danbury. Each sympathy all you like but don’t say had begun the day you were ill and of the 57 minutes it took seemed to sorry because I’m sorry sounds like they woke you with news that your last an hour. Then before the cameras you’re to blame.’ Indian plant had gone rogue. of the world’s press you took ‘moral As the plane landed you looked ‘We’re afraid there were deaths.’ responsibility’ for the thing that had out to see police cars drawn up on the How many deaths? happened in Bhopal. It was the idea tarmac. ‘Ten or twelve, we think.’ of a PR guy, Peter Hargy-something. ‘Nice of them to give us an escort,’ By 6am the reports said 50, then The lawyers predictably were most you said, but never got to recite the the figures spiralled beyond counting. unhappy about it, but as the PR guy decent words you’d rehearsed. ‘I must go there,’ you said. said, ‘moral isn’t the same as legal’. The gaunt Indian who seemed to Your wife was adamant that you Two days ago in New York, we be in charge was not interested in should not. ‘You’ve had a bad fever. hear that the lawyers were still trying sympathy or sorrow. At his nod a Send Jackson. Warren, what if those to talk you out of going to Bhopal. tubby cop led you to a car, and then Indians get mad and lock you up?’ ‘Bad idea, sir. Could be read as an you were moving through the chaotic ‘They won’t, Lil.’ admission of guilt.’ city. 1984 We know you were ‘It’ll make a good impression if I ‘Could we go via the factory,’ you WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 21

asked. ‘I want to see it. I’d like to visit something that might result in death, They asked you for your name and with the victims.’ and done nothing to avert it. address. The cop scribbled on a bit of The cop gave you a strange look. What evidence was there? Okay, paper and asked you to sign it. It was You arrived at a glass edifice that there was that bad Christmas when a a bail bond. I, Warren Anderson… am turned out to be your company guest worker died in a spill. That resident at 63/54 Greenidge Hills Drive, house. It stood on a hill above a wide was an accident, that was one guy. A Greenidge, Connecticut, USA. You were lake, its nearest neighbour the palace few weeks later those 25 guys ended about to correct him: Greenwich, not of the ex-rulers of Bhopal. up in hospital from an MIC leak. Greenidge. Nope. Leave it. Let their ‘Look,’ you said, ‘I have no idea Pump seal failed. No one died. incompetence show. Bail was set at what’s going on, but I need to see that That May 1982 report.It found 10 25,000 rupees. ‘How much is that?’ plant.’ You explained there were major hazards, at least four of which you asked. ‘I don’t have any rupees.’ many things you wanted to check for could have been involved in the gas No one was very keen to lend you yourself. For example in the small disaster. But our Indian guys had the cash, but the police press-ganged hours of the 3rd the wind had been addressed those, hadn’t they? But a junior guest house employee into blowing from the north, you wanted with all that cost cutting going on, standing surety for you. to see what lay to the south. what if they hadn’t? It’s a Corporate It was important that news of Again the strange looks. Safety Program thing, the buck stops your escape did not get out before ‘From where do you get all such with me. you left India. The press were at the intelligence?’ asked the gaunt official Of course you’d had to cut costs. front gate pushing their faces into none too politely.’ What other choice, when the plant every car going in or out, looking for ‘I demand to see the factory.’ was losing so much money? Should you. ‘We will take you by another ‘I am afraid that is not possible.’ have acted sooner, got rid of it as route, Mr Anderson,’ said the cop. He informed you that you were soon as stuff started going wrong. This is where, if that journalist under arrest, charged with culpable The waste ponds were leaking with guessed right, you did your Bonny homicide of the thousands of people who knows what consequences. It Prince Charlie style escape. who were killed by the gas leak. was clear that you had to cut your The back gate of the guest house ‘I had a promise,’ you protested. losses and get the hell out. grounds couldn’t have been used in To this they didn’t reply, but showed We imagine you with your mind years. It was padlocked and the key you to a bedroom and left. full of worries. If things had been a was lost. They had to lift it off its ‘You can’t do this,’ you yelled. little different – if you’d managed to hinges. The sun was setting as they ‘Goddamn it, I’m an American.’ sell the plant, dismantle it, ship it walked you down a jungly hillside to You heard a key turn. somewhere like Brazil or Indonesia. the water’s edge and waiting boat. You sat on the bed, and because But you had problemsfinding a buyer December is chill on the lake, you you are human, we imagine that your to take the naphthol unit as of course were shivering as the light faded. confidence probably dissolved in a the technology was unproven – and On the far bank a car was waiting. pulse of panic. If they had got you if they ever – Wait!–What’s this? ‘House arrest or no house arrest,’ here on a weasel deal it could mean There was a phone beside the bed. you said, ‘bail or no bail, I am free to they were spitting with rage and You picked up the receiver. Got a dial go home…There is a law of the could do – why could do absolutely tone! The ambassador was properly United States… India, bye bye, thank anything – that cop with the face fins, calming. Nothing to worry about. you.’ They did not know if you were that was real relish in his voice when You’ll be going home soon. mocking, but the cop saluted as you he told you that the charges weren’t The day was passing and it was boarded the plane. bailable. You could wind up in jail mid-afternoon before the airport pair As your flight climbed away, you right here in India. Homicide! How showed up again. The thin official saw a necklace of lights glimmering the hell could this happen to you? seemed angry but apologetic. There on the lake: the old city of Bhopal. Homicide. How could they make had been a mistake. You were to be As you flew away from the carnage a charge like that stick? released, a plane had been arranged you never saw, we wonder whether For you to be guilty of culpable to fly you to Delhi, thence to New you realised that you would never be homicide (in British law it would be York. They were eager to leave right free of this place, that thereafter no called manslaughter) you’d have to away but you told them you had to day of your life would pass without have had prior knowledge that some- wait a couple of hours. It was not yet being haunted by the horror and pity thing awful was brewing in Bhopal, dawn in America. of what had happened here. 22 THE BHOPAL MARATHON LIE &LET DIE As people lay dying Union Carbide’s Director of Health & Safety, Jackson Browning, said that methyl isocyanate (described in UCC’s own safety literature as a ‘poison by inhalation… major residual injury is likely in spite of prompt treatment )1, was ‘nothing more than a potent tear gas’2. After indicated cyanide poisoning, the cyanide-antidote sodium thiosulphate was tried with good results until, it appears, Union Carbide used its influence to have the treatment stopped3. Union Carbide said that cyanide was not involved, that MIC caused only temporary damage to eyes and lungs, and the professional witnesses it flew in testified thus4.

INTHEHOURSAFTER the disaster, The grounds became an open-air dangerous was MIC that UCC gave it Bhopal’s medical system was put morgue, with bodies laid in rows. the maximum rating possible in its under a massive strain by the huge Rooms in the hospital were opened to internal hazard system. numbers of injured streaming to the accommodate the bodies and were ‘Do-to-do and la-dee-da’ hospitals. Thousands of people in soon filled with corpses lying piled deep distress, many of them dying, one on another. There had been no warning. crowded into Hamidia Hospital. Silence and lies Despite the factory’s proximity to densely populated communities (the Frantic calls from doctors to distance from the dangerous MIC the factory went unanswered. unit to the first houses of J.P. Nagar Four hours into the gas leak a was just 400 yards) Union Carbide senior magistrate went to the had never issued any instructions plant and with difficulty elicited about what to do in the event of an that the leaked gas was methyl emergency. 7 isocyanate.5 The factory’s Chief Dr Loya was disarmingly candid Medical Officer Dr L. S. Loya about why Carbide had hidden the then commented, ‘The gas that dangers. ‘If I say that I’m carrying a leaked is only an irritant, it is not deadly thing in my pocket, people fatal.’6 Even as he was uttering just turn you out of the town. [They] these mendacities his own mother don’t allow you to remain there, even was dying of the gas. though you aren’t going to use it… Here people are so emotional …if What Carbide knew you tell them, then the next day there Union Carbide’s internal safety will be a big procession and do-to-to manual, written in 1974, stated and la-dee-da, “will you please stop that if inhaled MIC could cause this factory we don’t want it,” even ‘fatal pulmonary oedema’ and that though it is not dangerous. Telling ‘major residual injury is likely in the truth is sometimes a difficult 1984 spite of prompt treatment.’ So problem in our country.’8 WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 23

Instead of helping its victims Union Carbide lied, obfuscated and obstructed efforts to save them. Knowing otherwise, it said damaged eyes and lungs would heal. Time exposed this as false, but too late for those who died. 24 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

College demonstrated a cherry-red Carbide refuses to share discolouration of blood and organs, and an unpleasant ‘bitter almonds' odour when the lungs were opened, information about gases all typical of cyanide poisoning.17 A telex from Carbide involved in toxic cloud As news of the disaster reached America, it prompted an instinctive As the scale of death and injury gases. ‘Immediately after exposure human response from Carbide’s US became undeniable, Bhopal’s doctors thousands of children and adults Medical Director, Dr Avashia, who claimed they were hampered by a died of acute pulmonary oedema, dashed off an urgent telex to Bhopal lack of medical information from respiratory failure, toxic effects on medical authorities: ‘If cyanide is UCC, and were effectively reduced to bodily systems including the central suspected use amyl nitrite; if no treatingsymptoms.9 For eye problems nervous system, congestive heart effect… use sodium nitrite 0.3gms they used atropine, antibiotics and failure and other complications.’13 and thiosulphate 12.5 gms.’18 padding; for swelling, diuretics; and Knowing what these chemicals Sodium thiosulphate is a proven for breathing problems a desperate were, how they could combine and antidote for cyanide poisoning. On cocktail of bronchodilators, oxygen, above all how they affected the body December 8, German toxicologist diuretics, steroids and antibiotics. was crucial to the medical effort but Dr Max Daunderer flew to Bhopal ‘Why hasn’t Union Carbide come from Carbide came no help. with 50,000 ampoules of the drug. forward,’ asked forensic pathologist Carbide’s ‘trade secrets’ Blood tests performed by Chandra Dr Heeresh Chandra, quoted in the and Daunderer found cyanide at 2 FT on December 8 1984, ‘…why Little was known in India of MIC ppm. They confirmed that injections have they not said “This is the gas and its effects and Carbide was still of the antidote led to excretion in that leaked, this is the treatment”? Is insisting that it was no more than an urine of high levels of thiocyanate it not a moral duty to tell us what was irritant, a tear gas. Many industry and helped detoxify the body. 19 used, what is the treatment, what is observers in the US were shocked by With patients showing ‘overall the prevention? They have not come the company’s callous behaviour. A improvement within hours’, a group forward.’10 Senior Vice-President of the US of local doctors noted that ‘sodium Twenty poison gases Chemical Institute of thiosulphate is not at all harmful and said that UCC may have conducted could act against many injurious The violence of the exothermic its own tests on the long-term effects products formed inside the body.’20 reaction in the Bhopal plant’s huge of MIC but classified its results as (A series of double-blind clinical MIC tank could have spawned up to ‘trade secrets, which are therefore not trials made by the Indian Council of 200 toxic compounds11, among them available’.14 A leading chemical journal Medical Research, ICMR, between the first world war gas phosgene noted: ‘Union Carbide may have the 1985 and1987 would later confirm along with other decomposition best information on MIC toxicity these findings.) 21 products like carbon monoxide and around but they’re treating it like a trade hydrogen cyanide. As much as a third secret…’15 The US chemical industry’s Carbide’s U-turn of the materials released may have code of conduct calls for information Just at it seemed that a way had been created by the explosion itself.12 to be given to doctors regardless of been found to save lives, a new telex Dr N.R. Bhandari, the Medical whether trade secrets are involved.16 came from Dr Avashia, abruptly and Superintendant of A question of cyanide incomprehensiblyreversing his earlier Hamidia Hospital, advice and discouraging use of sodium DEC recalls being told at Suspicion that many deaths were thiosulphate.22 A Union Carbide team first that the gas caused by cyanide stemmed from arrived in Bhopal, bringing a hapless was phosgene, then weakness, acute syncope and sheer Dr Avashia, who had perfected a new 1984 that it was MIC. speed of demise. story. Later it became clear that it was not First autopsies by Dr. Heeresh At a press conference Dr. Avashia, only MIC but a mixture of about 20 Chandra at the Gandhi Medical flanked by Union Carbide lawyers, WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 25

loudly affirmed that there could be he had come to the conclusion that Borel between TB damage and gas damage. no question of cyanide poisoning – had never suffered from asbestosis and Cyanide toxicity can’t be explained and the use of sodium thiosulphate that his pleural mesothelioma could have away in terms of an Indian epidemic. was neither necessary nor advisable developed as a result of cancer spreading It will unambiguously establish the as it was not an antidote to MIC.23 from some other site.’ relationship between the gas leak and As reported by New Scientist (on Borel’s attorney Ward Stephenson thousands who suffered.’30 November 28 1985) when reminded ‘forced Weill to acknowledge that without Comments by Carbide’s attorney of his earlier advice, Dr Avashia ever having seen Borel or examined Bud Holman in the ensuing legal replied that he ‘could not be expected Borel’s lung he was trying to refute the battle (see p.43)proved Sadgopal right. to know what sort of gas was stored diagnosis of asbestosis which had been Carbide musters its allies at the plant in Bhopal.’24 made at first hand by Borel’s internist, by Asked why his telex had referred the surgeon who had removed Borel’s lung What (see p.23) to MIC complications, ‘Avashia had and by the pathologists who had examined called ‘the Carbide lobby in Bhopal’s no answer.’ tissue from Borel’s lung. He proceeded to medical administration’ was soon at Professional ‘witnesses’ obtain an admission from Weill that work. Its first act, according to former Borel’s mesothelioma was in all likelihood District Collector Moti Singh, was to Union Carbide’s team included a associated with his exposure to asbestos.’28 launch a campaign of smears against number of medical ‘experts’, among Dr Max Daunderer and drive him them, Professor Hans Weill, a lung Carbide’s cyanide panic from Bhopal.31 specialist. Carbide knew Weill well as Another in the Carbide party was Next, Dr. M.N. Nagu, Bhopal’s a professional defender of asbestos their Chief Toxicologist, chemical- Directorate of Health Services (his companies, including Union Carbide. warfare expert Bryan Ballantyne, brother held the lucrative contract Twenty-one of these corporations whose years at Porton Down had left for security at the Union Carbide’ attended a Dec. 9, 1976 summit of the him with a deep interest in cyanide.29 factory) sent a circular warning doctors Asbestos Information Association. Carbide’s strategy was to quash all that ‘under no circumstances’ should The minutes reveal that the primary talk of cyanide and play down the sodium thiosulphate be used. Any purpose of the legal-medical research long term effects of MIC-poisoning. doctor who used the antidote, Nagu programme run by Dr. Weill was ‘to Why, asked The Sunday Times, did blustered, would be ‘held responsible’ improve the quality of defences for the absence or presence of hydrogen in case of negative results.32 asbestos companies involved in third cyanide among the lethal gas or This diktat, which had no medical party liability suits in tort.’ He was gasses matter so much to Carbide? basis, effectively stopped use of this also to identify other ‘experts’ who Dr. Anil Sadgopal of the Medico- drug that could have saved many would be willing to testify on behalf Friends Circle had an explanation. lives and eased the suffering of the of the asbestos companies.25 ‘It matters in the litigation for gas survivors. Ironically when early compensation. Carbide’s lawyers will results from the Indian Council of Weill weighs in obviously try to reduce liability as Medical Research’s double-blind According to much as possible. An important part testing of sodium thiosulphate Dr Weill said that the victims who of their strategy will be to demon- came through in April they were so had survived to this point ‘have an strate that the industrial slums of good that it was recommending mass encouraging prognosis’ and that most India are endemic with use of antidote injections.33 would probably recover fully.26 This and that doctors can’t differentiate Given the strong suspicion that view was not shared by the editors of The Lancet who, on the same day, wrote that long term lung effects ‘can be expected’.27 Antidote bringing relief Months after Weill’s intervention in the Bhopal crisis, a long article in the New Yorker cast major doubt on to victims is stopped on his reliability as a witness. ‘Weill went on to tell the jury that after reviewing chest X-rays of Borel … advice of Union Carbide 26 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Victims set up their own free clinic to administer the life-saving injections

Union Carbide had colluded with its Centre survived just 20 days but in allies in Bhopal’s medical establish- that brief period it gave more injec- ment to stop the use of sodium thio- tions than all the government hospi- sulphate34 (see news story, right) Bhopal tals put together had done in the survivors realised that to get the anti- previous six months.34 dote they would have to administer it At midnight on 24 June 1985, themselves. police raided the homes of doctors They decided to set up a People’s and clinic workers. A dozen armed Health Centre to provide injections police entered the clinic, forced those free of charge to communities living inside into two jeeps and took them near the Union Carbide factory. to two separate police stations where A call for help was answered by they were locked up overnight before volunteer doctors and health workers being sent to jail. and work began on a simple pole and Charges cooked up against them thatch building on land co- mandeered within the huge The Bhopal People’s Clinic was sixty-six acre factory site. the first attempt by survivors The foundation plaque was faced with Carbide’s indifference laid by Sunil Kumar, 13, (see pp. 39, 43, 45, 58, 115, 121, 138) who and government neglect to take was orphaned by the disaster – charge of their own medical care. seven of his family of ten died on ‘that night’. included the attempted murder of The Centre was run by volunteer officials and other serious criminal doctors who meticu- offences. The police took away 1,200 lously recorded the medical folders that recorded the JUNE effects of sodium beneficial effect on exposed people thiosulphate on the of sodium thiosulphate injections. many symptoms of These were handed to Carbide and 1985 gas exposure. The never seen again. What became of THE BHOPAL OLYMPICS 27

“The fight for public health”

“Our local and national leaders, who pledged to protect people’s lives, first allowed this lethal plant to be installed close to human dwellings, and then turned their faces away from the suffering gas victims. For the past six months, politicians have hidden the problems of gas victims; withheld effective cures and blindly pumped people full of random drugs, playing havoc with their lives. We have fundamental human rights to health and proper medical care, but to get them we have been forced to fight these them, no one knows. struggle for health and medical care, powers that rule and govern us. This One of the surviving records is a to obtain which they had been forced patient card (above) issued to Mr to fight ‘these powers that rule and Health Clinic was set up by the gas Jagdish Vishwakarma, a 28 year old govern us.’ victims on 3 June 1985 on land we resident of Qazi Camp, one of the It was now abundantly clear how occupied inside the Union Carbide worst-hit neighbourhoods. site, the first fruit of our struggle. It shows that on June 25, The sodium thiosulphate scandal This clinic was made by the people 1985 he received the first of a demonstrated to the survivors of course of 12 injections of for the people, it is for the benefit the disaster that their political sodium thiosulphate. Hours of the gas victims. We intend to later the clinic was destroyed rulers and the corporation were make it a model for public struggle and his course was never essentially on the same side. against the merchants of death. completed. Join us, help keep the clinic running. On the card the Clinic’s manifesto deep the multinational’s influence • Down with the murderer Union was published in Hindi. It is trans- ran among the country’s rulers and lated into English in the panel at left. that in any future conflict of interest Carbide! • The fight for medical The destruction of the clinic was it was the survivors who would be care is a fight for our rights!” a defining moment in the survivors’ thrown to the dogs. Doctors arrested in midnight raids, police tear down clinic, seize and hand over thousands of confidential patient records to Union Carbide. 28 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Hell’s Angels

Almost half of all pregnant women exposed to Carbide’s gas spontaneously aborted. In the months that followed the city experienced what a Swedish doctor described as ‘a spate of horrific births’. 1

A CHILD IS BORN. It is past midnight inside the dank labour room at the Sultania Janada Hospital, Bhopal. Three attendants wash the tiny infant and routinely hold him up to give his mother her first glimpse.2 ‘Tumhara ladka paida hua hai (you have a son),’ says one nurse as she pats the child to make him cry. There is no response. In the dim light, the skin of the child looks macerated and bluish. A senior doctor is called. He looks down at the curled figure, asks for the mother's medical record and scrawls in the column for details of the birth: ‘Stillborn boy weighing four pounds, born to the mother’. Then he rushes out to the maternity ward to attend to another patient about to deliver. Outside there is silence as the father looks expectantly at the white- clothed figures washing hands in the waiting room. Then comes the sound of weeping behind the green curtains of the labour room. ‘Yeh bhi gas kand ka baccha paida hua hai,’ (Here is another child JULY of the gas tragedy) says the nurse as she 1985 shows the father the WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 29 30 THE BHOPAL MARATHON shrivelled face of his newborn. The The study showed that out of 865 Senior doctors silenced grief of these parents was drowned in who came to term, 43% delivered a universal horror, for hundreds of stillborn babies. Of 486 live births The horrifying statistics and the parents were to hear those terrible 14% died in the first 30 days. Only 1 monstrous births now taking place words, ‘Your child is another victim in 3 children born to women preg- were hushed up by panicky officials. of the gas’. nant on the night of the gas survived. Sunday’s reporter Ritu Sarin found Many were born deformed.3 deep unwillingness among officials 1 in 3 babies survived and senior doctors to speak about A epidemiological study by what was happening. Junior staff Daya R. Varma in September 1985 of were more forthcoming. She wrote: women living within one kilometre ‘Travelling in the ambulance of the plant reported a more-than which carries blood samples and fourfold increase in spontaneous placentae and ailing children to the abortions. Almost half the pregnant Hamidia hospital we hear that women exposed to Carbide’s gases four or five children die every day on ‘that night’ abruptly aborted. Still at Sultana Janana Hospital alone births too were significantly high. with more than ten placentae being sent for experiments to the Gandhi Medical College.There are sorry tales of mothers who have lost their offspring or who are bringing up deformed infants, shocking accounts given by junior hospital staff, midwives and nurses who insist they have never seen any birth-and-death cycle like this before.’ Unprecedented horror ‘Against this we have the official version of bureaucrats and senior doctors who are under instructions not to talk. An attempt is being made to cover-up the deformities and abnormalities being recorded… Nobody knows if the trauma will end with this generation, or the next.’ Writing this in 1985, Ritu Sarin could not possibly have known how chillingly on-the-nail her last remark would turn out to be. As late as 1990, spontaneous abortion rates among gas-exposed women were more than three times that among unexposed women.4 Nearly thirty years later, damaged infants are still being born in Bhopal to gas-affected parents and in the communities whose drinking water is contaminated by chemical wastes leaking from Union Carbide’s still 1985 uncleaned factory. (See pp. 94-5)5 WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 31 Terrified mothers-to-be are driven away from a government hospital by police with truncheons Early in 1985 rumours were sweeping hospital carrying urine samples. being beaten up –– not the first time the city of a spate of disastrous births, They begged to be tested to make police had attacked women and even many barely recognisable as human. sure their pregnancies were normal, children asking for help –– the Indian A group of scared mothers-to-be and pleaded for sodium thiosulphate Council of Medical Research was went in a procession to a government injections to flush out the poisons that conducting its double-blind clinical had entered their bodies on trial of sodium thiosulphate. ‘that night’. While the fears of many mothers- The women got neither to-be were all too soon horrifically tests nor detoxifying-shots realised, the ICMR study took 25 but were instead driven off years to be published6, only to prove, a by police with long batons. generation too late, that many lives As these poor women were were lost that could have been saved. 32 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

As civil action began in a US court, Union Carbide tried to blame the disaster on Sikh terrorists. When this met with ridicule it claimed sabotage by a ‘disgruntled employee’, whom it failed to name. This theory, despite being repeatedly discredited, is still repeated by Dow Chemical. In fact, as this article, first published in The Guardian on December 3, 2009, argues, there is plenty of evidence to show the main culprit was Union Carbide itself. On the edge of the volcano

WAKE UP PEOPLE OF BHOPAL, you are on the edge of a volcano! In September 1982, the Bhopali journalist Rajkumar Keswani wrote a terrifying story for the city’s Hindi Jansatta daily. It was the first of four articles, the last of which would be written just weeks before the Union Carbide gas disaster. Bhopal, wrote Keswani, was about to be annihilated. ‘It will take an hour, at most an hour-and-a-half, for every one to die.’ The death of the city, would come in the form of a gas leak from Union Carbide’s pesticide factory. 1 Keswani’s information came from worried staff at the factory, where a worker, Ashraf Khan, had just been killed in a phosgene spill. The World War I gas was being used to produce methyl-isocyanate (MIC), a chemical 500 times deadlier than hydrogen cyanide, so volatile that unless kept in spotless conditions and refrigerated to 0˚C, it can even react explosively with itself. 2 Cooling it slows reactions, buys time in an emergency, but MIC is so dangerous that chemical engineers recommend not storing it at all unless absolutely necessary and then only in the tiniest quantities. In Europe the storage limit is half a ton. In Bhopal, on the night of the disaster, 67 tons of MIC were stored in tanks the size of steam locomotives.3 WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 33 unproven technology, cost-cutting & ‘reckless, depraved indifference’ led to an entirelyavoidable disaster

Storing up danger UCC’s overall shareholding would Unproven technology INANAFFIDAVIT given to a court in inevitably be diluted but by reducing Union Carbide had promised state- Manhattan, Eduard Muñoz, Union the amount of investment needed, it of-the-art science but a confidential Carbide’s first managing director of could still retain majority control. In memorandum (see p. 34) obtained via Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL), plain English, Carbide’s original plan discovery in a US court case shows said that during discussions about for state-of-the-art technology was that the corporation short-changed starting MIC production in Bhopal too expensive, the facility must be the Indian government by installing he had opposed the US parent’s plan built for less. $8 million, over 25% of ‘unproven’ technology in the ultra- to install three giant MIC tanks on the budget, was chewed and chiselled hazardous alpha-napthol and MIC the site. Muñoz’s position was that away so Carbide could keep a 50.9% units.7 The cheaper process entailed ‘only token storage was necessary, in majority shareholding in its Indian moving to a batch process and storing small containers, based on economic subsidiary.7 For the people of Bhopal huge quantities of MIC on site. and safety considerations.’4 this would prove catastrophic. Hence the three giant tanks, hence the He was overruled. According to experts like the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research the excessive volume of MIC stored in Bhopal, at times over ninety tons, was the most critical factor in the disaster.5 Cost cutting to keep control On January 1, 1974, India enacted the Foreign Exchange & Regulation Act (FERA), requiring foreign equity in Indian companies to be diluted to no more than 40%. This was a severe blow to UCC (US) which owned 60% of UCIL’s shares: the corporation’s management policy was at all times to retain majority control of subsidiaries. UCC proposed to the government that it would aid its ‘green revolution’ by producing MIC in Bhopal. But the process for manufacturing MIC was a Union Carbide secret, necessitating high-technology inputs not available in India. UCC could provide these if, and only if, exempted from FERA.6 The exemption was granted but a new problem arose. Investment would be needed with a higher proportion coming from the Indian partners who already had 40% of the subsidiary. 34 THE BHOPAL MARATHON overruling of Eduard Muñoz. Death of Ashraf Khan Ashraf Khan by intensifying its cost- UCC’s American design engineers cutting in the most dangerous areas warned of problems and risks, but A SHRAF K HANWORKED in the of the plant. the board decided to push ahead ‘unproven’ unit of the factory and was Reckless and lunatic cuts regardless. desperately worried about the state Union Carbide India, on whose of affairs there. His wife, Sajida Bano BETWEEN 1980-84 the workforce board sat some executives from Union (see p. 48) remembers that he often was halved. The crew of the MIC Carbide Eastern appointed by UCC, came home complaining about the unit was slashed from twelve to six, duly acceded to the plan, stating that dangers he and other workers faced. and its maintenance staff from six to ‘the business risk’ was ‘acceptable’.7 On 24 December 1981 Ashraf was two. In the MIC control room a single No mention of the human risk. asked to replace a defective flange operator had to monitor seventy-odd connecting two pipes in the phosgene panels, indicators and controllers, all manufacturing section. His manager old and faulty, which often failed. Safety training was reduced from six months to two weeks, reduced in effect to slogans, but the slogans were in English so the workers couldn’t understand them.10 By the time Keswani began writing his articles, the huge, dangerous plant was being operated by men with little training and less English who were expected to use English manuals. Morale was low but safety fears were ignored by management. Minor accidents were just covered up. There The cost of cutting assured him there was no danger but were so many small leaks that the no sooner had he removed the flange alarm siren was turned off to avoid ASENDLESS safety scares plagued than phosgene gushed out onto him. inconveniencing the neighbours.11 the plant, and a sequence of failed He was taken to the plant dispensary In plants dealing with corrosive monsoons hit harvests and depressed and subsequently moved to Hamidia chemicals such as methyl isocyanate, demand for pesticides, the factory hospital where he died. experts want fortnightly inspections began haemorrhaging money. Safety audit finds dangers of valves, pipes and pumps, with new UCC bosses decided to dismantle replacements every six months, but the plant and ship it to Indonesia or AFTER THE DEATH of Ashraf Khan in Bhopal inspections were rare and Brazil, but as a confidential memo Union Carbide management sent out replacements often not made for up to (below) makes clear, the unproven a team of US engineers to conduct a two years. When repairs were needed technology of the alpha-napthol unit ‘business confidential’ safety audit. the use of new parts was curtailed. made it ‘impossible to sell.’ 8 The May 1982 report identified 61 Old ones were recycled.12 Carbide was paying the price for its hazards, 30 of them major and 10 in 13. penny-pinching. Having failed to find the dangerous phosgene/MIC unit.9 There’s nothing left to cut a buyer, bosses began cutting back on Safety measures were improved at These reckless instructions came maintenance expenditure at the plant. Carbide's MIC plant in West Virginia, from Carbide’s Bhopal Task Force, a Now others too would pay the price. but not in Bhopal, where, incredibly, crisis management team based at But they would pay with their lives. Carbide responded to the death of Union Carbide Eastern, the regional holding company in Hong Kong. The formation of the Bhopal Task Force had been approved by Warren Anderson himself, and on its board sat top US executives who reported back to the UCC board in Danbury.13 By the time the Force had finished WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 35

with the Bhopal factory, far from being the shining cathedral of science depicted in Union Carbide adverts, it more closely resembled a farmyard. Surveying the devastation they had wrought, the Task Force boasted in a confidential report (right) of sacking 335 men and saving $1.25 million, but ruefully reflects that ‘future savings would not be so easy.’15 tank failure and knowing the lethal by design engineers in the US. nature of MIC, Union Carbide did The true story is told by Carbide’s Warning not passed on the right thing in West Virginia and own confidential papers obtained by In February 1984, a safety audit of improved safety systems. In Bhopal, ‘discovery’ during an action brought the West Virginia ‘sister’ factory where ambient daytime temperatures by Bhopal survivors against Union raised major concerns that a runaway can top 40˚C, cost-cutters turned off Carbide in a Manhattan court. Some reaction could occur in one of the the refrigeration of the MIC tanks to excerpts are presented here. The rest MIC Unit storage tanks, in which save freon gas then worth $37 a day.16 are available online and can be accessed at: http:// bhopal.org/discoverypapers Depraved indifference If safety was ignored inside the plant, Union Carbide had no plan at all for the nearby densely-peopled areas . As the safety situation in the factory worsened, its staff, fearing for case there would be no way to prevent their own lives and for those living catastrophic failure of the tank.15 US bosses blame workers nearby, put up posters warning of a Despite the obvious importance of Confronted with a huge mountain of terrible danger.Keswani wrote to the this report and its relevance to the evidence that its factory had been Chief Minister begging him to step MIC tanks in Bhopal, the warning negligently and shoddily managed, in before Bhopal ‘turns into Hitler’s was not passed on to the Indian plant, Carbide soon began claiming that gas chamber.’ Its sensational style, where managers were still looking for UCC, the American parent, had no perhaps, caused him to be ignored. things to cut. There was nothing left. authority or control over the plant's His final article, ‘We are all about to Or was there? design or operations, and could bear be annihilated,’ appeared just weeks Then Carbide bosses remembered no responsibility for the disaster.17 before the gas disaster. the three giant tanks of MIC. After Carbide’s Sikh terrorist ploy Unproven technology, inadequate failed, it fixed blame on an unnamed safety systems, storing giant amounts Refrigeration turned off ‘disgruntled employee’, who, it said, of a lethal poison in conditions made T HETHREEHUGETANKS were bore a grudge against the company.18 doubly dangerous by negligence and meant to be kept refrigerated, as per This too was rejected by India’s cost-cutting, ignoring warnings, and Carbide’s safety manual , at 0˚C. Central Bureau of Investigation and endangering a whole city to save $40 This is crucial because MIC is so the Indian government, which called a day – all of these contributed to the volatile that unless impeccably kept Carbide’s claim ‘an attempt to obscure terror of December 1984, caused the it can even react with itself. Chilling it the material facts of this action with deaths of 20,000 and condemned slows down lethal runaway reactions irrelevant facts, improbable detail 100,000 more to a lifetime of pain. of the very sort predicted by the and blatant misrepresentation’.19 All were expressions of a Union West Virginia safety auditors, buying Carbide culture of greed and double time to solve the problem, and most Out of their own mouths standards which fostered what one importantly, giving a chance for In fact every important element, prosecuting attorney speaking in the warnings to be issued and any nearby from the ‘unproven’ Alpha Napthol New York court would describe as a populations evacuated to safety. unit down to the MIC plant, had been ‘reckless, depraved indifference to Given the threat of a catastrophic designed by UCC, or else approved human life’. 36 THE BHOPAL MARATHON WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 37 Voices from the abyss

1985 passed. And 1986. In Bhopal people continued to sicken and die, but their deaths no longer made headlines. As in New York lawyers argued over jurisdiction, Union Carbide claimed it was not to blame for the disaster. The Indian government retorted that it could not provide reparations for the victims. Abandoned to their fate, ignored by the great and powerful, all that remains of many is the faint echo of their voices.

‘Listen, I will tell you what terror is .’

People rushing past like water in a river. In the crush my children's hands are torn from mine. They are gone. I scream their names. People are dying with piss and shit running down their legs. People are washing their eyes in drains to ease the pain. I’m searching among the dead for my family. Blackened leaves falling like rain. I meet a man burying his ‘There’s very little to eat. baby. He looks at me and says ‘Good Very little to wear.’ morning.’ We both start crying. Days pass, we have pain, fever, There’s very little to eat. Very little fits, nausea, breathlessness, our eyes to wear. My papa burn, limbs ache. Don’t know if we’ll just doesn’t get a job. live or die. A permanent job he 1985 Survive? How? I used to carry can’t get. Before the sacks on my back, now I can barely leak, he used to work carry myself. But so what? I have no on a boring machine. 1986 family to feed. When the gas came Now he cannot work everything fell, and everything fell on that machine. 1987 through our fingers. Before the gas, Carbide must be I was poor. Now I am a beggar. punished. Take them What is terror? It’s women scared to the police station. 1988 to give birth. It’s ‘Carbide babies’, Then hit them, then jail them – those born dead with tiny heads, flesh like Carbide fellows. I can’t play. I am blue jelly, eyes like boiled eggs. weak. My hands and legs ache when People stay sick. Who knows what I run. I get breathless. I run and fall new hell will emerge in our bodies? down immediately. Nanko (75 yrs) Suresh (8 yrs) Unemployed, homeless Class 2, Shakti Nagar 38 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

face great difficulty in walking. I work. Hand in your resignation.’ The suffer from breathlessness and my company people told me to give it in chest hurts terribly. I try to read but writing that my health was very bad everything seems hazy. The doctors and that I was resigning of my own say there is no treatment for MIC accord. If I wrote that, they said, they poisoning. The ICMR people call would accept it, and if not, they me for tests, blood gas analysis, lung wouldn't take me into work anyway. function tests urine tests etc. We are I was a permanent worker, and I had never given the reports of these tests worked there fifteen years. Now I'm and the doctors don’t tell us anything not doing any work. From the gas properly. I used to inhale toxic gases leak till today I haven't done any even before the gas disaster. All kinds work. I go here and there in search of of gases used to leak inside the Carbide work, but no work is available. plant and the managers never did Ahmed Ali (45) ‘The people are being anything about them. Unemployed, Bapna Colony lulled. When a child cries, S.K. Dube (32) one diverts it by saying that Former UCIL Plant Operator, Firdous Nagar ‘I wrote to the Speaker of a tiger is coming or a goat is the Legislative Assembly coming. Neither does the asking permission to tiger come, nor the goat.’ immolate my self and my People are going around in circles for family. I was so desperate.’ relief money. Carbide’s assets are still intact. The government is not taking Since the gas leak I suffer from acute it over nor will it use Carbide's assets breathlessness, my limbs ache and I to help the victims. The people are often get high fever. I have worked as not quiet, it's just that they are being a chef in many of the big hotels in lulled. When a child cries, one India but now I can’t do this work; soothes it by diverting its attention when I enter a kitchen where the fires saying a tiger is coming or a goat is are burning and spices are being fried coming. Neither does the tiger come I start coughing violently and feel nor does the goat. And the child like vomiting. I somehow manage to eventually sleeps. The government is drive an auto-rickshaw to support working in a similar fashion. We will my family of eight. Earlier I used to have to cry out all over again. earn three to four thousand rupees a Shammu Khan (50) ‘From the gas leak until month, now I can hardly earn five Rents out bicycles, today I haven't worked. hundred. I cannot work for more Indira Nagar than four to six hours and can only I go here and there in work for 15 to 20 days a month. I have ‘The doctors say there search of work, but no sent six applications to the Collector, work is available.’ six to the Chief Minister, six to the is no treatment for MIC Commissioner, Gas Relief. I wrote to poisoning.’ Before the gas leak I worked in the the Prime Minister and the President textile mill, in the spinning section. about the plight of my family. I wrote That night I was on duty at the Sevin When the gas leaked I was very ill in also to the Speaker of the Legislative plant. I was also a member of the hospital. I got certificates made there Assembly and asked permission to emergency squad so I stayed on to and went back to the textile mill. I immolate myself along with my family control the leak. That is how the gas told my boss ‘here is my certificate, because I was so desperate. hit me and I became unconscious. I give me some lighter work to do’. He Chander Singh (41) was admitted to the hospital and my said ‘we are reducing the number of Auto-rickshaw Driver, lungs were operated upon. Now I workers, so we can’t give you lighter Karimabaksh Colony WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 39 Sunil Kumar, orphaned by Union Carbide Our earliest picture (left) of Sunil Kumar with his little brother Kunkun. Sunil would become an icon of the Bhopal survivors movement. He would lay the foundation of the survivors’s first clinic (see p. 26) appear in documentaries, travel to America only to be arrested and handcuffed by Union Carbide security personnel (p. 58). He would tour Europe with Bianca Jagger to protest against the 1989 settlement and tell of the neglect and injustice suffered by his forgotten community. ‘Two years have passed ‘I have spent most of and UnionCarbide and the last five years on this the government are still hospital bed.’ arguing but they are doing nothing. I think if the It’s the sixth time I’ve been admitted owner of Carbide were to the MIC Ward. I have been here since the last month of 1985. When I here, I would slay him’ feel a little better the doctors send me home but I can't stay there for long. Just as people were killed by the gas, My breathlessness becomes acute and something similar should be done to my husband has to bring me back to punish Carbide. This punishment the hospital. The doctors say that the cannot be given by the Bhopal court. gases have damaged my lung badly. Two years have passed and Carbide They say nothing can be done about ‘I feel as if there is a fire in and the government are still arguing my . Before the gas I had my head and it seems as if but they are doing nothing. I think if never seen the insides of a hospital. the owner of Carbide were here, I And now I have spent most of the last the gas is leaking again’ would slay him– and it is not just me five years on this hospital bed. I used but the whole neighbourhood that to work as an assistant at a day care When I cough it feels as though it is thinks so. Carbide has destroyed my centre and now I can not do any work. the gas again. What do I know about family–seven people, my mum, dad, My husband Kaluram also can not the case? I can neither read nor write. three sisters and two brothers died. go to his job. He used to carry loads. I have got my claim form filled. But Many of my friends also died. My son is a tailor, he is the only one I don’t know how much it asks for. Sunil Kumar (14) earning in the family. Will we get compensation? When Student, Class 9, Narayani Bai (35), will it come? No good asking me. J.P. Nagar Mahamayee ka Baug Gafooran Bee(60) Housework, Indira Nagar It is Carbide’s fault that ‘Before the gas I performed 1985 the poison escaped. The magic in the streets. Now I can’t do it. I get breathless.’ big-big officers in Carbide Source documents: 1986 should be punished. They ‘We Will Never The story of Hari Shankar Magician Forget 1986-1987’ should be hung. is told by Suketu Mehta on p. 49. Bhopal Group for 1987 Pradeep (12) Hari Shankar (40) Information &Action Student, Class 6, Kainchi Chhola Street magician, Vijay Nagar 1988 40 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

The legal wrangling lasted four years while victims died but we now know that Carbide had dictated the settlement within three months of the gas leak

The ‘settlement’ of 1989 came as a baffling shock to most observers. No one understood how the death and injury figures and criteria for assessing claims and compensation 1985 had been worked out. The potential for civil damages in the Union Carbide gas tragedy case was unprecedented, and there seemed no way to account for the 1989 degree to which justice had failed the survivors. Then in April 2011 a right-to- information request unearthed a hitherto secret correspondence that explained much. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 41

In December 1984, having presided over the worst industrial disaster in history, Union Carbide appeared to be in a hopeless legal position. That it was able to emerge four years later, in February 1989, with a result that made its share price jump for joy cannot be ascribed to Indian incompetence. India then, as now, had no shortage of clever lawyers who had built a damning case against the multinational. They were never to have their day in court. Anderson’s queer optimism On February 27, 1985, less than three months after the carnage in EDITOR’S NOTE: Bhopal, Union Carbide CEO Warren In Indian numerals 1 crore is 10 million Anderson wrote to his stockholders: ‘In an earlier communication, we advised stockholders of counsel’s opinion that victims of the Bhopal tragedy could be fairly & adequately compensated without material adverse effect on Union Carbide’s financial con- dition. We reaffirm that opinion and our belief that a prompt and equitable settlement is in the best interests of all concerned.’1 Such optimism was puzzling, as flamboyant US attorneyMelvin Belli, who showed up in Bhopal sporting alligator boots, boasted : ‘This is an easy one. We will knock the stuffing out of them. There is no doubt that we will win as Union Carbide have absolute liability. The only questions are the damages – we're going for $15 billion –and the place of trial.’2 Damages, it was widely believed, would be so huge that Union Carbide was certain to be bankrupted. Carbide’s secret deal The day after Anderson wrote to stockholders, top Carbide executive Rolf H. Towe and Union Carbide India Managing Director Gokhale, visited India’s Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilisers and presented Indian officials with a detailed, costed plan for a negotiated settlement. (right) 42 THE BHOPAL MARATHON Carbide dictated the injury categories and compensation amounts, demanding immunity from prosecution for itself

According to the minutes of the for the gas victims in all proceedings. top secret meeting, the Carbide duo The victims were not consulted. said that Warren Anderson had been Union Carbide’s Sold down the river told by the Indian ambassador in Washington that ‘the Government of tactics to force In taking these powers (and thus India had an open mind on the issue’ down the price depriving the survivors of the right but would like Carbide to take the to seek their own legal redress), the first step.3 On March 4, Carbide duly of a settlement government pledged to pursue full made a formal proposal aimed at justice and compensation for loss of ‘avoiding protracted litigation in life and personal injury, health-care India or in the US by or on behalf of RED HERRINGS costs, loss of property (food, crops, the claimants’ in return for a sum to It was either terrorism by animals), loss of earnings, livelihood be paid to the Indian government.4 and business. All of these aims were a Sikh group called Black June, sacrificed to placate the company. Outrageous terms or else sabotage by In their eagerness to collude with Carbide chose the Railways Act to a ‘disgruntled employee’ the American corporate giant, India’s fix amounts to be paid for deaths and politicians adopted the categories of injuries, thus guaranteeing itself injury proposed by Union Carbide. minimum financial loss. It proposed DElay Its definition of temporary injury categories of injury that were at best Carbide threatened to drag covered 94% of the victims, nearly all unscientific and at worst bitterly proceedings out indefinitely of whom were people with injuries cruel to the victims. as people suffered and died. that would last all their lives. They Carbide then demanded from the were to be awarded $494. “If there are 200,000 claimants, Indian politicians that ‘in exchange Union Carbide fixed a payment of (for cash) UCIL and UCC require the 200,000 claimants will $1,976 for each death (six years later that all claims by Indian citizens, have to appear in court” this is the amount the government corporations, partnerships or other Carbide attorney Bud Holman actually paid families of the dead). entities arising out of or connected Carbide accuses victims with the Bhopal gas leak disaster against either or both of them, their NoN-ComplIaNCE The sensational case opened in affiliates, directors, officers and Having argued that India New York, but Carbide successfully employees to be fully released and was the right forum for the got it transferred to India. Michael extinguished in all respects.’5 Ciresi, a US lawyer representing the Bhopal trial and agreed to Victims cheated of justice Indian government was cynical. accept the jurisdiction of ‘The chairman of the Board of In order, as now seems clear, to Indian courts, Union Carbide Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, ensure that this monstrous deal was turned round and said it has said they prefer to resolve this not obstructed, the government just would not appear for trial in case quickly and in a just fashion. If 24 days later rushed his attorneys do otherwise, we have India because Indian courts through the Bhopal an accurate reading on the integrity 1985 Gas Leak Disaster had no jurisdiction over it of Mr. Anderson's statements.’7 Act of 19856 making Union Carbide went on the attack 1989 itself sole plaintiff by questioning the integrity of the WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 43

people whose families it had killed claim for $3.3 billion against Union claims were granted. Had the real and whose lives it had ruined. Carbide was based on an estimate of figures of death and injury been As predicted ( p.25) Bud Holman, around 3,000 deaths and 100,000 used, the Indian government’s claim attorney for Union Carbide, cynically injuries, but its own official figures ought to have been for upwards of tried to downplay the effects of the show that more than 5,000 death $15 billion, more indeed than the gas by suggesting that the victims claims and well over 550,000 injury company was worth at the time. had already been sick: ‘Some have TB which is endemic in that area, some have emphysema, endemic in that area, some have malnutrition, which is a troublesome thing in that area. Each individual history has to be examined in order to determine what damage he has, or whether he has a claim or not. The claims include a considerable number of fraudulent claims, we expect … If we're going to defend ourselves, and we are, if there are 200,000 claimants, the 200,000 claimants are going to have to appear in court.' He suggested the court allot one day to each witness.8 In fact the Indian government’s official tally of the injured listed well Sunil gets a kiss in New York over 550,000 people.9 and a shock in Bhopal Bid to settle out-of-court Young Sunil, orphaned by the gas We were trying to locate the As the litigation developed, UCC (see p39), was sent to New York position of the ‘inversion layer’ was adamant that ‘There has got to be to testify in the hearings against that determines whether gas from a settlement, and that’s the answer.’ Union Carbide. He was rather a stack will be forced downwards It did not escape observers that a unimpressed by high tech things or will disperse. The balloon had settlement would deny survivors like escalators or infrared taps and to hover at different heights, proper compensation and the chance of imposing exemplary punishment skyscrapers. He felt people in the being raised or lowered one metre on Carbide and its officials: USA were not happy because they at a time and held in position for ‘An early settlement would allow worked very hard and had no time an hour at each level. the corporation to sidestep a public for friends. He was quite affable For some reason the important jury trial and a media airing of the with people we met and amused job of controlling the balloon was issues, avoiding possible punitive himself inventing names for them. given to Gangaram who recruited damages, likely imposition of a just An anti-toxic campaigner in Baton Sunil as his assistant. damage-award matching the damage Rouge who said ‘basically’ rather It was hot and Gangaram was it had done, bankruptcy, the transfer too much became ‘bycycly’. drowsy so he said to Sunil, ‘I am of company assets to the victims and One young woman moved by going to have a nap, you take the deterrent and preventive effect the boy’s brave bearing kissed him hold of the wire for an hour.’ The that a trial would inevitably have.’10 on the lips in a lift and he couldn’t time passed and Sunil too became Carbide’s aim was to force the stop talking of it. drowsy. While they were asleep a price low, while Indian politicians, On Sunil’s return to Bhopal he wind gently drifted the balloon who started by asking for $3 billion, found himself in J.P. Nagar holding onto some high tension wires. needed enough to save face. a line attached to a large helium The pair were lucky to escape Falsifying the figures balloon floating high with a few burns and were soon up above the Union fully well. What befell next is quite The Indian government’s civil 1986 Carbide factory. another story… SATHYU 44 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

The $470 million paid to the Indian The victims were at no point government was mostly covered by insurance. It has been calculated that consulted about a settlement the real ultimate cost to the company was no more than $25 million.14a reported that which utterly betrayed them in the first hour of trading after the news broke Union Carbide’s shares jumped 10%.14b (right) Carbide’s first offer Carbide shares soar These scenes of joy underlined An early offer of US $100 million When details of the settlement the infamy of the settlement, which ‘exceeds all applicable standards in reached Wall Street, great were the lacked any restitutionary or punitive India or the US’, said Carbide, and celebrations. Instead of bankruptcy aspect. Carbide’s callous negligence claimed it would ‘pay the heirs of Union Carbide had got off scot free. and cost cutting went unpunished. each deceased person the equivalent of more than 100 years income and each of the reported serious injuries approximately twenty years annual income.’ This offer was just half of Union Carbide’s declared insurance cover of US$200 million.11 It would in effect have cost the company nothing. The final amount eventually paid as compensation for a lifetime of pain currently amounts to about 7p a day.12 Carbide used victims’ pain to force price down At the outset of the US hearings Union Carbide had petitioned that the case be transferred to an Indian court – which it evidently never had the slightest intention of attending. The petition was granted, on the condition that Carbide obeyed the ruling of Indian courts,13 but Carbide next claimed that the Indian courts had no jurisdiction over it.14 With little progress being made in court the only hope of resolution lay in a settlement but as arguments dragged on and and more victims died, the pressure on the Indian government grew. Union Carbide had breached the right to life and security, the right to health and an adequate standard of living, the right to sufficient food and clean water and the right to a safe environment. The settlement finally agreed in 1989 failed to cover any of these. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 45

The victims were forgotten. not remain uninvestigated. The shifting stand of the Union of India on the point should not by itself lead to any miscarriage of justice.’

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA, OCT 3, 1991

Carbide breaks its word The criminal trial recommenced in Bhopal in February 1992, but Union Carbide declined to attend. Breaking the promise given to the Sunil (17) on US court when the proceedings were moved to India, a spokesman said, the settlement ‘Union Carbide and Mr Anderson do A pittance for the poor not recognise the right of the Bhopal court Those responsible The settlement of $470 million, if to hear criminal charges against them… shared between so many, produced a Neither has any intention of appearing should be hanged theoretical average of about $800. before it.’ My brothers Anil and Santosh died The Indian government banked the Compensation of 7p a day money and disbursed it as it saw fit. from the gas. My parents and three Many illiterate victims who could A fter years of petitioning, a second sisters, Pushpa, Kiran and Sanju also not produce papers, were left out. Of payment was made out of the interest died. I live with my sister Mamta those who got any compensation at accrued by the government over the and my brother who is three and a all, most had between $300 to $500.15 years. The total average pay out still half. He is sick a lot. Union Carbide Criminal charges revived came to less than $1,000. has done this to my family. I want to How could such a sum last the teach them a lesson. I’m a member In 1991, in response to an appeal survivors for the rest of their lives, of Children Against Carbide – other from survivors’ groups the Supreme cover their medical costs and replace children who have lost their parents Court of India woke up at last to the lost earnings? Over the decades that are also members. idea that criminal liability cannot be have passed since ‘that night’ the The Government told us nothing bought off and ordered the criminal value of this ‘compensation’ has about the settlement with Carbide. proceedings against Union Carbide dwindled to just 7p a day, scarcely I read about it in the papers and went Corporation to be revived. enough to buy a cup of tea, even in to the court to find out about it. (See p. 107) Once again the possibility existed Bhopal. The case against Carbide must for survivors to be compensated for A disastrous precedent be continued. Till now they have not all they had lost and suffered. established who were responsible You can’t imprison a company, but If the 1989 settlement served as a for the gas leak. The CBI inquiry has in Indian criminal law, restitutionary precedent for anything, it was that a also been stopped. The people must and punitive fines are based on the foreign company, provided it had scale of the crime and perpetrator’s deep pockets, could do what it liked know who was responsible for the ability to pay. in India and that Indian politicians gas disaster–who killed their loved There is no upper limit. would take its side and shield it from ones. And those who are found to In reviving criminal liabilities, the the consequences of its crimes. be responsible must be hanged. Supreme Court said: That, unfortunately, was the real What is the use of all the money if those who have killed so many go ‘It is a matter of importance lesson of Bhopal, and as evidenced by the indemnities demanded and scot-free. Similar things will happen that offences alleged in the won by foreign technology-suppliers elsewhere and there also they will context of a disaster of such against Bhopal-type disasters, it still say ‘take some money and settle the gravity and magnitude should continues to be true to this day. matter.’ This will become the rule. 46 THE BHOPAL MARATHON A man destined to burn

WHEN THE LETHAL GAS leaked on ‘that night’ in December 1984, the lack of information from Union Carbide was so total that Kailash’s mother Jiyabai thought the gas spreading around them was tear gas, being used to quell a riot somewhere in the city. Fearing for her son, she closed the door and sat outside, to make sure he did not go out and no one came in. The gas, however, found its way into the house through the windows and through cracks and crevices. Kailash’s wife’s eyes were burning and he felt breathless and unwell. Opening the door, he found his mother unconscious on the doorstep. On his way to get help for his mother and wife, Kailash fainted. He woke hours later on a truck, among a pile of bodies bound for the funeral pyre. Years later, he described the terror of waking among dead people, their bulging eyes, swollen faces, twisted limbs and sunken heads. His mother died the same day, and embittered by her loss his father shut himself away, to become a recluse. Kailash was left totally disabled, unable to breathe for coughing fits, constantly shuttling between home and hospital. Kailash Pawar was thrice a victim: first of MIC, then of ignorance about its effects stemming from Carbide’s refusal to share its knowledge, finally of society’s failure to meet the needs of the victims of the world’s biggest industrial disaster. Many treatments were tried out on Kailash Pawar, in the hope of finding a cure for MIC’s ravages. Initially he 1989 was regarded as a star-witness to the WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 47

On March 24, 1989, Kailash Pawar doused himself in kerosene and struck a match. In his early twenties, he had been ill since the gas leak. Choosing to die by fire, he left a statement that he was killing himself in order to remind a forgetful world of the continuing suffering of the gas victims in Bhopal. It was just over a month after the ‘settlement’ with Union Carbide. efficacy of sodium thiosulphate, as sometimes. But I am helpless.’ on each of these counts. he too showed an improvement after If ceaseless pain eroded Kailash’s What too of the redress owed to the injections. self respect, the fact of being unable his wife, who shared so much of his Alas, it was shortlived, followed to support his family, the fear that he pain and suffering, whose own hopes by frequent attacks of acute illness, was a burden, killed what sense of were dashed year after year, and on relating to his burnt-out lungs, and self might have been saved by relief whom the burden of restoring his serial hospitalisations. and rehabilitation. Both his sense of spirit rested most squarely? His wife Winter was the worst time. Every worthlessness and his consciousness had to work to support the family, winter he would be back in hospital, of the burden and stress that his pain and the only job she could get was at trying sometimes one, sometimes put on his wife preyed incessantly Rs 200 a month, sewing, less than a another, treatment, injection after upon him. Added to this was his tenth of their previous income. With injection, test after test. grief and guilt that his mother had her MIC-injured eyes, sewing must As the years dragged on, his pain lost her life in trying to preserve his. have been agony. How many victims grew.In his interviews we hear the Ultimately he could no longer bear are there in her person? same notes of pain and helplessness his trauma. And finally, what of the suffering over and over again. On the 24th of March 1989, just of the hundreds of thousands who Often he said it would have been over a month after the infamous were exposed to MIC more than five better to burn. Union Carbide settlement he killed years ago and who still live in fear of In Kailash’s last interview, a few himself. its effects, because these often have a days before he killed himself, the In how many ways was Kailash delayed appearance? loss of hope and total destruction of Pawar victimised: how many victims In giving interim relief (pitifully any pleasure in living dominate. made up this one being? There is the inadequate though it is) to residents ‘My body is the support of my victim with the burnt out lungs; the of the 36 wards ‘directly affected’ by life. When my breathing is normal, I victim subjected to treatment after the leak the government accepts the feel like living but when it becomes treatment; the victim who could no important principle that the entire heavy thinking stops, absolute pain longer work; the victim who was a community suffers in such disasters, takes over … In winter when my strain and burden on his family; the not individuals alone. It remains to breathing grows worse I take up to victim for whom his mother lost her be seen whether Union Carbide will six injections a day. I have become life; and the victim whose hopes were accept its own responsibilities. worthless … My wife inspires me to constantly rising and being dashed RADHA KUMAR live. She too must be tiring of me to the ground. Redress is surely due Adapted from The Hindu, March 26, 1990 48 THE BHOPAL MARATHON A letter to Union Carbide

FROM ‘BHOPAL LIVES’ SUKETU MEHTA

SAJIDA BANO never had to use a veil until her husband Sir, died. He worked at the Carbide plant and was its first Big people like you have snatched the peace and victim. In 1981, three years before the night of gas, Ashraf happiness of us poor people. You are living it up in was at work when a valve malfunctioned and splashed big palaces and mansions. Moving around in cars. him with liquid phosgene. He was dead within 72 hours. Have you ever thought that you have wiped away the marriage marks from our foreheads, emptied our laps of children, bathed us in poison, and we are sobbing, but death doesn't come. Like a living, walking corpse you have left us. At least tell us what our crime was, for which such a big punishment has been given. IF WITH THE STRENGTH OF YOUR MONEY YOU’D SHOT US ALL AT ONCE WITH BULLETS, WE WOULD NOT HAVE TO DIE SUCH MISERABLE SOBBING DEATHS. You just put your hand on your heart and think – if you are a human being – if this happened to you how would your wife and children feel? This one sentence must surely have caused you pain. If this vampire Union Carbide factory In 1984, Sajida visited her mother in Kanpur, and had been quiet after eating my husband, if heartless came back to Bhopal on the night of gas. At the railway station she began to experience a choking sensation. Her folk like you had had your eyes opened, then probably eyes began burning and tearing profusely. With her two I would not have lost my child after the death of my sons, she rushed to the station’s waiting room which was husband. full of people who were unconscious or choking to death. After my husband's death my son would have been In the panic, Sajida was separated from her children. my support. But before he could grow you uprooted She passed out. Her four-year-old son died in the him. I don't know why you have this enmity against waiting room with his little brother holding on to him. me. The factory had killed the second of the three people Why have you played with my life so much? What Sajida loved most. She was left with one surviving son, was I, a poor helpless woman, spoiling of yours that sick in body and mind. For a long time, whenever he even after taking my husband you weren't content? heard a train whistle, he would run outside, thinking that You ate my child too. If you are a human being and his brother was on that train. have a human heart then tell me yourself what should Sajida Bano asked if I would carry a letter for her to be done with you people and with me. I am asking ‘those Carbide people, whoever they are.’ She wrote it you only, tell me, what should I do? all in one night, without revision. She wants to eliminate Hope sustains life, it's said – for some maybe. distance, the food chain of activists, journalists, lawyers, But what about hopeless, deathless lives – like and governments between her and the people in Danbury. mine? Here, with her permission, are the excerpts I translated: SAJIDA BANO WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 49

THEGASCHANGEDPEOPLE'SLIVES in ways big and Passers-by, seeing the mysterious gaudy box, gather small. Harishankar Magician used to be in the negative- spontaneously to enquire what it is. Harishankar invites positive business. them to put on the Stethoscope, which is a pair of big It was a good business. He’d sit on the pavement, hold padded headphones attached to the Machin. up a small glass vial, and shout, ‘Negative to positive!’ Then he flips a switch that activates a battery hidden in Then, hollering all the while, he would demonstrate. his bicycle basket and the front panel of the Machin comes ‘It's very easy to put alive with flashing disco negative on paper. Take lights, rows of red and this chemical, take any yellow and blue and green negative, any you like. NEGATIVE coloured bulbs. This fine Put it on any paper, and Machin, Harishankar tells rub with this chemical, his customers, monitors then place it in the sun their blood pressure and for only 10 minutes. then tells their fortune via ‘This is a process to the Stethoscope. The fee make a positive from a is two rupees (six cents). negative.’ Harishankar Magician By this time a crowd doesn't like this business. of curious people would It is not like his previous have gathered to watch trade. He thinks this one the magical, miraculous isn’t honest, that working transformation of a plain with the Electromic’s Mini film negative to an image Computer Machin, he is on a postcard. peddling a fraud. In an hour and a half, Besides, he can only do Harishankar Magician it for an hour and a half a could easily earn 50 or day, and clears only about 60 rupees ($2) in this 15 rupees (43 cents). business. Harishankar Magician Then the gas came. is sad. He yearns for the It killed his son and negative-positive business. destroyed his lungs and Once the activist Sathyu left leg. In the negative- Sarangi took a picture of positive business, he had Harishankar's son, who to sit still for hours. He was born six days before could no longer do that the gas came. now with his gammy leg, The child survived the and his withered lungs night of the gas leak, but could not shout. was very sick and died So Harishankar had three years later. to find a new business that Harishankar and his did not involve standing wife have no photo of and shouting. Today he their dead boy in their wanders the city pushing a POSITIVE possession, and they ask bicycle that bears a box Sathyu if he can find the with a hand-painted sign: negative of the photo he SUKETU ALSO TELLS took. ASTROLOGY BY Then they will use the ELECTRONICE MINI small vial of chemical to COMPUTER MACHIN The sad story of make a positive of their boy's negative, with only Harishankar Magician 10 minutes of sunlight. 50 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

In the summer of 1989 a group of seventy-five gas-affected women from Bhopal, accompanied by thirty children and twelve men undertook a 500-mile padyatra – a protest march on foot – from Bhopal to New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister. They would lay before him the broken promises made to them by the state government and ask his help. In their innocence, or naivete, they did not think to inform either the PM’s office or the media. They just set out, on an adventure that became one of the great turning points of Bhopali resistance. For most of them the memory of that steady walk along miles and miles of endless road now feels like a dream, but they still remember the people, things and situations they met along the way. The long walk of the Bhopali women

THIS SMUDGY PHOTO crisscrossed people reckoned it was up in breathed its foul gases and lost our with the grain of newsprint, is all that direction, but quite a way off. loved ones and those who didn’t die remains in the world of our walk – ‘How will we get there?’ right away wished they had. the long walk of the Bhopali women. Rashida and Champadevi said, That night is a terror no one The rest is memories. ‘We have no transport so we’ll have wants to remember but no one can It was Rashida’s idea, this much to walk. It will show we’re serious. forget. Everyone has a story about everyone agrees. We’ll all go together.’ what happened. These stories no one ‘We’ll go to see the PM’ ‘When?’ wants to tell, and none want to hear. ‘Soon as possible.’ After the angels When Rashida said this, all of us ‘Tomorrow, then.’ were happy. It just seemed right, the We agreed to meet early next When the angel of death opened moment she said it. Yes, of course. morning and set out. We’d bring a its wings over the city, bodies were The Prime Minister. He’d listen to bit of food and, if anyone had any, a piled in heaps in the streets and our us. It was our only way to be heard. little money might come in handy. old lives were gone. ‘Where is the Prime Minister?’ Flames not flowers Most of us had worked hard at ‘He has a so-big house in Delhi.’ heavy manual jobs. Now we weren’t ‘Where is Delhi?’ We are women of Bhopal. We able to do that work any longer. We Nobody knew for are flames, not flowers. When Union were ill. Breathless. Coughing all the 1989 sure but a couple of Carbide’s factory blew up in 1984 we time. Our children were ill. We had WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 51 no money for or food. asked when we dared to complain, Minister was canvassing in Kharasia What do you do when there’s no that you are piece rate workers, here for an election. food? You bind a cloth tightly round on sufferance. You have no right to We issued a statement saying that your middle to fool your stomach. If demand anything. half of us would go to Kharasia and your children cry with hunger you canvass against the Chief Minister, fill their tummies with water. But We get angry and wise while the rest protested at his office. how long can you live like that? Well, we’d had enough of excuses When the news reached the Chief and of being pushed around and lied Minister it had a magical effect. A promise of work to. We warned the civil servants and He immediately instructed that Then the state government got a bosses, look, day after day we waited all our demands be met – factory- large amount of money from Delhi to outside your gates, you people shut shactory, salary-shalary, everything. create jobs for gas-affected people. your eyes and ears. You have hearts Wages to rise to Rs. 535 a month. It decided to train some women to of stone. So be it. We’ll take direct work in one of its printing presses. action, don’t say we didn’t warn you. We are ungrateful About 100 of us took up the offer. The officials relented and began The poor fell0w – it was Arjun We trained four months on a stipend giving us work. For the next two and Singh, late in his life he felt bad of Rs 150 a month (£2), not enough a half years we earned 10-12 rupees a about how he treated us gas victims – to make ends meet. The bosses told day (£0.12 or $0.17). got a real shock, and to be honest we us that when qualified we’d earn a surprised ourselves when we rejected proper salary, but after the training And angrier and wiser his offer. If we’d known more about they said there were no jobs. There Around this time, someone found negotiating, we mightn’t have dared. never had been any. We might as well out about a thing called the Factories In our ignorance, call it innocence have trained to be astronauts. Act and the Minimum Wages Act. if you prefer, we held out for what That’s when Rashida & Champa- It turned out that we hadn’t been the law prescribed, a salary of Rs devi spoke up. What was the point of paid at a proper rate, plus during the 2700 a month for a skilled worker training us, they asked, if there was period we were underpaid the press and a proper employment contract. no work. The bosses said we should made a profit of 400,000 rupees. I think a lot of the officials were be grateful to be trained at all. If we We went to the bosses and asked horrified by our attitude. Again we wanted work we should start our for our rights: minimum wages and had shown ingratitude. It began to own printing press. regular employment. We asked to be dawn on us that they, coming from treated according to the law. more affluent backgrounds than us, Chief Minister steps in The bosses were shocked, they did not think of us as deserving of We were getting nowhere with said, disturbed by our ingratitude, the same rights they enjoyed. Maybe the bosses. They told us to go home but they would be generous, they that, or they just didn’t like being and stop bothering them, so we would try to find us a bit more work pushed around by a lot of women made a petition and took it round to and offer a small increase in wages. like us. So we gathered, one sunrise the Chief Minister’s office. So we told them what they could in the summer of 1989, for the grand After some time came a reply that do with such generosity. send-off from families and friends, we would be employed in the State who thought us mad but garlanded Industrial Corporation. We should We learn politics us and showered us with marigolds just show up, work would be given. We did not know how to protest and roses – you can just make them We were thrilled, and praised the but we had heard of sit ins (dharna) out in that old photo, if you look Chief Minister for his kindness. so we went to the state assembly and carefully. Jamila garlanded his portrait. sat and slept there for several days. On the appointed day we went to This had no effect. the gates of the factory and waited. People gave us new ideas, and we Come back tomorrow, they said. tried rallies, meetings, rasta rokos Next day it was the same story. (road blocks) and even a procession After a month we’d had two days' at night with burning torches, which work and earned Rs 6-12 each (£0.08 the children enjoyed very much. or $0.12), hardly a living wage. None of this worked. Did no one explain to you, they Then we got wind that the Chief 52 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

The rains followed us on the road during the night. Many rushed out, and a kind cafe owner more must have passed among us, as gave fresh milk to the children. It was June, when the rains come. we slept and never knew… All along the way, people would We were ahead, the rains behind and No food or money ask why are you doing this? We the gods beside us. All the while we would stop to explain and then have walked, the rains were before us, or Most of us had brought only 30 to catch up the others. behind us, but we never got wet. or 40 rupees and when these were We walked in small groups - the We didn’t know how far Delhi spent, women sold ornaments to get quicker ones would leave pounded was, nor the way there, nor how long cash for medicines, and food for the rice on the road to mark the way. The it would take. We didn’t know what children. Genda Bai found a five lead group would generally scout a we’d eat or where we’d sleep. We did rupee note on the road and used it to place for us to spend the next night. not know how tough it would be. buy her son some medicine. We are all one Many of us had our kids with The food we had brought from us. There were a few men too. Each home lasted just one day. After that We were Hindus and Muslims of us carried a small bag with a few we had to ask for food in the villages both, but in our group all differences necessaries, a blanket, bed spread, where we stopped for the night. melted away - we cooked together, spare clothes. Country folk are extraordinarily ate together, shared our troubles and kind. Some days they would cook slept side by side. We began bonding Blisters and herbs for us. At other times people gave us with one another and the people we Soon the children, and many of the materials, and we cooked our met saw no differences among us. us women, had blisters on our feet. own supper. We were one. We’d treat them with herbs found Telling our story In Guna, we had planned to pass along the way, and keep walking. the night in a Hindu temple, then No one said ‘Let's go back’. Occasionally, when we begged someone noticed signs that Muslims There were times when we were we’d be scolded. ‘You seem healthy were not allowed inside. To us this so exhausted at the end of the day and capable, can't you work for food seemed like a kind of madness we that we had no energy to cook or eat, like everyone else?’ had left behind. but we would force ourselves to eat, Or, more cynically, ‘you must all We began shouting ‘hum sab ek and feed others. Otherwise, how have received good compensation hain’ - ‘we are all one, we are united’. would we go on next morning? from the government after the gas The head priest of the temple At first we walked only 8 or 10 disaster. Why are you still making heard the commotion and came out. kilometres a day. As time passed the more demands?’ To our delight, he joined us in the pace picked up and we could walk 35 Then we would try to explain slogan-shouting, and then he opened to 40 kilometres a day, kids and all. what had really happened in Bhopal. the doors and cordially invited us all We slept in forests How people were ill, compensation to spend the night in the temple. It was a joke. We told of having to was a lovely place with comfortable We got up very early, about 3 am pay officials. People were angry rooms and the food was wonderful. to escape the cruel sun. When then and they helped us and we Rashida Bi, a Muslim, spoke for our sandals wore out, we tied had no more scoldings. everyone when she declared, ‘I will leaves to the soles of our feet. Sometimes, the local police always distinctly remember the taste Often people would walk would arrange food for us and put of louki ka kheer.’ Pumpkin cream. with us from one village to the next us up in government resthouses with as a way of showing their support. guards for our protection. Bandit alert The road passed through some A night without supper As we came nearer the Chambal wild places, forests where there were ravines, people started warning us no villages. Far from anywhere, we’d In a place called ‘moti quarters' about the ‘killer' dacoit gangs that sleep in the grass - a wide bedroom the security personnel wouldn’t let hid in them and robbed travellers. under the starry sky, with the odd us leave the rest house in the night. They said the dacoits would truck roaring by. Three or four of us We had not cooked supper and harm us, perhaps even kill us. kept watch over the rest. so we went hungry. It was a bad night We weren’t scared. Who would In the dawn, we were shocked to - children crying - none of us could waste time robbing people who had see dead scorpions and snakes killed sleep. As soon as light came, we all nothing? Everything we had in our WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 53 lives had already been looted from she was carrying soon after we got to politician, stopped his car to hear us. Bhopal was full of killers and Agra. our story. He could not help meet bribe-extracting bandits with names And then there was Abeeda who our demands but gave us Rs. 2,000 like kampani, minister, government. would faint every few kilometres. (£25) to keep us fed. When a rich man steals the last Gendabai’s 7-year-old son Rajendar Next came Suresh Pachouri, our means of life that a poor person has, was sick during the journey. His own MP. He talked us into going that you can call banditry. head would reel and his legs back to Bhopal and assured us that ‘We are not flowers but flames, would give way under him. once we got back matters would be let the bandits come.’ We keep on resolved. He promised personally to Police bandits protect us take care of our case and get our & In spite of all the demands met. We trusted him The dacoits got to hear about us hardships, we and decided to go home. All and sent word that they would not kept on his promises he broke. touch a hair of our heads. to Delhi. Not The local police inspector said once did anyone They’re afraid of us he believed this, but just to be sure, say ‘enough, let's We are together still he and his men walked alongside us go back’. We and we know now almost 40 kilometres. told ourselves that we should not At the edge of his territory, he ‘we’re on our way now have come back parted from us in tears. ‘If I had the and there's no stopping empty-handed power, I would have agreed to all - we have to get to Delhi but our long your demands long ago and saved and meet the Prime Minister.’ march had you this trouble’. After crossing twelve districts in turned us A cold reception four states in 33 days, we finally into gritty reached Delhi. determined At Dholpur in it was We were utterly exhausted but fighters. a different story. Everyone we met our problems weren’t over. We did Some time from the commissioner of police to not know where the India Gate was, afterwards the local MP refused to help us. nor how to meet the PM and let many work ‘Who asked you to do this?’ him know we had arrived. projects were We wanted to stop and eat and We were finally told closed down by have a rest, but they wouldn’t permit that Rajiv Gandhi was out of the government. it and offered to drive us in buses town - he reserved his 1,300 women in other through their district. We said no, weekends for family, centres were displaced. we have come to walk, that’s what and on Monday Our centre was not closed. we’ll do. And did. As the headlights was going abroad. The bandits are afraid of us. of the van pierced the darkness ahead We were in a quandary - we trudged hungry all night. should we wait? We had Won’t be fooled again no food, no money and We even got our audience with Pain and loss nowhere to stay. Unlike the villagers Rajiv Gandhi. He was in Bhopal at a Sometimes local media covered who had supported us, Delhi was public meeting. We forced our way our padyatra but mostly ignored us. cold. Nobody offered to help us. in. After walking to Delhi to meet During the 33 days of our walk Instead they sneered at us, ‘what him, were we going to let a few fat those who were menstruating were makes you think the Prime Minister policewallahs stand in our way? the worst sufferers. We used folded of India would want to meet women We broke in and told our story. cotton cloth as pads and walking like you?’ Rajiv Gandhi apologised to us. with the cloth on created rashes on and said, ‘I didn’t know that you had the tender skin of the upper thighs. Tricked by our MP come all the way from Bhopal on Walking became extremely painful, We were camped on the grass foot to meet me. If I had known, I but they kept on. near India Gate, the rains were due would have come to India Gate to Yashoda, who was five months and Delhi was indifferent to us. No meet you myself.’ pregnant, tragically lost the twins one would meet us. Then Devilal, a Oh yes. A likely story.

Scolopendra hardwickeii shown on this page life size 54 THE BHOPAL MARATHON The compensation nightmare:

Union Carbide’s injury categories were based not on the actual effects of MIC (which as safety manuals show were well known to the corporation) but on its legal and PR propaganda, which held that injuries to eyes and lungs were superficial and would soon recover. The Indian government’s willingness to accept these untruths, even after the injuries had not improved with the passage of years was to have devastating consequences in the lives of the survivors.

A year after the Indian government’s settlement with Union Carbide, no money had reached the gas victims. Families whose breadwinners were dead or incapacitated by illness were reduced to utter destitution. A survivors’ group petitioned the Indian Supreme Court for help and in May 1990 the court ordered the Indian authorities to provide interim relief to all residents of the 36 gas- affected wards of Bhopal. Tortuous and corrupt The distribution of relief monies was begun by the State government in May 1990 in a style both inefficient and marked by systemic corruption. A tortuous claims process meant pay bribes to collect their meagre The money they received (not that people who often were unable to relief money. By the end of 1990 just in interim relief, which would read or write were obliged to fill in close to 100,000 gas victims had yet have to be repaid, but when Union long, complex application forms, to receive a penny. Carbide’s $470 million was finally and spend money they didn’t have to The survey that wasn’t distributed) would not be enough photocopy documents they couldn’t even to keep them in aspirin, much decipher. They would spend hours The amount of relief (and later of less compensate a lifetime of ruined travelling to government offices in compensation that victims received) health and lost employment. different parts of the city where they was supposed to reflect the category The government’s blatant rigging had to stand in endless queues before into which their injuries fell. After a of the figures was contradicted by producing their reams of papers and perfunctory survey which was never studies of the Indian Council for certificates. If anything was missing completed, officials assigned people Medical Research (ICMR) and by the whole ordeal would have to be an injury category. These categories other bodies, but the injustice done undergone again. had been devised by Union Carbide to the victims remains unaddressed. to achieve the lowest settlement sum, Officials fleeced victims so the damage to peoples’ health was Arbitrary categorisation This tyrannical and Kafkaesque grossly underestimated. The state government’s Personal bureaucracy created opportunities More than 92% of gas victims, most Injury Evaluation process measured aplenty for predatory officials to rob of whom would remain ill for the rest of disability in terms of loss of income. the poor. Most of their lives, were judged to have temporary You could be disabled only if you 1990 the victims had to injuries or no injuries at all. were gainfully employed and your WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 55 causes and consequences income was reduced due to the gas Only if a person’s tally was higher No papers, no relief exposure. Thus defined, 74 % of the during assessment than after initial survivors (& these overwhelmingly exposure to the gas were they deemed People were not classed as gas- housewives and children) surveyed to be ‘permanently injured'. exposed unless they could produce a by the ICMR couldn’t be disabled, If their health was not markedly hospital attendance certificate from regardless of how ill they were. worse than in the horrific days after the period immediately after the leak. Diagnosis by numbers the leak, they were considered to be Overwhelmed hospital staff had ‘temporarily injured'. had little time for such niceties. The evaluation process employed The effects of MIC poisoning A person ill with every symptom a scoring system to turn symptoms, were most violent and visible on the of MIC poisoning, could have proof signs, treatments and rudimentary night of the leak but no account was of living in a gas-hit area and plenty observations into numbers. taken of its long-term effects and the of eye-witnesses to confirm that they Colds, coughs, headaches can be authorities refused to accept that a were there on that night, but no chit trivial or signs of serious illness but person who was still suffering from meant ‘no injury’, no compensation. no attempt was made to diagnose the gas-related illnesses fully five years underlying disease or syndrome from after the disaster must by any logic be Tests too much trouble which the claimant was suffering. considered ‘permanently injured'. The injury-evaluators were meant to measure respiratory function with x-rays, a pulmonary function test and an exercise tolerance test. 60% of the population required PFT and ETT tests, but the Claims Directorate authorised them for 15% and 2% respectively. ‘It is just not practicable,’ the government said, ‘to subject every claimant to these time consuming investigations’. But it put them in the ‘no injury’ category without the examinations. Guidelines ignored Seriously ill people were to have been referred for a second opinion to specialists. But while 54% of the gas- exposed population were diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, which was a compensatable injury, only one person was referred to a psychiatrist. Of the nearly 600,000 people with personal injury claims, only 350,000 had been assessed by the Directorate of Claims. Some 40 % of claimants were thus excluded from the process, and because of a change in the Directorate’s rules, around 20% of gas victims had not even filed a claim. 56 THE BHOPAL MARATHON In the acid of injustice peoples’ By 1990 the gas victims had waited half a decade for justice, compensation and medical help. It seemed an impossibly long time. Never before, wrote the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, have so many victimised people struggled for so many years for justice, accountability and the right to a dignified, disease free life… And these words were written 22 years ago.

Suleman Khan ill, I can’t feed my family. Why have 1989 he was admitted to the MIC they put me in Category B? Why ward at Hamidia Hospital, dying on Suleman Khan and his wife, both ill have they done this to me?’ the morning of February 20th. and barely able to breathe, ended up Two weeks after he had died the living in a shed. Till July 1986 he was Shakila Bee government evaluators assigned him a clerk at the State Road Transport Shakila Bee, 30, earned Rs 200 a to Category C: ‘permanent injury, no Corporation, where he had worked month working at the rehabilitation disability’ and awarded interim relief for 24 years. His salary was stopped centre in Jai Prakash Nagar, where of Rs 1,000. because he was off sick, leaving him the gas was thickest. Her husband, When news reached his wife in with no income. Sheikh Chandu Khan, aged 42, was a Gujarat she returned to Bhopal to The situation was catastrophic. handcart puller whose lungs were collect the award, but was sent away Suleman borrowed Rs. 3,000 at 5% ruined. He was repeatedly admitted empty-handed as the beneficiary had a month, his wife pawned Rs. 20,000 to the MIC ward and other wards of already died. of jewellery. Two family members Hamidia Hospital. Their two boys were awarded relief of Rs.200 per were both ill from the gas, Mehfouz, Chhotélal month relief, but the family couldn’t the younger, 10, was an apprentice Chhotélal, 50, lived behind Lily pay the rent and were evicted. mechanic earning Rs. 5 to 10 a day. Talkies and worked as a porter for In August 1987 Suleman was sent The family spent Rs.100-200 per lorry companies. On the night of gas for official tests to determine his month on Shakila's treatment alone. he was injured trying unsuccessfully level of disability but half the crucial Naturally, they took out loans. to save a daughter and was left unfit tests were not carried out. Shakila’s medical records from for heavy work. Even walking 20- Later that year he was diagnosed the Hamidia and Jawaharlal Nehru odd steps made him breathless. by Dr KJ Gaur, professor in charge Hospitals clearly recorded her badly Chhotélal’s exposure to MIC of the city MIC ward to be suffering deteriorating medical condition but caused bronchial asthma with severe from chronic obstructive pulmonary after official tests on 27th May 1987, obstructive airway disease. He was disease and asthma. He stayed three she was placed in Category B. Her always coughing up thick gunk from years in the MIC ward during which husband in disgust tore up most of his lungs and was admitted to the he reckoned about 900 bottles of IV their medical papers. MIC ward on at least five occasions, blood were pumped into him. once remaining nine months. He grew more breathless and his Bhojraj On 5th October 1989, Chhotélal sight deteriorated. On 19th August Bhojraj, 50, lived in Mahamai Ka was informed that he had been put in 1989 he was informed that he was in Bagh with his five dependents. The Category B: ‘temporary injury.’ Category B: ‘temporary injury’. gas leak left him unable to work and He said, ‘I have a family of two His wife Rashida was admitted to the family was evicted and made sons and three daughters to support. the MIC ward for a month in 1987. homeless. His wife Parvati Bai went I don’t know what I am going to do She too was placed in category B. away to Gujarat. or how we will survive.’ Suleman wrote to the Supreme Bhojraj was treated at the Red Court that he was contemplating Cross Hospital. He was certified as ‘drastic action'. They asked, ‘Why do suffering from chronic obstructive you want to commit suicide?' lung disease caused by ‘What else can I exposure to MIC gas. 1990 do?’ he replied. ‘I am On 22nd December WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 57 lives dissolve away to nothing

Durga Bai (35), gas victim whose health Prem, 30, is mentally ill and can’t earn. Narayani Bai (36) had to pay Rs 2,000 is fading on anti-tubercular drugs at the By 1989 only 0.38% of gas victims had as a bribe to get the Rs. 3,000 of relief government hospital. been examined for mental illness. to which she was legally entitled.

NEVER BEFORE IN HISTORY except in Hitler’s gas chambers have so many died at one time from exposure to industrial chemicals. Never before except at Hiroshima and Nagasaki have so many people been maimed by a man-made disaster. Never before have so many victimised people struggled for so many years in the face of repression and propaganda for justice, accountability and the right to a dignified disease-free life.

Shabana, born mentally retarded a year THESE WORDS FROM THE BGIA STUDY Pushpa (10) suffers from gas-related after the disaster to gas-exposed mother ON COMPENSATION DISBURSEMENT ailments but as with most other minors, Qayum, gets no compensation. WERE WRITTEN 22 YEARS AGO! officials refuse to register her claim.

A sick child from New Gandhi Nagar born after the disaster. Mohammad Shakir (30), one of many who Is he a victim? Does he get compensation? went for medical tests that were never done 58 THE BHOPAL MARATHON Sathyu and Sunil go to prison and meet a couple of average Joes

In 1989, Sunil, now 17 accompanied me and another gas victim on a visit to the United States. He was unafraid when we were detained in Houston by off-duty cops hired by Union Carbide and locked in the Hyatt Hotel basement. We were handcuffed and made to sit in chairs with hands locked behind us. As the Carbide officials came down one by one to stare at us, Sunil kept up a rich stream of jokes and Bhopali insults. SATHYU SARANGI

BOB BERZOK is your regular guy, a medical information you have on the the years and for all one knows, this model corporate executive. He wears gases that leaked and are killing information may be vital in finding a three piece suit people in Bhopal to this day.’ the painfully elusive “proper line of and has lines on his I was watching for a change in his treatment” for those exposed.’ 1989 face that appear to expression as he listened to my alien As the lawyers whispered behind come from libido worries. accent. Nothing happened. Joe, and he waited for their advice The first and only time I saw him, He repeated in words and tone Chouhan described how samples of the Director of Public Relations for exactly what he had just said. Where blood, urine and other substances Union Carbide Corporation was you and I have eyes, he had frozen had regularly been taken from the staring at me through a plexi-glass cubes. He politely wished me a good factory workers in Bhopal, but the screen at the Texas state prison in night, and left. findings had never been released. Houston. It was the middle of the The lawyers had finished their night and I had been brought from T WOYEARS later in 1991, with my discussion by then and one of them, my freezing cell to the visiting room friend T.R. Chouhan - a former plant an Indian guy, whispered into Joe's where he was waiting. Probably, his operator at Union Carbide Bhopal - left ear. Joe then advised us to ask company had realised that keeping I met in New York city the Environmental Protection Agency three of us – me, Sunil and another with Joseph Geoghan. (EPA) for MSDS data sheetsand take gas victim – in jail on charges of 1991Again, here was your our other grievances to the Indian criminal trespass would make bad regular executive, a Vice-President Government. press and further sully Carbide’s of Union Carbide USA, flanked by In a very few words (because I public image . lawyers on either side and a secretary could see he was growing impatient) It wasn't even clear that we were to take notes. To Joe I repeated the I described the pain of a family from legally detained; on the previous day, same request I had made to Bob. my neighbourhood in Bhopal, who police officers at Union Carbide’s I said, ‘Your company invented had not known one day's respite annual shareholder meeting were the production process for making from exposure-related illnesses and told to arrest us for the simple act of methyl isocyanate (MIC), one of the despite their extreme poverty had distributing a fact sheet on Bhopal. gases that leaked in Bhopal. left no doctor or hospital unvisited. Bob was scared of bad PR. ‘For at least 30 years at your labs One of the lawyers indicated he ‘We are concerned about your in Research Triangle Park, Raleigh, had to catch a flight. I looked at Joe, suffering’, he told us. ‘I have the bail you have been researching MIC and Joe was looking at his watch. I knew money with me and a limousine other chemicals and their effect on I had little time. I appealed to him waiting for you outside.’ ‘If your living systems. We know of at least not to invoke the Trade Secrets Act company is really concerned about 16 research studies that you have as justification for continuing the human suffering,’ I said into the chosen not to publish, at least one of deliberate withholding of medical phone that connected us through the which is on ‘human volunteers'. information. plexiglass screen, and looking into ‘It does not cost you to give us the As politely as I could I reminded his eyes, ‘you would release all the information you have generated over him that their denial of information WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 59 was compounding the injuries they didn't know that a mega disaster specialists come to help the people of had caused – impeding development would result from routine decisions Bhopal, financially ruin the Red of workable therapies and causing taken as part of the normal corporate Cross Hospitals that were doing doctors to prescribe drugs that were practice of making a bigger profit good work in the city, and more. seriously damaging peoples' bodies. this year than last. But when I think Bob I hear has retired. What has When I think of the disaster and of the medical disaster that followed, become of Joe I don't know. Bob's try to fathom the minds that decided and that will likely continue as long position is now renamed Corporate that it was proper to produce one of as you and I live, I have no generous Communications Manager and is the most toxic chemicals in the midst way to think of the regular guys who held by Tomm Sprick. Mahesh of populated settlements; to under- are the chief authors of this tragedy. Mathai, maker of the movie, Bhopal design the factory that would make They know what MIC does in the Express invited Tomm to the New that chemical, and then, to direct a acute and the chronic phase. They York première in April 2000. global 'economy drive' that, among know what it does to the lungs, eyes, Tomm declined on behalf of other things, resulted in the shutting the brain, the reproductive cycle and Union Carbide but assured Mahesh down of the refrigeration plant (to other systems. They know that by that ‘the tragedy continues to be a save $37 a day) I draw a blank. withholding this information they source of anguish for the company.’ In my generous moments I can are prolonging the suffering they Tomm is just another guy with a see them just doing a job to send began, compounding the injuries normal career. He probably even their children to the right school, they originally caused. sleeps well each night. have their wives look good at parties What people like Bob and Joe and keep up on the golf course. They did was misinform doctors that MIC This piece was first published in India Together magazine in 2001 and widely republished since. is nothing but potent tear gas, scuttle use of the only antidote Opinions included here are the author’s. Robert (sodium thiosulphate) proven to Berzok accepts that he disagrees with the author on many of the points relating to the Bhopal HOW BIG work, despatch spin-doctors and tragedy, but denies meeting on the night in question described above. SHAMMU Pentagon toxicologists posing as Shammu Khan was a big man in every Khan, which means ‘Soapy Khan’. (FINALLY) sense, tall and well built with a large These ‘mistakes’ were lucrative presence and a commanding voice. to the officials, who charged anything GOT HIS He was blind and used to walk from 50 to 100 rupees to amend them. around using his 5-year old grandson Shammu refused to pay a bribe INTERIM as a sort of talking-walking-stick. and consequently encountered delays Shammu ran a cycle-repair shop in and endless artful prevarication. Indranagar, about 1.5kms from Union One day he called his grandson RELIEF Carbide’s factory. Blind or not he was and set out for the secretariat where an active community organiser with the top government officials worked, PAYMENT tremendous mystique. Legend had it stopping on the way to buy a bar of that he’d been a bandit and had been soap. Using his blindness, loud voice blinded as a punishment, but he was and grandson to get past security, a kind, gentle man with a lot of good Shammu located the offices of the so- friends, one of whom told the story of called Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief how Shammu got his relief money. and Rehabilitation Department and The story dates back to 1986-7 walked in on its Secretary. when the government began doling Placing the soap on the desk of out interim relief of Rs. 1,500 (£20) the amazed officer, he pointed at per family. Maximum bureaucracy himself and said, ‘This is Shammu was involved and plenty of mistakes Khan.’ He pointed at the soap. ‘This were made. In Shammu’s case they is Saabun Khan. We’ll not be leaving had got his address and other details this office until one of us, don’t care correct but gave his name as Saabun which, gets Rs 1,500.’ And he got it. 60 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Union Carbide’s secret disaster: the second poisoning of Bhopal

This is the story of Union Carbide’s second, secret, disaster in Bhopal: the slow leaking of very toxic wastes from the factory site and three huge ‘solar evaporation ponds’ into soil and groundwater. It’s the story of Union Carbide’s decision not to warn people, to deny that there was a problem and to maintain its silence even as people living nearby fell ill, children were born damaged and families its gases had decimated in 1984 were poisoned a second time.

Long before the gas there had been blame and settled privately with the Two tubewells dug near the lakes troubling rumours and mysterious owners but unease continued to grow had to be abandoned because their deaths of livestock. In 1981 and again about the three ‘lakes’ and the Union water smelled and tasted obnoxious. the following year, several cattle died Carbide factory. No one knew what Only on the horrific night of gas after drinking from three huge lakes went on in there. Carbide said it was did people living near the factory that Union Carbide had constructed making ‘medicine for the fields’.2 realise how dangerous the place had in 1977 near its Bhopal factory.1 The ‘Some medicine’, grumbled farmers always been. After ‘that night’ the cowherds complained to the police. who were discovering that land onto plant was closed and locked up – still Carbide denied that which Carbide’s lakes overflowed full of lethal wastes – as it remains to 1990 it was in any way to suffered a drastic decline in fertility. this day. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 61

Factory under monsoon sky, photo: Alex Masi, July 12, 2011

glass. The water acquired a faint “This water stinks!” Bhavesh, photo: Maude Dorr, 2007 smell, which grew gradually worse. It Bhavesh lives in Atal Ayub Nagar, tasted oilier too, but these changes a slim strip of housing sandwiched happened very slowly. between Carbide’s factory wall and Bhavesh’s family were startled the railway line. His family moved when his grandmother, on a visit there in 1989 when he was six. There from her village, pronounced the were no handpumps and fetching water undrinkable. ‘It stinks!’ she water meant a trek to the well in said. The locals, who had got used to Shakti Nagar, half a mile to the south. the water, didn’t find it so bad. They To remedy this problem, people in had worse things to worry about, like Atal AyubNagar clubbed together to the number of damaged babies being install two handpumps – a decision born in their small community.3 that would soon return to haunt A chemical waste dump them. At first the water seemed okay. Then oily globules began appearing What the people of Atal Ayub Nagar in it – if allowed to settle they would didn’t know, because no one had told Bhavesh’s family lived yards from the Union form a layer at the bottom of the them, was that just yards from their Carbide factory and drank poisoned water. 62 THE BHOPAL MARATHON homes on the other side of the factory drink, wash in, and cook with, the alarming results were known, acted wall, the soil was lethally poisoned. poisoned water. on the advice of its US parent UCC Carbide’s secret tests Enter NEERI (Union Carbide Corporation) and retained consultants Arthur D. Little Between May and July of 1989, the In1989 the State Pollution Control to guide NEERI, which had little or year Bhavesh and his family moved Board (MPPCB) decided to invite no experience of the kind of work it into their new home, Carbide tested NEERI (the National Environmental was being asked to do. samples of soil and water taken from and Engineering Research Institute) NEERI’s interim report on the sites inside the factory, including pits to make a study of soil and water ‘lakes’ was completed by early 1990. just on the other side of the wall from drawn from sites in and around the To Union Carbide’s relief it stated Bhavesh’s community. three ‘lakes’. (See pp. 86-87) that it had found no contamination.5 Fish were placed in samples of This, it was suggested, would be groundwater and into water with followed by a study of the factory site BGIA tests confirm pollution which soil samples were mixed. itself. Early in 1990 the BGIA (Bhopal All the fish died instantly, there UCIL decided to conduct its own Group for Information & Action) was 100% mortality. All the samples private tests in mid 1989 and when the asked the Research were discovered to be severely Laboratory to analyse soil and contaminated with naphthol water from near the factory. (abdominal pain, convulsions, The reply was that anything diarrhoea and vomiting); and connected with Union Carbide ( anaemia, , was highly sensitive and had to retinal damage, liver and brain be cleared by top officials. damage, and possibly cancer).4 The BGIA decided to work Despite an obvious danger to with an independent laboratory. people like Bhavesh’s family, It despatched sediments from living just on the other side of the lakes, soil taken from near the wall, Carbide issued no the lakes and water from a local warning and kept the results to well for analysis at the Citizen’s themselves. Atal Ayub Nagar Environmental Laboratory in and other communities near the Boston, USA. factory remained completely The sediment was discovered unaware of the serious risk to to be richly contaminated with their health and continued to pthalates, 1-napthalene, benzene 100% mortality, 0% morality

Soil and water samples from the factory caused 100% mortality in Common Carp Cuprinus carpio 1990 WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 63 and other aromatic hydrocarbons, plus including di- and tri-chlorobenzenes.6 Members of the NTC (National Toxics Campaign) stunned UCC by unveiling the sensational results at the company’s AGM, and on May 15 1990 the news broke in India. Carbide’s public fury Embarrassed by these revelations in front of its shareholders and media, Carbide lashed out at the BGIA and survivors’ groups. Next day Carbide director Subimal Bose sent a furious letter to the state government ( right). Citing NEERI’s interim report, he claimed there was ‘no contamination of soil and ground water’, described news reports as ‘mischievous and designed to cause panic’ and accused the BGIA and the survivors’ groups of ‘agitation’.7 Neither Bose nor anyone else at Union Carbide admitted that they had known for at least nine months that the factory was fatally contaminated. Carbide’s private worries For all its quoting of the NEERI report, Union Carbide knew that the BGIA/Citizens’ Laboratory results were more in line with what it itself had found inside the factory grounds. A confidential memo (left) written after the AGM reveals that Union Carbide reviewed its alarming 1989 tests amid worries that ‘The matter has Who to believe? the AGM, Norm Gaines, UCC’s head assumed significant importance in view While the tests and contamination of Health, Safety & Environmental of recent reports in local and national described in the ‘secret memo’ referred Research, wrote to colleagues that he newspapers.The seriousness of the matter to sites within the factory grounds, the had discussed the matter with analytic needs no elaboration.’4 NEERI and BGIA/Citizens’ Lab chemists in UCC’s South Charleston It is from this same memo that we samples had been taken in and around research center and that ‘so far we are know of the tests, and the toxicity of the three ‘lakes’ whose nearest point at a loss to explain the differences the results. was 400m north of the factory wall. between the NEERI results and the Despite knowing what the toxins UCC (Union Carbide Corporation) alleged three samples presented by in the factory could do to the human executives in Danbury, Connecticut, the NTC [campaigners at the AGM].’ body, the memo does not recommend were puzzled by the clear disparity While stating that he did not warning the residents of Atal Ayub between NEERI’s finding that there know ‘the exact sample and analytical Nagar just outside its wall, but in- was no contamination, and that of the protocols used by either group’, stead ‘earnestly’ urges that further BGIA/Citizen’s Laboratory which Gaines went on to suggest that the studies be made ‘primarily for our own reported a slew of toxic chemicals. NEERI study ‘seems to implicitly clear understanding of the situation.’ Referring to the embarrassment of the plant site itself.’8 64 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

It is hard to believe that Gaines did not know that Union Carbide’s own tests showed unambiguously that the factory site was contaminated, but his comment shows that UCC’s head of Health, Safety & Environmental Research saw a clear link between the environmental health of the factory and the condition of groundwater downstream of the site. The impact of the monsoon In an affidavit given (in 1999) to the New York District Court, ex-factory worker T.R. Chouhan related how, between 1969-1984, huge quantities of pesticides, solvents, catalysts, by- products and other toxic wastes were routinely dumped in and around the site. Some were solid, some liquid, some gaseous, and correspondingly polluted soil, water and air.9 Carbide executives in Singapore Danbury and Bhopal planning the study to be overseen by Arthur D. Little defined as its main objective: ‘to identify areas where the soil within the plant premises is contaminated and whether the contamination has caused pollution in the underground August 2006 water resources.’ The investigators rightly regarded this ‘a matter of great concern in view of the environmental hazard potential associated with organic contaminants.’10 Still no warnings were issued. The squatters’ wells Bhavesh and his family had lived nearly three years in Atul Ayub Nagar when, in March 1992, Subimal Bose and Norm Gaines met in Singapore to discuss the factory site investigation. In a follow-up letter (right), Bose dropped a bombshell: ‘It appears that the wells located outside the fence line i.e. “R” and “C” being used by the squatters living around the plant are not very stable as is evidenced by the analysis.’11 This is the first reference to real people drinking contaminated water, and the people summarily dismissed WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 65

1992 Union Carbide map of the factory showing locations of “squatters’ wells” C and R. The inset Google Earth image shows their positions in the Atal Ayub Nagar strip of housing between the factory wall and the railway line. as ‘squatters’ were Bhavesh’s and Her dad sadly asks, ‘Why was other poor families. The wells fate so cruel to our poor child?’12 were the ones they had clubbed In December 2006, just before together to dig, whose water was this picture of Rehana was taken, by now in the process of turning a team of doctors from Delhi was ‘undrinkable’. brought by the Chingari Trust to assess the problems ofchildren Rehana is born in areas like Atal Ayub Nagar Rehana lives near Bhavesh in where the water is poisoned. Atal Ayub Nagar. She was born They met children with cerebral in 1997, without a left thumb, her palsy, deafness, eye problems, growth is retarded. Her mind is tumours, cleft lips and palates. weak and she hasn’t the strength Many had withered or malformed to go to school. Rehana’s vision is limbs. Some could not speak, but not good, she’s plagued by rashes lay helplessly in their mothers’ Rehana, 2007, and is constantly breathless. arms. (See pp. 169-170) photo Micha Patault 66 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Engineers warned of the danger to community water In May 1972 engineers at Union Carbide’s Technical Center in West Virginia were asked to design three huge ‘solar evaporation ponds’, into which tens of thousands of tons of organochlorines and other highly toxic wastes would be poured. But when they began to examine the specifications and the site report Andy Spyra Feb 2007 the engineers grew deeply worried. ‘I cannot believe,’ wrote one, ‘that we would be held blameless if we recognized potential problems here and did not speak up… a question can be raised as to whether the soil conditions at the site lend themselves to constructing ponds economically with completely impervious bottoms that would prevent seepage of the chloride into the ground waters and therefore into the community water supply.The essence of [the] proposed solution,’ he candidly concludes, ‘lies Andy Spyra Feb 2007 in the less advanced environmental

They had known the danger of constructing huge lakes full of toxic wastes, but went ahead and did it anyway

Andy Spyra Feb 2007 WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 67

Against the advice of its own US design engineers Union Carbide built three ‘solar evaporation ponds’ into which they planned to dump dangerous wastes. All that prevented these chemicals from leaking into the groundwater was a plastic liner, flimsy as a dustbin bag. The photo (left) shows boys sitting on compacted waste above the remains of one such liner. conscienceness [sic] in India.’ 13 decanting the liquor from the two The engineers warned that the Engineers’ fears realised ponds and dredging out their beds of proposed design risked the ‘danger of Each monsoon the ponds became toxic sludge. There were three ponds polluting subsurface water supplies overflowing lakes and poured toxic in all, but with two of them almost in the Bhopal area… New ponds will sludges into the earth. The liners, emptied, there was nowhere for the have to be constructed at 1 to 2-year never replaced, began to perish, and contaminated water to go but into the intervals throughout the life of the heavy metals and organochlorides ground. project’.14 They were not. drained out into the soil. The ponds’ The leakage began during the dry failure is attested in a panicky telex season. From June to October each Leaks okay to save money (below) dated March 25 198216 from year Bhopal receives heavy monsoon In January 1977, a few days before a ‘Revised Capital Budget Proposal’ proposed sweeping cost cutting at the Bhopal factory, Carbide managers India to Union Carbide headquarters rain with frequent flooding. That met contractors tasked with building in Danbury. On April 10 the pond year in August alone the skies emptied the lakes. ‘UCIL emphasised the need for was still leaking and there was talk of more than half a metre of rain onto reduction for (sic) cost of the pond as much repairs. But it is difficult to see how the city. It was a year of cattle deaths as possible’ and told the contractors that ‘certain seepage/effluent from the pond can be accepted… provided there is corresponding reduction in the cost.’15 repairs could be carried out without near the lakes. Union Carbide denied liability and settled out of court. Denials continue The company’s denials continue to this day. People remained in the dark until 1999 when Greenpeace’s report revealed the true extent of the mass poisoning of an innocent population. Union Carbide could argue that the gas disaster had been an accident, but the water contamination surely was not. Union Carbide executives in India and the US not only ignored warnings that the ‘lakes’ would leak, but accepted leakage in order to cut costs. The company knew that its chemicals had travelled to public wells, but issued no warnings, and denied there was a problem. They knew what these chemicals could do to human bodies, that many families likely to be drinking toxic water had been poisoned by their gases in 1984, and that now they were being poisoned a second time. 68 THE BHOPAL MARATHON As the 10th anniversary drew near the health disaster roared on

Compared to other major chemical disasters in the world, Bhopal has the dubious distinction of not only being the worst, but also one of the least investigated. The scientific and medical response to the crisis was begun in a social, political and legal climate in which there was little experience in dealing with a major environmental release. Scientific and medical personnel needed access to accident-related and toxicological information to understand the causes and potential consequences of the disaster. Union Carbide, primary repository of this information, faced with lawsuits and the prospect of bankruptcy, closed down its channels of communication. On the other hand, the extreme sensitivities of the local and national government bodies towards all aspects of the disaster, coupled with the lack of expertise and funds, resulted in an inadequate response on India’s part to meet the urgent health care needs of the community. Whereas a flood of information was expected from a disaster of this magnitude, only a trickle resulted. International Medical Commission on Bhopal: Findings and Recommendations,1994

A full decade after the gas disaster an many were abandoned half-finished. estimated 150,000 people remained Given what was happening in the chronically ill in the city, cancers were city, this, like many other mystifying appearing, damaged births were still decisions, made no sense at all. occurring, but medical treatment was no better informed than it had been The Permanent People’s on the morning after the gas leak. Tribunal & The International Treatment was topical, symptom- Medical Commission based, with no understanding of, and no protocol to address, the syndrome In 1992, the Permanent People’s of inter-related illnesses from which Tribunal met in Bhopal and suggested most gas-survivors suffered.1 an international medical commission be set up to provide an independent All research studies halted assessment of the situation and the As people’s condition worsened, health-needs of the population.2 and the state government continued With the help of PPT participant apathetic, successive governments in doctors Rosalie Bertell and Gianni Delhi ignored the survivor’s pleas Tognoni, 14 medical experts from 12 for an independent National Medical countries, chosen for their expertise Commission to assess the long-term and long experience in environmental effects of the poisoning. health, toxicology, immunology and Instead in 1994 the government of respiratory medicine, were invited to Narasimha Rao chose form the panel. to curtail all current These doctors were supported by 1992 and ongoing studies nine members of an Indian National by the Indian Council Advisory Committee & the Medico 1994 of Medical Research; All photos Raghu Rai, Magnum Friends Circle. Rosalie Bertell and WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 69

Gianni Tognoni served as co-chairs. Carbide condemned At the request of gas survivors organisations, IMCB members visited The Commission’s interim report India in January 1994. They notified states that, ‘The IMCB publicly and the central and state governments of clearly condemns Union Carbide and their plans and during their stay met reiterates its full liability not only for government officials and doctors, the responsibility of the deadly gas disaster experts, private physicians in leak but also for the confounding role Bhopal, biochemists, botanists and of its behavior with respect to timely veterinarians. and effective application of medical measures since the accident.’ The first thorough survey It criticised Union Carbide’s ‘lack The Commission’s work focused of transparency’ about the nature and on 500 people officially identified as composition of the gas cloud.3 gas victims living at varying distances The Commission did not openly from Union Carbide’s factory as well criticise the lacklustre efforts of the as a control group of unexposed folk. Indian authorities, but implicit in its From each residents group they recommendations were what it saw as drew random samples of 18-35, 36-45 the failures of the official response. and 45-60 year olds for interviews IMCB recommendations and every 5th interviewee was invited to undergo a clinical assessment. The Commission made eight key 140 people were tested for lung recommendations: function, neurotoxic illness, immune 1. Healthcare to be community-based status and eye complaints. Staff did 2. Psychological and mental problems not know to which residents group caused by gas to be taken into account the patients belonged nor if they had 3. Transparency of public health data been exposed to the gases. 4. Right of access to medical records A Commissioner met families to 5. Victims to share in decision making assess the impact of the disaster on 6. Compensation for medical, economic women and children, reproductive and social damage health, standard of living, household 7. Economic and social rehabilitation economics and community life. programmes important to recovery Commissioners examined medical 8. Assessment of impact of toxic waste records and asked victims for their left at the Union Carbide site views on the accessibility and quality Further study was needed on the of medical care. A team studied laws emergence of cancers in the exposed and regulations relating to claims and population and the need to provide the claims court and the procedures care for damaged children born to used to assess claims; another team expos ed mothers.4 scrutinised prescription patterns and Clinics in the community choice of drugs. The Pavlovian response to the gas A continuing catastrophe disaster had been to provide hospital The studies revealed continuing beds, but hundreds of thousands of ‘multisystemic injuries involving the chronically ill people need care near respiratory, ocular, gastro-intestinal, their homes. The IMCB called for a reproductive, psychological, neuro- network of community clinics sited behavioral &neuromuscular systems’, in the worst affected areas and easily adding that ‘there is some evidence of accessible to sick people who had no depressed cell mediated immunity transport and who couldn’t afford to and of genotoxicity.’ travel long distances by bus.

BHOPAL, 3RD DECEMBER 1984. A man is burying of corpses. The official death toll is 5,325 but not youngest, Somnath, born two days before the gas doubt.’ But what if you have no medical records? a child. He has laid the tiny body in a shallow grave all deaths were noted. A tribe of gypsies camped leak, is chronically short of breath. The medicines How can you produce a parent’s death certificate and begun to cover it. by the station was totally wiped out. Not one of she can get ease his pain for two days, then it if your mother and father were nameless corpses Then, unable to bear the thought that he will them survived. Their deaths went unreported. comes back again. hastily burned, buried in mass graves, or dumped never see her again, he brushes the earth from his In the days after the leak, 7,000 shrouds were Ten years on, the only treatment available to in the jungles outside the city? child’s face for one last look. sold in Bhopal. The true death toll is probably well most gas victims is the same inadequate treatment THE BHOPAL MEDICAL COMMISSION The photographer, Raghu Rai of Magnum, cried over 15,000. they got the day after the horror. as he took the picture. Union Carbide said that reports of its victims’ People with gas-ravaged lungs are told they In January 1994 a team of fifteen eminent The little girl died ten years ago today. deaths were greatly exaggerated. It said the gas have tuberculosis and get inappropriate care. doctors from a dozen countries including Britain, Her death was not quiet, quick or painless. leak had killed only 1,408 people. Rasheed Khan was prescribed cough mixture. Two visited Bhopal to determine the real health needs She died in fierce pain and unimaginable terror, The company complained that if only people young patients became so desperate that they of the gas affected people. choking for breath after a leak at a pesticide factory had kept calm and not run away they would most doused themselves in kerosene and lit the match. The team found that the effects of Carbide’s owned by Union Carbide spewed a cloud of deadly probably have survived. MANY VICTIMS HAVE LOST EVERYTHING night of poison are far longer lived than has gas over the sleeping Indian city of Bhopal. NO WARNING. NO ADVICE. NO SHAME. ever previously been admitted. When you know how she perished, the quotation If you have been to India you’ll know how It worries that a crop of lung cancers may be on this page seems a horrible thing to say. How The doctors at Bhopal’s hospitals, besieged by hard the very poorest people have to work pushing about to appear. could anything be worse than such a death? dying people, did not know how to reat them. overloaded handcarts, carrying huge loads, often The Commission’s interim report tells Union To tell you, we’ve begged the money to publish Nobody knew what had leaked. labouring twelve hours a day. Carbide’s Chief Executive Officer, ‘We feel it is our this appeal on behalf of hundreds of thousands The doctors called Union Carbide’s medical officer Eight in ten of the gas victims once earned their duty to let you know of our astonishment at the whose lives were ruined and who, ten years later, who said the gas was methyl-isocyanate. It was living this way. But many are no longer able to disregard your company has consistently shown have had no compensation nor any real medical not a poison, he told them, but an irritant like tear work. As a result, thousands of grindingly poor for the rights of the people of Bhopal. It is our firm help. Please read it. Even if you decide not to help gas. In fact the deadly brew of gases contained families have been forced into destitution – some belief that most accepted standards of industrial us we want you to know what has been happening about twenty four highly toxic chemicals, including of the world’s poorest people beggared by one of accident prevention, safety and transparency have in Bhopal since the night that no one in this town hydrogen cyanide. the world’s richest corporations. been grossly violated.’ will ever forget. Sunil woke in terrible pain, to find himself in Gauri Shankar is a young man. Before the gas he The Commission insists people be compensated Sunil was 13, a carpenter’s son. He lived with his Hoshangabad, 70 miles from Bhopal. His body had planned to open a workshop. Now he has trouble for mental as well as physical injury and for loss parents, seven brothers and sisters in Jaiprakash been brought there by a truck. breathing and can’t even ride his cycle. He has had of livelihood. Appropriate medical care should

Nagar, the shanty-town nearest Union Carbide’s be freely available to all, not just to those who pesticide factory. can pay. As the clock of Bhopal’s distant railway station The Indian Government plans a new hospital in struck 1am on December 3rd 1984 the family Bhopal, but it will be 11 kilometres from the gas- woke in their small house with their mouths and It was ten days before he could return to search to sell his tools in order to pay for medicines. stricken districts. But many people are not well throats burning and their eyes stinging. Outside for his family. To his joy, he found Kunkun. Clasped Gauri has had no compensation and is forced enough to travel so far. To provide the gas victims there was commotion. People were screaming. gently to his mother’s body as she ran, his mouth to exist on meagre interim relief doled out by the with proper care in or near their own homes, the Guessing something had gone badly wrong at and nose shielded by her sari, the two year old government. But to get it, he must stand in day- Commission recommends that free neighbourhood the pesticide plant, Sunil’s father told his family had survived. But his mother and father were long queues, endure rude officials and numbing clinics be opened as soon as possible. to run for their lives. Sunil saw his mother pick up dead. Of the other children, only ten year old bureaucracy. He expresses the anger of many gas PLEASE HELP US RAISE £1,000,000 his two year old brother Kunkun, the baby of the Mamta was still alive. victims. ‘Carbide should be punished. Carbide is a family, and remembers his dad taking two of the Ten years later, the three children are still living mass murderer, which has taken thousands of To establish those free clinics, the International younger children by the hand. The family ran outside together. All are weak, constantly tired and often lives. In my heart I feel like setting Carbide on fire, Medical Appeal for Bhopal aims to raise to find a panicked crowd stampeding through the in severe pain. They are racked by coughing bouts blowing it up.’ £1,000,000 by Christmas 1994. narrow, dimly-lit alley. and giddy spells. In one night half a million people MOST HAVE HAD NO COMPENSATION Please help. If every reader of this newspaper The force of the human torrent wrenched the suffered permanent damage to their lungs, eyes, sends just £1 today, we would have a million children’s hands from their parents’ grasp. The kidneys, livers, blood, digestion, nerves, muscles, Union Carbide is one of the world’s biggest pounds by the day after tomorrow. family was whirled apart. Sunil heard his mother bones and immune systems. multinationals but it has managed to avoid paying If you can spare more, remember, the salary of calling their names, then she was gone. At least 100,000 are still seriously ill. Gafooran compensation on anything like a just scale. a trained doctor in Bhopal is only £1,500 a year. The toxic cloud was so dense and searing that Bee, an elderly woman, feels as if there is a fire in Actuaries value the life of an American at £50 or £100 would be a princely gift. people were reduced to blindness. As they gasped her head. Like all the survivors she is terrified by $500,000. Union Carbide got away with less than Your money will help provide free medical care, for breath its effects grew ever more suffocating. what is happening to her body, constantly in pain, $2,000 per Indian life. including appropriate medicines. The gases burned the tissues of their eyes and a wheezing for breath and cannot look at bright To avoid the risk of incurring US-scale damages, It will pay for counselling and physiotherapy for lungs and attacked their nervous systems. lights without hurting her eyes. She says that Union Carbide consistently argued that the case those who desperately need them. People lost control of their bodies. Urine and every time she coughs she can taste the gas. should be tried in Indian courts. But when Warren Your donation will help monitor the long-term faeces ran down their legs. Some began vomiting Many have become mentally ill. For years Anderson, the former Chairman of Union Carbide effects of the gas and gather data that can be uncontrollably, were wracked with seizures and Nafisubi Ali’s young son woke screaming in terror was charged with culpable homicide, he ignored used to improve medical treatments. fell dead. Others, as the deadly gases ravaged their reliving the nightmare of dying figures stumbling the warrant of the Bhopal court. Maybe you feel that morally it is Union Carbide lungs, began to choke, and drowned in their own through tobacco brown kerosene light. For people like Sajida Bano, whose five year old which should pay for the medical care people like blood. DEFORMED BABIES ARE BEING BORN son Arshad died at Bhopal Railway Station, the legal Sunil, Gauri and Gafooran Bee. Those who found themselves still living fled debate is academic. Like the vast majority of gas Yes, so do we, but it’s not going to happen. away from Union Carbide’s factory. The full extent of the harm caused on that night victims, she has received no compensation at all. Unless we help them, Union Carbide’s victims THE NUMBERLESS DEAD of horror has yer to unfold. At the time of writing, roughly 100,000 people are doomed to go on and on suffering until they Survivors fear that they will develop cancers, or have had compensation of some £350 each, not are all mercifully dead. People had no way of knowing, but they would that their children will be born damaged. They enough to cover their medical bills. They will live and die in pain, be prevented from have been safer running towards the factory, out have reason to be afraid. More than 639,000 claims are pending and earning a living and have to watch their families of the wind-borne poison cloud. The Indian Council of Medical Research has each one can take as long as a year to settle. starve. These are innocent people, who did not ask Nobody told them. The factory’s emergency found signs of genetic damage among gas victims While people wait, they die. for their lives to be so cruelly destroyed. They do siren was switched off. There had been so many and their children. Many babies have been born Radha Bai’s husband will never see his claim not deserve this. small leaks - it used to go off too often. deformed. Others are mentally retarded. settled. He became giddy while drawing water Really and truly, they do not deserve it. Not until the gas was upon them, filling their “An uncounted number of horrifying births have from a well and fell to his death. Already they have learned there is no justice in mouths and lungs, did people know their danger. already taken place among poor women”, one au- Every month, there are between five and ten the world. If, after reading their story, we simply Union Carbide’s plant manager was woken at thority wrote. gas-deaths in Bhopal. turn the page, we will demonstrate that there is 1.30am as the gas was still pouring out over the Mohammed Khalid’s child was one of many born Those who survive may well be waiting in vain, no humanity either. stricken neighbourhoods. But the company issued dead. Kanni Bai’s five children are all ill. Her because claims must be proven ‘beyond reasonable We must help them, because no one else will. no warning until 3am - more than two hours after the gases had started escaping. By then the cloud almost dissipated. By 4.30am the manager was in his office, telling This appeal on behalf of the Bhopal survivors appeared in a reporter from the Navbharat Times that his safety measures were the best in the country. The journalist was struck by the way he sat with his chair tilted the UK on the 10th anniversary of the disaster. The generous back and his hands clasped behind his head. Another Carbide official told The Free Press response enabled the survivors to start their own free award- Journal, ‘Nothing has happened. Can’t you see us alive?’ Barely 100 yards away dead bodies lay on winning clinic and thus the Bhopal Medical Appeal was born. the ground outside the plant gates. It was a massacre. Dawn broke over streets full 72 THE BHOPAL MARATHON The birth of the Bhopal Medical Appeal & the Sambhavna Clinic ‘Speak the truth from your heart and good people will hear’ We made our appeal and good people did hear. Their generosity helped us to buy a building in Bhopal, hire staff and begin training. This work was carried out by survivors’ organisations in accordance with their vision of what a community clinic should be. It was the fourth time they had tried to open a free clinic. This time the result was the award-winning Sambhavna.

1994 1996 WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 73

The eight recommendations of the methods of treatment, monitoring fierce, often acrimonious opposition International Medical Commission and research for the survivors. to modern medicine, at Sambhavna on Bhopal were not treated seriously Sambhavna is small compared to the different traditions were to work by either state or central authorities. the magnitude and complexity of the together in full mutual respect. Given the government’s complete disaster – we estimate that 100,000- disinterest, the survivors decided to 120,000 survivors of the gas are still Award-winning approach set up their own model clinic. It was chronically ill – our clinic has given This approach quickly bore fruit. their fourth attempt to provide care free, first-class medical care to some Physicians of modern and ayurvedic for themselves and it would be called 45,000 people and provided support medicine sat together to discuss the Sambhavna or ‘possibility’. But first the money had to be raised. On December 3, 1994, the tenth anniversary of the gas leak, a double page fundraising appeal ran in the Guardian newspaper, telling the tale not just of what had happened on that night ten years earlier, but of the continuing plight of the victims. The generosity of the response from the readers was overwhelming. Within a week we had the necessary funding, and the Bhopal Medical Appeal was created to account for and disburse funds as needed. In India, the survivors set up the Sambhavna Trust, chaired by Dr P. M. Bhargava, Founder Director of the Centre for Cellular Molecular to about the same number through problems and care possibilities for Biology in Hyderabad, and holder of health initiatives in the communities people presenting with the complex India’s highest civilian honour the close to the Union Carbide factory. of conditions common to survivors Padma Bhushan as well as the French of the gas- and water-poisonings. Legion d’Honneur. Medical & social pioneers The recommended programme of Other trustees included eminent The IMCB had foreseen that an treatment draw on elements of yoga, doctors, scientists, writers and social important role for community clinics modern and ayurvedic medicine, diet workers who had been involved with would be to discourage expensive and massage in a limitless number of various aspects of the Union Carbide and potentially harmful treatments combinations and permutations. disaster since the day of the gas leak. (especially long term steroids and The 65 staff members of the After a period in which a suitable theophyllins) and to investigate use Sambhavna Clinic (23 of whom are building was found and converted for of simple treatments like inhalers themselves survivors) include five use as a clinic, and staff were hired and bronchodilators. This approach doctors, two yoga therapists, two and trained, the Sambhavna Clinic was however confined to the use of panchakarma (massage) practitioners opened its doors in 1996. modern, or allopathic, medicine. and eight community fieldworkers Sambhavna’s philosophy Sambhavna wanted to go beyond who carry out health surveys, set up this by recognising and harnessing health education programmes and In the prevailing atmosphere of the well-attested medical benefits of other initiatives in neighbourhoods despair, the Sambhavna Trust set out systems like yoga and ayurveda, the close to the Union Carbide factory. to create possibilities for healing by 3,000-year old tradition of Indian We also conduct original clinical generating compassion. herbalism that includes therapeutic research designed to improve the The successes of the Sambhavna massage, diet and meditation as part care we give to people whose bodies Trust Clinic have demonstrated that of its practice. are suffering from toxic overload. it is possible to evolve simple, safe, Whereas these ‘complementary’ Our work has won several major effective, ethical and participatory systems usually find themselves in international awards for excellence. 74 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

often amazed to discover that to us For the long-term sick the most they are ‘sir’ or ‘madam’. ‘No one in a government hospital powerful of all medicines is has ever spoken so politely to me.’ People often say this. One lady cried when a doctor was feeling her love, because love, even when it pulse. ‘Are you in pain?’ he asked. ‘No,’ she replied, ‘but doctors will cannot cure, always heals not usually touch me because I am from a lower caste.’ we will arrange transport to and from If we talk of the healing power of Thoughtful care the clinic. One community worker has love, it is not a comforting platitude Acutely ill people, who have been no other task than to follow up or pious posturing but an important suffering for years, need special care. chronically ill and high risk people. practical principle in our work. Perhaps they have scarred lungs, According to Sambhavna health There are strong medical reasons hypertension or diabetes (five times worker Ritesh, ‘It’s like being in a why care should involve caring. Body, commoner among gas survivors than family – one big family.’ mind and what we may call soul are the water-affected). The healing power of love inseparable and a suffering person Our clinic is sited near the areas needs to be cherished and to know that worst affected by the gas, so as to be Most Bhopal survivors are poor they are. easily accessible to sick people who people who are used to being treated Hafizur Rahman, a Sambhavna have no transport of their own, and as nuisances at government hospitals. patient, said, ‘A good doctor is one who cannot afford to travel by public At Sambhavna we show them respect whose kind manner alone removes transport. Most people who come to and try to provide, free, a service that 50% of the illness. This is how it is at Sambhavna walk. no amount of money could ever buy. Sambhavna.’ We monitor patients carefully with The very first thing is to welcome regular check-ups and laboratory tests. everyone who comes, no matter how A spirit of service If someone misses an appointment unkempt or ragged they may be, with Raïsa, a volunteer health worker one of us will visit them at home to warmth and dignity. We will address liaising between community and the make sure they are okay. If need be them as Mr or Mrs. Older people are clinic, who herself knows the agony

1994 1996 WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 75

Every time we see her now she smiles and gives us good wishes.’ Total transparency Corruption is endemic in India, so it is important for our donors and patients alike to know that their money is well spent with every penny accounted for. Sambhavna’s financial records are open to scrutiny at any time without an appointment, a fact that the Supreme Court Monitoring Commitee into Bhopal’s hospitals found particularly impressive.1 Mr Chaudhary, who manages the clinic’s finances, used to be an officer in the finance department of the state government: ‘I’m retired and so have no need to work. You could say I’m making up for my previous career, of having had two stillborn children says, ‘My family is gas-affected. I did because in that there was no attempt whose injuries were terrible to look not start working here for a salary, to serve the people.’ at, says, ‘The happiness of selfless but to work with the poor who need All care is free service is greater than all happiness. helping. I am so happy to be doing In each other we find strength and this. Out and about we often a see a In a poor community mercilessly joy of friendship. Yes, we are poor, woman who’d had an infection of the preyed upon by quacks and money- but working together we can achieve cervix. She’d been bleeding for three lenders, all consultations, medicines, unimaginable things.’ months. We brought her to the clinic. therapies and treatments are free – Aziza (whose story is told on pp 8-9), She would have died if we hadn’t. freedom from worry is also a therapy. 76 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

higher incidence of problems such as shortening of the menstrual cycle, excessive bleeding, altered colour of blood, dysmenorrhea and leucorrhea. Hospital and clinic statistics also collected that month revealed high frequencies of pelvic inflammatory disease, endocervicitis, menorrhagia, and diminished or absent lactation. A September 1985 survey by D.R. Varma of 3,270 gas exposed families found that of foetuses that survived the gas leak, 14.2% died within 30 days of birth.5 Indian Council of Medical Research studies According to the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) of a sample 2,566 pregnant women, 373 had ‘spontaneous abortions’. Rates of miscarriage increased sharply in Using technology and severely-exposed areas, where the rate was over 50% in 1984. Exposed women who conceived 3,000 year old science to after the incident suffer after-effects. ICMR studies continued to show a protect women’s health higher incidence of in affected areas until 1989, when the MANY BHOPALI WOMEN need both study was terminated.6 mainstream and alternative medical Spontaneous abortions A decade after the gas the problems treatment for a variety of problems The need was obvious from the off. were still there. A survey found that produced by exposure to toxic gas Of women pregnant on ‘that night’, of 390 pregnancies conceived after and water: menstrual irregularities, 76% spontaneously aborted, a 1985 the gas leak 9% resulted in still births delayed menarche among girls, early study by the Citizens Committee for compared to 4% in unexposed areas.7 menopause, anaemia and cervical Relief & Rehabilitation in Bhopal Lack of medical research cancer are commonly seen in women found. More than half (100 out of coming to Sambhavna. 198 subjects) of gas-exposed women on women’s problems The government estimated that at suffered persistent gynaecological While women exposed to gas- and least 250,000 women were poisoned problems.2 water-poisoning face a spectrum of by the 1984 gas leak.1 A February 1985 study by Medico health problems specific to females, Countless others have since been Friends Circle (MFC) among women health care for women and education poisoned by drinking, washing and who had been pregnant on ‘that night’ about women's health issues has cooking with contaminated water in reported spontaneous abortions, still been utterly neglected in Bhopal by the years since, yet even basic facilities births, diminished foetal movements the state medical services. for screening, diagnosis, prevention and menstrual disturbances.3 There has been a complete lack of and treatment of cervical and breast A follow up MFC study in March medical research into the problems cancers are unavailable in Bhopal 1985 uncovered major differences in faced by Bhopali women, and there is hospitals, even at the Indira Gandhi the effects of gas exposure on women no appropriate treatment offered to Hospital built especially for women, in communities more or less affected the women suffering from them. which in practice is little more than a by the gas cloud. Women in worse- Sitara Bi, 40, has faced chronic maternity ward. affected localities had significantly menstrual problems. She explained: WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 77

‘The doctor says that I will have to is the commonest cancer in women, analysis), plus as needed, up-to-date have a hysterectomy. I had irregular Bhopali women have had no routine colposcope diagnosis and excision by periods. It began for me one year cervical screening. Those referred to large loop excision of transformation after the gas. When my period comes, local hospitals with abnormal smears zone (LLETZ ) of suspect cervical I am weak. I have back pain. I cannot often refused to attend, as the usual tissue. The scientific work is carried leave the house and would feel pain medical procedure followed in city out by two female gynaecologists like I was having a miscarriage. I was hospitals for cervical abnormality is with the help of an assistant. At each embarrassed to have such problems. immediate hysterectomy. stage the assistance of the community When I told the doctors that I had This is called ‘blind hysterectomy’ health worker is crucial in helping to this, they would respond that all because no one including the doctor guide women past social obstacles. ladies had this problem. I asked them knows exactly how far, or otherwise, The Dominique Lapierre City of about whether my medicines were the malignancy has progressed. Joy Sambhavna Gynaecology Unit is causing the bleeding and their reply Sambhavna introduces the only facility in Bhopal that provides was that I should drink milk and eat female survivors with regular cervical fruit. We can’t even afford to eat rotis the latest science screening, examination and treatment. [bread]. How are we going to afford As a response to this dire situation State of the art facilities such as to eat fruit?’ Sambhavna, generously aided by the colposcopy and LLETZ are available Sambhavna’s initiative French author Dominique Lapierre, only at Sambhavna. has initiated a thorough cervical on women’s health screening project. A holistic success Given official neglect, absence of The first step is to educate women Women also benefit from the use monitoring and non-existent care of in gas-affected communities to over- of ayurvedic herbal treatments and gynaecological complications caused come their reluctance to talk about yoga. The popularity of Sambhavna’s by the disaster, special attention is gynaecological health. Community screening project demonstrates that paid by Sambhavna in this area. health work focussing on these issues the latest technology can effectively While officials continue to deny is done by several healthworkers. be combined with 3,000 year old that there are any long term exposure- This is followed by a programme therapy in seeking the most rational related gynaecological issues, data of PAP smears and cytology (smear treatment for gas survivors. collected at Sambhavna shows that of 190 females aged between 13 and 19, who visited the clinic between 1 June 1999 and 31st March 2000, 113 had menstrual problems, which included painful and irregular menses, heavy bleeding and, to them, embarrassing vaginal secretions.8 This condition, known locally as ‘safed pani’ (literally white water), is not often openly discussed because of social taboos. Community health worker Aziza explains, ‘Women do talk about it more now but are often confined to their houses and can’t talk to their husbands about their problems or get education.’ Most worrying was the finding of Sambhavna’s pathologist that women survivors gave a high proportion of abnormal PAP smears, increasing French writer Dominique Lapierre & fears of a direct connection between his wife Dominique donated a dedicated gas exposure and cancer of the cervix. gynaecology clinic to Sambhavna Although in India, cervical cancer 78 THE BHOPAL MARATHON WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 79

‘I started my periods when I was ten. I get them once in th ree or six months. They go on for twenty to twenty-five days. I get giddy, weak, irritable and numb. I have breathing problems.’ In a town where many women wear the veil, ‘moon problems’ are not easy to discuss. Taming wayward moons

‘IWRITHEINAGONYLIKEAFISH women. The sample was 30 women, systems. Bhujangasana, ushtrasana, OUT OF WATER, from the pain all aged between 18 to 38, and divided shalabha asana and dhanurasana over my body. I get my periods between a test group and mainly affect the ligaments and once in four months. I’m told I a control group. Before muscles of the pelvic region. mustn’t mention my problems.’ the trial began, the test suptavajrasana and naukasana ‘I get terrible pain in my back group received a month affect the ovaries and uterus. and abdomen for five days during of training in specified yoga asanas. Mild, alternating pressure changes my periods. I get them every 15 days.’ After this, for the test period of six in these organs as they undergo a ‘In just month I have bled thrice. months, they took no drugs for their stretching and relaxation stimulate Some times menses come after 3 menstrual ailments and the autonomic nervous system . or even 6-7 months. My periods only did yoga, usually Muscle tone is regulated and last 15 days. My sister has had in their homes. Members equilibrium maintained. similar problems.’ of the control group did Women shyly brought their ‘I started my periods when I was no yoga and took normal medication. menstrual charts, hidden in the folds ten. I get them once in 3 or 6 months. All women came to the clinic at least of their dresses, to the clinic and Once started they go on for 20 to 25 once a month with their menstrual shared them with Nivritta in privacy. days, in which for 10 days charts, the test group The results were striking. bleeding is very heavy. I get using the visit to check Women in the control group giddy, weak, irritable and numb that they were doing the showed no special improvement when I have my periods. I also asanas properly. Their in the regularity of their cycles, have breathing problems.’ charts were designed so non-literate amount of bleeding or intensity of Menstrual chaos is one of the women could easily use them, simple pain. In the test group more than half least-known effects of gas exposure. graphic symbols replaced words. the women with abnormal cycles In a city where many women Theey were trained reported that they now had wear the veil, ‘moon problems’ how to fill in the charts, normal cycle lengths, 8 of the are not easy to discuss. At the recording cycle lengths, 10 women who had begun the Sambhavna clinic,we are using duration and amount of study with abnormal bleeding therapies like yoga to help. bleeding, intensity of menstrual pain reported that it was back to normal. By the tenets of modern medicine, and any and all symptoms. Women Eight women gained relief from pain. problems like amenorrhoea could be breast-feeding, using IUDs or oral We are now systematically teaching caused by systemic problems, contraceptives, or with yoga to women with menstrual or genital tract abnormalities diabetes or high blood problems and at least two of the or hormonal imbalance. pressure were ineligible government hospitals in the city, Pain during menstruation is for the study. enthused and inspired by the caused by contraction of the uterus Women in the test group practiced work we have done, have begun their and the secretion of prostaglandin. a sequence of asanas, demonstrated own yoga programmes and hired ex- Antispasmodics & antiprostaglandins opposite by Nivritta Dutta and shot Sambhavna staff to run them. are used to relieve pain. Yoga by Maude Dorr. Surya We are pleased. Any therapy can do this without drugs.’ namaskar improves the that brings relief without adding We carried out a study to see passage of prana vayu more chemicals to the toxically- how yoga might help menstrual or ‘vital air’ in the body, overburdened bodies of Bhopal problems often seen in gas-affected balances the nervous and endocrine survivors can only be a good thing. 78 THE BHOPAL MARATHON WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 79

Vajrasana Suptavajrasana Marjari Asana

Paschimottasana Ushtrasana Parvatasana

Bhujangasana Shalabha Asana Dhanurasana

Naukasana Uddyan bandh Nadishodhana Pranayama

Ardhamatsyendra Chakrasana Bhramari Pranayama 80 THE BHOPAL MARATHON WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 81 WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 81 First do no harm: the ancient herbal science of Ayurveda The clinic’s use of ayurveda, yoga and panchakarma, as a complement to modern medicine is a direct challenge to the medical methods used in Bhopal since the gas leak which are directed at symptomatic relief without affecting chronic underlying disease.

In the state government hospitals and clinics, in the Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust and among private doctors, steroids, antibiotics and psychotropic drugs continue to be the staples of treatment . It is quite common to find people in Bhopal who say they have taken more than 5 or 10 kgs of allopathic pills and have had only temporary relief, if any. An independent study of one big hospital found that 26.3% of the drugs prescribed were harmful, 48.5% were useless and 7.6% both.1 The ongoing disaster is a windfall for big pharma. A study carried out by Sambhavna in 1996 showed that a dozen transnational pharmaceutical firms were the chief beneficiaries of and abroad, in the potential of this make delicious pickles when green the gas disaster.2 ancient medical system to heal many and when ripe yield a jam rich in iron modern industrial diseases. and vitamin C. Natural medicines 3,000 years of pharmacological Karonda is traditionally used in Ayurveda is an indigenous system experiment have produced an accurate the treatment of scabies, intestinal of medicine more than 3,000 years and effective body of knowledge. worms, pruritus and anaemia. Its old, based on the principle of aiding, Medical studies have found that juice used to clean infected wounds. using mostly herbal medicines, the ayurveda lowers blood pressure and A leaf decoction of Karonda is used body/mind to heal itself. Exercise, cholesterol, slows the aging process, against fever, diarrhoea, and earache. diet and meditation play their part. and speeds recovery from illness. In the mountains of the western Because it is a holistic system, Many of the herbs used in ayurvedic ghats it is used by tribal healers to ayurveda does not treat symptoms medicine have antioxidant effects, so treat hepatitis, its efficacy now being but seeks to correct the underlying may help protect against illnesses confirmed by scientific studies. causes of disease, which occurs when such as heart disease and arthritis. Its vicious spines help to preserve the body and mind are thrown out of Ayurveda considers diet an essential the forest because deer and goats find balance. Ayurveda uses a variety of part of the healing process, and has a them too nasty to tackle. Birds that techniques to restore equilibrium. naturally healthy focus on plant foods. have feasted on forest fruits sit in the Sambhavna has successfully used twigs of the karonda and scatter their ayurveda to heal Bhopal victims, and The karonda berry cargo of seeds down through the our pioneering work The picture at left taken in our thorns to the soil below where they has generated huge garden shows carissa carandas, a bush germinate and grow in safety – and 1996 interest both in India of the dogbane family whose berries so the forest spreads. 82 THE BHOPAL MARATHON Wehavehad tobattle for everything – our fight for justice is a fight for life,

Because of the miserable failures continued not to do, and they would With the help of generous friends of the government, health in Bhopal not be allowed to forget it. who shared our vision, and wanted to inevitably became a political issue. The lesson we had learned – that join with us in the work, we had been We did not need to politicise the had been painfully taught to us by able to start our model clinic. people. The politicians had managed years of neglect and indifference to But as noted earlier, it was small that already by themselves. suffering by Union Carbide and the compared to the scale of sickness in We did not want our work and the central and state governments – was the city, where we estimated in 1994 clinic to replace government in the that if the survivors were ever to get that120-150,000 people were still minds of either the survivors or the appropriate, high-quality medical chronically ill, most of them unable authorities. We were doing what they care, they would have to provide it to work and often therefore without should have done, had not done and for themselves. an income. We would be unable to help all. Involving the community When Sambhavna was founded, we wanted the survivors to take control, as far as they could, of the destinies of their own bodies. The survivors agreed that each community and everyone in it shares a responsibility to do what they can to improve and protect their own health and to help their neighbours. People can actively participate in the work of Sambhavna, either by coming for care, or volunteering in the community. We teach volunteers how to grow herbs that are age-old remedies for common ailments. Medicinal herb gardens, often planted in collections of old tins can now be seen all over. Community volunteers organise people to come to public meetings, give out literature and work with our dedicated community health workers. Our community healthworkers – eight of them – are the only ones of their kind in all Bhopal and there is a huge amount of work to be done. Health & Healthcare Surveys Our community health workers Door-to-door surveys in the affected lead a session on women’s issues communities to generate a data on the demography, health and healthcare WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 83 thatshould have beenourhumanright health and a chance to live with dignity status of the residents, as well as their social, economic and environmental condition. Our healthworkers also identify people in need of special medical attention and make sure they get it, either at Sambhavna or if we cannot help at one of the government hospitals in Bhopal or Delhi. In rare cases (because we haven’t the budget to do it regularly) we have found money to pay for people to have life-saving surgery. TB care & health education Sambhavna has initated major efforts to control TB at a community level. Despite official knowledge of the unusually high prevalence of TB in the survivor population (over three times the national average) there are no official initiatives in this direction. Our anti-TB programme includes educating people about the disease, how it spreads and how to protect themselves, identifying people with symptoms, supervising their care and constant monitoring of current and former patients. Much of this work is shared by patient leaders, recovered patients in the community, whose experience in conquering TB uniquely qualifies them to provide both inspiration and guidance. Women attend a community yoga Monitoring & house visits camp organised by We monitor the progress of people Sambhavna who are receiving care at Sambhavna via regular house visits: something unique to Sambhavna. It helps us to Through this work we show that an through the active participation of assess the quality of care and patient individual can actively participate in the community of survivors. satisfaction; whether or not, and to the process of healing and that the Our work of documenting long- what extent, a treatment has worked; community can be involved in every term consequences of exposure to the and to ask people who dropped out aspect of public health; also that it is gas and water-borne poisons is part of treatment what we can do to help possible to evolve ways to monitor of the survivors’ ongoing struggle of them keep to their treatment regimes. the environment and people’s health memory against forgetting. 84 THE BHOPAL MARATHON More than ten years after the gas Batul’s nightmare continued Batul Bee, a gas widow, had tried for Mohammad had received in Delhi again the long process of collecting years to get compensation for her or Bhopal and concluded that, ‘Taj all the documents from government husband’s death and her own chronic Mohammad’s death has no relation- offices all over the city, copying them health problems. ship to the toxic gas exposure.’ and having them verified. Nearly 70, Batul is a resident of A duplicate claim was eventually Ahata Sikander Kali. Her husband, Fleeced by her lawyer prepared but, incredibly, the Claims Taj Mohammad, became seriously ill The order downgraded Batul’s Comissioner refused to accept it, on after the gas leak and was treated at claim from death to personal injury, the Kafkaesque grounds that no new two private clinics in Bhopal and one ruling that Taj Mohammad should claims were being accepted. in Delhi. He died in September 1989. be compensated for his , Batul Bi filed a claim for the death of awarded his widow Rs. 35,000. ‘Flames not flowers’ her husband. Batul Bee’s lawyer-broker forced One of Sambhavna’s community her to pay him Rs. 32,000 for his workers wrote: ‘We went yesterday to Five years pass services. That left her with Rs. 3,000. Batul’s house. Though she’s in her Almost five years went by before, (About £40.) ‘I spent more than that late seventies, the old lady insisted on on 19 June 1995, Batul’s claim was on my travel, preparing papers and making us tea. As long as she lives, upheld by the lower claims court of other things. I was left with nothing, she says, she will never give up the the Deputy Welfare Commissioner. except the money that I had spent’, fight for her rights. Batul was granted the minimum recalled Batul Bee, almost in tears. ‘We are the women of Bhopal. We compensation of Rs. 100,000. A 16-year wait are flames not flowers!’ From her old This was not the end of the story. throat pours the defiant song of the Without giving any explanation, Batul Bee filed her own claim for Bhopali women. But for Batul’s the Welfare Commissioner’s upper personal injury in early 1988. She brave spirit and indomitable heart, claim court of the decided to review handed in a copy of her registration time has all but run out. the case. On 30 August 1996, the document, a copy of Tata Institute’s upper court set aside the previous survey proving that she was living in No justice decision. an affected area on the night of gas, ‘Walking back through a land- and that she was sick thereafter. scape of low shanties dominated by No explanation She waited for a reply, but none Carbide’s factory - still uncleaned The Commissioner’s order, about came. Years passed, sixteen of them, after 25 years – we were thinking how a page long, acknowledged that Taj and still there was no word. catastrophe after catastrophe has Mohammad suffered from chronic been heaped on these brave people. bronchitis and that the result of his Unacceptable It is impossible not to feel great urine thiocyanate test was abnormal, Batul Bee, who is being treated at anger. The survivors still await fair indicating MIC poisoning. However Sambhana for breathlessness, has all compensation, proper medical care, it noted that Taj Mohammad had the documents to show that she was and comprehensive economic and died a day after he was admitted to exposed to Carbide's toxic gases. social rehabilitation. hospital with an infected abcess on Her claim for compensation had The plant site has still not been his right shoulder, which, stated the been verified by various government cleaned up so toxic wastes continue Commissioner ‘had nothing to do offices, and was correctly delivered to pollute the soil and contaminate with exposure to toxic gas.’ to the Claims Commissioner but she water that so many people rely on. There was no explanation for this has not received a notification of the And, astonishingly, while these cruel decision, but the Commissioner hearing of her claim despite dozens poor people continue to suffer and had noted that there of trips to various offices. die, no executive of Union Carbide were no records of the At last she was told that her file has been held to account for the leak 1996 private care which Taj had gone missing. Wearily she began and its appalling consequences.’ WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 85

[From an old Bhopal Group for Information & Action newsletter]

We were in a helpless situation. I breathless when I walk. The doctors had no job and the children were too told me that I need to be operated on young to work. We survived on help for ulcers in my stomach. They told Bano was from our neighbours and others in me it would cost Rs. 10,000. I do not the community. My husband had have so much money. All my jewellery defrauded by severe breathing problems and used has long ago been sold. I have not to get into bouts of coughing. When paid the landlord for the last six years he became weak, he had fever all the and he harasses me. How can I go for officials and time. He was always being treated for the operation? Also, I am afraid that gas related problems. He was never if I die during the operation, there left destitute treated for tuberculosis. And yet, in would be no one to look after my his post-mortem report, they said children. that he died due to tuberculosis. I believe that even if we starve, we My husband used to carry sacks of He was medically examined for must ensure that the guilty officials grain at the warehouse. He used to compensation but they never told us of Union Carbide are punished. load and unload railway wagons. in which category he was put. And They’ve killed this one's brother, After the gas, he could not do any now they tell me that his death was that one's husband, someone else's work. Sometimes, his friends used to not due to gas exposure, that I can not mother, someone's sister - how many take him with them and he used to get the relief of Rs. 10,000 which is tears can Union Carbide wipe? We just sit there. His friends gave him 5- given to the relatives of the dead. will get Union Carbide punished. Till 10 rupees and we survived on that. I have pain in my chest and I go my last breath, I will not leave them. 86 THE BHOPAL MARATHON From cock up to cover up: the poisoning of a new generation NEERI, the National Environmental Engineering Research Institude of Nagpur was an ‘expert’ retained by state politicians to assess contamination at the Bhopal plant site. Its role was, to speak generously, one of unparalleled incompetence – eagerly seized on by Union Carbide and politicans to cover up the ongoing poisoning of some 30,000 men, women and children.

At the insistence of the Madhya cadmium, arsenic, cyanide, phenols, did not question the investigations Pradesh State Government, NEERI chlorides and pesticides.4. and recommendations of NEERI. If was involved in two major studies (in In an internal memo never meant the work is carried out by any other 1990 & 1997) of contamination at the to be shared with the outside world agency, the Board follows up and Carbide factory site and surrounds. Union Carbide’s head of Health, examines the work critically and Union Carbide asked consultants Safety & Environmental Research at more so if Union Carbide (India) is Arthur D Little to oversee NEERI’s Danbury cautioned his colleagues involved.’ (UCC 02400 /02401) work.1 (UCC 02271) about relying on NEERI’s puzzling Carbide cited NEERI’s observed results, saying, ‘we do not know the weaknesses in merciless detail: The 1990 study exact sample and analytical protocols • Not used to developing standards NEERI’s 1990 report stated that used’.5 (UCC 02050). of contamination where not available the ‘solar evaporation ponds’ outside But Carbide routinely quoted the • Found to ignore standard sampling the factory walls – essentially large NEERI study when responding to procedures shallow lakes in which Carbide had allegations about contamination and • Likely to recommend unrealistic dumped thousands of tons of toxic by 1993, with a new study underway, standards of contamination without wastes – had not contaminated soil Carbide’s misgivings about NEERI sufficient back-up and groundwater.2 had turned to clear recognition that •Tendency to play safe However at least nine chemicals its incompetence was invaluable.6 ‘From the foregoing,’ concluded detected by high performance liquid Carbide, ‘it is advisable to entrust the chromotography in samples from the How Carbide used NEERI work to NEERI, but develop a strategy ponds were left unidentified.3 ‘It was noticed,’ wrote a Carbide to minimise adverse effects of their Union Carbide had executive, employing the scientific weaknesses with the expert advice already made its own dispassion of the passive tense, ‘that and guidance of Union Carbide India.’6 1997 analysis, finding lead, the State Pollution Control Board (UCC 02400 and 02401) WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 87

In other words they would make concerning contaminant travel times full use of NEERI’s incompetence to the acquifer below the site should and suggestibility. (For full Carbide be considered to be highly speculative. discussion, read: UCC 02398 / 02399 / There is very little site-specific data 02400 / 02401 and 02402.) that can be used to confidently predict 12 1997 study, first draft infiltration rates.’ The first draft of NEERI’s new Danger underplayed study, received by Arthur D Little What data NEERI had gathered and Union Carbide in 1996, was as pointed to a different conclusion. mystifying as ever. Page 2 of ADL’s criticisms says: A 1996 state government study ‘The conclusions regarding travel time to had found highly elevated levels of the water table may significantly under- industrial chemicals in wells near the estimate the potential for ground water plant7. Nevertheless, NEERI stated contamination … site-specific data from that: ‘The water meets drinking water the report suggest that travel times could quality criteria…the contaminants be significantly faster than assumed… the have not reached the water table till majority of the stratigraphy above the now.’8 (UCC 01099) water table consists of sandy soil and While recognising that over 20% sandstone Clay is only present to a of the site was lethally contaminated depth of 6.1 metres. One can argue that NEERI was confident that it posed the worst case scenario travel time would no danger to the groundwater.9 be 2 years.’13. (UCC 03042- 03043) ‘The soil in the area is clayey… Criticisms ignored clayey soil is highly impermeable… it would likely take 23 years for the When NEERI published its final contaminants to reach the ground report in 1997, it reasserted that the water table providedthe leachate does ground water was safe, citing the not find a channel to migrate at a same estimated migration time of the faster rate.’10 (UCC 01100 / 01101) contaminants that it had been warned against by ADL.14 None of the changes Water is not safe recommended by Arthur D Little were Arthur D Little’s criticisms of incorporated in the final report. Not one. this new draft study ran to seventeen What we encounter here is not pages, finding fault with just about just incompetence but something far everything in it. murkier as both the state government Critically, ADL advised against and Union Carbide consistently used saying the water was safe: ‘While we a NEERI report they knew to be a agree that the ground water samples dud, to deny that the contamination do not contain contamination, the of the ground water that refills the sentence “The ground water appears to drinking wells of 30,000 Bhopalis be suitable for drinking purposes” is too had anything to do with the Union strong given the limits of the data… Carbide factory. first there is only one round of And Union Carbide Corporation, ground water samples from these despite well knowing the specific and wells… second, it is not known if damning criticisms made by its own contaminant migration will impact expert consultant, claimed during a ground water in the near future, and US lawsuit that ‘there was no ground finally there is little information water contamination outside the plant’ regarding the hydrogeology in the All Union Carbide documents referred due to the ‘relative impermeability of area.’11 (UCC 03043, p.13) to in this article (and many more) are at the soil in and around the plant.’15 And, ADL continued, ‘Statements www.bhopalmarathon.org (Krohley Declaration, Para 6, Ex. A) 88 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

In 1999, the Sevin formulation tank rotted and split, dumping carbaryl ‘rocks’ onto bare earth WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 89 After ten years of silence and denial from Carbide, a Greenpeace report finally revealed the horrifying truth

CHEMICAL FOUND x EXCEEDING KNOWN EFFECTS Toxins known to cause cancers and IN SOIL & WATER EPA LIMIT ON HEALTH birth defects found by Greenpeace to Reported to induce be leaking from Union Carbide’s site anaemia, leukemia, skin lesions, vomiting, weight 1, 2-Dichlorobenzene 5 loss, headaches, yellow On December 2, 1999 Greenpeace declared atrophy of the liver, the old Union Carbide factory site in Bhopal, kidney damage and India a ‘global toxic hotspot’.1 chromosomal aberrations. Greenpeace had tested groundwater and soil samples in and around the factory site, and Shown to increase risk of found heavy concentrations of carcinogenic leukemia, bladder cancer, oesophogal cancer, skin chemicals and heavy metals. One soil sample 1, 4-Dichlorobenzene 11 (IT9012) was by weight over 12% pure cancer, cervical cancer, (between 20,000 and 6 million times higher and tumours in the liver than expected). Over a dozen volatile organic and kidneys. compounds, most wildly exceeding EPA safe Drinking small amounts limits were found in the water being drunk by may damage the liver and tens of thousands. kidneys, cause nervous These chemicals were known to cause brain system effects, impaired Tetrachloroethene 9 damage, cancers, kidney and liver failure and, immune function and most terrifying of all to women who had grown interferes with foetal up knowing the stories of Bhopal, children development in pregnant with deformed bodies and damaged brains. women. Greenpeace recommended total remediation Has a carcinogenic effect of the site, including the underground acquifer on the liver, kidneys and closure of contaminated wells. Trichloroethene 50 and/or intestine. Causes A 1996 State Research Laboratory report2 in miscarriages and lowers Hindi (promptly suppressed by ministers) had sperm counts. found the water from over 100 tube wells to be unfit to drink, but victims of Union Carbide’s According to the EPA (’97) gases, already suffering a range of illnesses, can cause cancer. High exposure can damage had no choice but to drink, wash and cook with 260 this water every day, and were poisoned again. the liver, kidneys and The existence of the danger was denied by central nervous system, Union Carbide, citing as its authority the same including the brain. flawed and uncorrected NEERI report it had Causes headaches, nausea, itself midwifed into being.3 Corporate denials dizziness and vomiting. In and government indifference continued after severe cases coma and and even death can occur. Union Carbide mergedwith Dow 682 Chemical4 and, indeed, continue *By 2009 the level in one 1999 to this time of writing5 – as do previously-tested well had the cancers, damaged births and Source: Greenpeace Lab increased to 4,880 times 2001 tears of a helpless people. reports 1999 & *2009 the EPA safety limit. 90 THE BHOPAL MARATHON A-Z of diseases, Carbide’s poisons

Adil’s legs are malformed. He is & damaged children unable to stand. Ajmat was born at home and Anorexia - (Sevin, chlorinated chloride, Sevin, lead, mercury, cadmium) nursed on mother's milk for two benzenes) Learning disorders in children, years. His growth is retarded and he Blood disorders - abnormal hyperactivity, behaviour problems, is slowly losing his vision. numbers of red and white blood hyperexcitability - (lead, mercury) Akash is weak with hunched back. corpuscles, Anaemia (chlorinated Loss of coordination - (lead) Akshay is mentally retarded. His benzenes, lead, arsenic) Lymphatic system damage - legs are deformed and he is unable to Blood pressure, high (lead) (arsenic) fold them. He is very weak, suffers Bone problems - (hexachloro- Muscle problems, weakness, from persistent colds and coughs benzenes, cadmium) twitching, tremors and cramping - which leave him exhausted. Brain damage - (lead, arsenic) (Sevin, lead, mercury) Amir like so many was born with Cancer, including breast and Nasal discharge - (Sevin) fused fingers, we paid for his surgery lung (, arsenic, benzene Nausea and vomiting - (Sevin, Deepika has night blindness and hexachloride, Lindane, Alpha chlorinated benzenes, cadmium, lead) cannot hear well. Naphthol) Neurotoxicity, loss of memory, Deepu has a defect in the bones of Central nervous system sexual dysfunction, delusions, her hands and legs. She is unable to damage (mercury, lead, cadmium, loss of vision, brain disorders, walk properly. chlorinated benzenes, Aldicarb, Sevin) obsessive-compulsive conditions, Dipesh has growth retardation. Chromosomal abnormalities: headaches, intellectual damage - Faujia has stunted growth and is wrong number of chromosomes, (chlorinated benzenes, lead, Lindane, highly anaemic. She suffers from geophagy, a compulsion to eat soil. Structural defects - (chlorinated Sevin, mercury, arsenic) Mamta has stunted growth and at benzenes) Oedema - fluid accumulation 16 has not reached her menarche. Convulsions - (Sevin) under the skin - (chromium) Rajni has stunted growth. Her Diarrhoea and constipation - Pharynx and larynx problems mind is undeveloped. She can’t walk - (chromium) (Sevin, lead, cadmium) or talk. Liquid oozes from her ears. DNA impairment Mental disorders, depression, - (cadmium) Rani at 16 is mentally retarded. Endocrine disrupting chemicals stupor, personality changes, She has no nose bone, a deformed mimic hormones, disrupt natural malaise - (Sevin, lead, mercury) finger and does not talk. hormones, causing miscarriages, Respiratory complaints: deep Rupesh at age 4 had a series of fits low fertility, damage to immune respiratory tract irritation, broncho- which left him paralysed, unable to system, behavioural & menstrual spasms, asthmatic bronchitis, walk or speak, with no control over problems, abnormal male/female breathlessness - (chromium, arsenic, his body. He has since died. ratios and cancers - (lead, arsenic, chlorinated benzenes) Salman, has problems walking Lindane, Aldicarb, mercury, cadmium) Skin lesions, severe sweating and is unable to see at night. Excessive salivation - (Sevin) - (chromium, arsenic, chlorinated ben- Sayara has retarded growth. She is Eye irritation, photo sensitivity zenes, hexachloro-benzene, ) mentally weak, and has no appetite. & pinpoint pupils (chlorinated Sleep disorders - (lead) Suraj is mentally weak. His legs benzenes, Sevin) Slurred speech - (Sevin, lead) paralysed since birth. Gastric problems - (Sevin, lead, Teratogenic effects, chemicals Tajneen has a cleft lip, she cannot arsenic, cadmium) cross into the placenta to affect eat or talk. Hair loss - (hexachlorobenzene) the foetus (chlorinated benzenes 1,4, Vineeta was unable to speak or Heart disruptions - (arsenic) hexachloro-benzene, Aldicarb, lead) walk properly. She has since died. Hepatoxicity damage to liver Thyroid damage - (dichloride- - (chlorinated benzenes, benzene hexa- and hexachloro-benzenes) Above & right: Children seen at Sambhavna Clinic andChingari Trust born to gas-affected Source: Bhopal Group for Information & Action parents or in water-affected families WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 91

Amir, 2007

Sarmil, 2007

Nawab, 2007

Tajmil, 2007 Rajesh 2009 Adil, 2007 Ashwani, 2007

Rupesh, 2007

Ronak, 2007 92 THE BHOPAL MARATHON Sambhavna campaigns to bring safe water to the poisoned communities

The best way to fight illness is to prevent it. So in 2000 Sambhavna began mobilising water- affected communities to fight for what was their fundamental human right to clean water. The aim was to stop more people getting ill, more babies being born damaged. And to allow time for the slow processes of the law to catch the polluter and make him clean up.

Adil is a normal teenager, except that he will never walk. His legs are withered, too weak to carry him. To get about he must crawl on hands and knees. He bears his fate cheerfully. On the night of the gas disaster, the as-yet-unborn Adil’s family lived mere yards from the Union Carbide factory, so close that his mother used to say it was miracle she survived. ‘I am so lucky,’ she’d say, little knowing what the factory had in store for an encore – a slower, hidden terror. People living near the place had no idea that having killed their loved ones the factory was now poisoning their drinking wells. Union Carbide knew by 1992 (see p. 64) but kept silent and issued no warnings.1 Five years into that silence, Adil’s mother got married. Lucky again. Many girls exposed to the gas had serious menstrual problems and weren’t able to have children. By the time she was pregnant with Adil the water in the local wells had begun to smell and taste awful. Held up to the light it appeared full of oily globules. If left to settle in a glass, a tawny layer formed at the bottom. This gloop was actually a cocktail of virulent chemicals. Political tomfoolery After the 1999 Greenpeace report, these chemicals had names; effects and dangers were at last known. ‘The water has been contaminated Adil 2000 to 1,000 times more than the average WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 93 drinking water standards acceptable the chemicals and their known health in developed countries,’ Greenpeace effects, the role of government and reported,2 but the company continued corporate agencies, and the ways in its denials and Digvijay Singh, then which communities like theirs could chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, protect themselves from this routine denied that the underground water poisoning. reserves were contaminated. The twice-weekly health education To prove this point to a sceptical meetings began to draw larger and press, the state minister in charge of larger numbers of residents. In these gas relief and rehabilitation, Arif meetings people spoke about how Aqueel, was ordered to drink water worried they were that these toxins from a tap near the factory. could build up in the body, and that Aqueel made a show of lifting up so many of them were known to cause the glass to the light, sniffing it, and cancers. then lifting it to his mouth. But he The community elders took on the was seen shortly afterwards, round a task of organising people to pressure corner, sticking two fingers down his the local elected official who soon throat. (Figure One, right). found himself exposed to some form It was the first in a series of deeply of protest almost every day. unintelligent political stunts (the latest Unrelenting community pressure being Environment Minister Jairam quickly bore fruit. On September 9, Ramesh’s Day of the Python, see p.156 ). barely five weeks into the campaign, the Municipal Corporation delivered Serious health problems six 10,000 litre water tanks. Between Today Sambhavna and Chingari, six and eight tankers began coming the two clinics funded by the Bhopal every day to fill the tanks with safer Medical Appeal, are the only places in (but still not clean enough) drinking Bhopal that give free care to those who are water. The quantity was insufficient suffering from water poisoning. But in and tainted wells were still perforce 2000 Chingari had not yet come into used by people for cooking, washing being. and drinking when the government On 11 August 2000, Sambhavna's supply ran out. In addition, about community health workers began an 20% of affected people living in six intensive health education campaign communities had yet to to see any in Atal Ayub Nagar, the community sign of government tankers. Some most affected by the contamination. 5,000 families had no option but to People were reporting abdominal continue to rely on bad water for all pain, skin lesions, dizziness, vomiting, their daily needs. constipation, indigestion, burning in the chest and stomach. A long struggle Most children in this community The struggle for clean water had were born seriously underweight and begun with a small victory, but as the weak, with discoloured skin & other 2000 Factfinding Mission on Bhopal multi-systemic health problems. said: ‘Bhopal did not just happen on Women complained that lactation December 3rd, 1984, it is continuing had ceased. Some stopped producing to happen to those who were unfor- milk within a month of giving birth. tunate to live in its vicinity on that The campaign begins fateful day. Not only this generation but the next generation too stands to Armed with a range of 12 posters, be contaminated and poisoned by the our people began discussions on the disaster. ’3 source of the problem, the nature of A long, bitter struggle lay ahead. 94 THE BHOPAL MARATHON Interview with a frightened man

In April 2001 Tim Edwards met N. Ganesh, a researcher troubled by what he had discovered but even more by fear of speaking out. A year later his work was referenced in The Lancet.

In April 2001 photographer Andy Moxon and I visited the Jawaharlal Nehru Cancer hospital at the behest of N. Ganesh, a researcher finishing his PhD on the long term genetic effects of MIC exposure. The JNCH appears impressively up to date, with clean cool corridors, and broad airy wards. Ganesh's lab was very well equipped: racks of test tubes on the benches, large fridge, a centrifuge for separating blood cells, and, in pride of place, an electron microscope. Ganesh was pleased to show us round his environment, but he seemed jumpy, especially so when footsteps passed by in the corridor outside. Ganesh's thesis was Genetic risk evaluation of MIC - clinical and cyto- immunological studies in populations exposed in Bhopal. He said he would show us photos of foetuses born in areas close to the Carbide factory to parents heavily exposed to MIC. The cases had come to light in government hospitals over the pre- vious few years, and Ganesh had had exclusive access to them. Ganesh’s sample was drawn from gas-hit areas designated as ‘grade A’ for the severity of MIC exposure. ‘My study is only indicative of the situation in Bhopal,’ he told us. ‘We need long-term genetic studies, as in the material. shot, with a garish fullness to the some abnormalities may be caused He then showed about 30 photos colour, presented a sequence of by consanguineous marriages.’ - taken from 2000 onwards - of retinoblastinomas, a type of cancer Ganesh had mapped diagrams of young children born in gas exposed that rages just behind the eye socket, the family history of each subject. families. The images revealed birth making the eye horrifically swollen, Photographs of the chromosomes deformities, the majority of them so misshapen and bounded with livid were attached to each of the case monstrous, so disturbing that I kept tissue. None of the children affected files. Ganesh pointed revisiting them in my mind's eye for were older than six years old. In out ominous breaks weeks after. some of the photos, with one half of 2001 and abnormalities The first pictures, amateurly the face being unmarked, there was a WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 95

jolting bifurcation between monster no systematic research had been stories I had heard, was that data and child. In others the deformity published. pointing to the serious long-term wrought by the cancer tugged upon As we came out of the lab and I consequences of MIC exposure were already imperfect features. In one asked Ganesh more questions, he being systematically suppressed by photo a young baby was eclipsed by became nervous. It wouldn't look local officials. It was not so many two of these grotesque afflictions. good if the director knew that he had years ago that national officials were There was no restraint in the brought us in here. We moved off to implicated in the same business, horror of these images. Next came talk to people in the hospital's MIC when the full programme of ICMR genital malformations, followed by wards, which were funded by a grant (Indian Council of Medical Research) gross limb deformities (one girl held from the Department of Gas Relief studies, many of them unfinished, up a foot five times larger than that and Rehabilitation. But the Director was inexplicably shelved, and a ban on which she stood - another flexed soon learned of our presence and we placed on their publication by the fingers that protruded from her were summoned to his office for a Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers. shoulders), and tiny babies with half-hour dressing down. We were The ban was lifted in 1996, silently, hyenchephalitis, which swells and asked to leave the hospital. but the studies have yet to receive the bloats the skull , throwing the body A few weeks later I took an ABC benefit of public scrutiny. out of proportion and squashing the Nightline filmmaker to meet Ganesh Before leaving Bhopal I met Dr features. Finally there was a boy with at a neutral location: the museum of Ghazala, a paediatrician at Hamidia doughy skin lying in an incubator Hamidia hospital where, amongst hospital, gas-affected herself and looking at the camera through concerned for the well being of a large, single, milky eye near ‘Children are being born with defor- the survivors. She told me: ‘The the middle of his forehead. It government doctors won't say a mities like cleft palate, three eyes, all was a relief when the photos word about gas problems. They ended. Ganesh said that he did the fingers joined, one extra finger, are under orders not to talk not have resources to collect one testicle, different skull shapes and about these things. If they talk more case studies but he knew to the press they will say there that there were many more. It Down’s syndrome’, says N. Ganesh, a are no problems.’ seemed that the director of the researcher at the Jawaharlal Nehru The Indian authorities have hospital wasn't giving Ganesh Cancer Hospital & Research Centre.2 quite a history of suppressing much support on his project. information about the health of Not only that, he didn't want The Lancet Vol. 360, No. 9336, p.859, 14 September 2002 the survivors. The $470 million outsiders to find out about settlement of 1989, struck behind Ganesh's research. other gruesome exhibits, were many closed doors with officials of Union I asked Ganesh if he thought the malformed foetuses kept in jars in Carbide, was based on grossly congenital abnormalities resulted formaldehyde. One of them, blue in under-calculated figures for dead & from gas exposure. ‘Certainly', he colour, looked scarcely human; the maimed, figures that are still quoted said. ‘But what I have is not enough rear of its skull was small and as fact by the company and careless to publish the data.' squared off, whereas its frontal lobes journalists. Asking why just throws I thought about the sparseness of were exaggerated and prominent. up further questions. Why indeed the known research on the matter. An Ganesh told us that it was a gas baby. would a government weaken its own Indian Council of Medical Research Ganesh seemed reluctant to talk position in a settlement dispute? study1 from the 1980's found that 15 about his work. He talked instead Why would it stop medical reports in 1000 babies born after the gas generally about cancers, case studies on the gas being publicly available, showed congenital malformations. that were not MIC related. Every information that could benefit the In a study ranging 1-10 kilometres time we tried to bring Ganesh back efforts of physicians working with from the Carbide factory a year after to birth defects, to MIC-related the aftermath of gas poisoning? Why exposure 71% of the exposed people health consequences, he would make is there even today (in 2001) an official showed chromosomal damage as increasingly nervous and erratic climate of secrecy and cover-ups against 21% in a control group. statements that led us away from the concerning what a foreign company Breaks and gaps were found in topic. I got the sense of a man deeply had done to the helpless people that the chromosomes of exposed people afraid for his job. My suspicion, these same officials are supposed to three years after the gas. After that, based on these meetings and other represent and protect? T. E - K . 96 THE BHOPAL MARATHON The vanishings & mysterious reappearances of Union Carbide Corporation

‘From day one, we started to plan for the close of Carbide,’ said Dow Chemical CEO Michael Parker in June 20011, after Dow and Union Carbide merged in a deal in which all Carbide’s shares ‘shall no longer be outstanding, shall be cancelled and retired and shall cease to exist.’2 Over two years Carbide would be absorbed into Dow, thousands of staff would be laid off and Carbide’s blue hexagon trademark would be seen no more. Even the name would vanish: How can David Cameron honestly say, ‘this is a different company and a different business’?3

Union Carbide vanished from Bhopal Stock depreciation and sales 40-46). In the autumn of 1987 India’s by degrees. accounted for some of this, but most Central Bureau of Investigation is melted away in a divestment drive ready to proceed with its case against Warren Anderson’s escape undertaken, it was said, to foil a Warren Anderson, Union Carbide The FIR (First Information Report) takeover bid by GAF Corporation.5 Corporation (UCC, the US parent) that a crime had been committed in Around 80% of UCC’s equity went Union Carbide Eastern (UCE, Union Bhopal was filed by a station officer direct to shareholders and lenders. Carbide’s Hong Kong based regional at the Hanumanganj police station on holding company), Union Carbide the evening of December 6.3a & 9 US case dismissed India Limited (UCIL) and 8 UCIL On Dec 7 1984 Warren Anderson In 1985 thousands of individual executives, who are all charged with flew into Bhopal only to be arrested civil claims filed by US ambulance- manslaughter offences under Section by order of Chief Minister Arjun chasers (see p. 16) were consolidated 304 Part II of the Indian Penal Code Singh and held for several hours at into a single class action in the Lower (IPC) and with other crimes.9 the Union Carbide guest house Manhattan District Court. Shortly before the case opens, an (often described as ‘palatial’, it was a Union Carbide petitioned that the unnamed Indian government source glazed building with wide views over case be transferred to India arguing advises Carbide to establish a dummy Bhopal’s beautiful Upper Lake). that jurisdiction lay with the Indian trading company to handle imports Though accused of crime bailable courts. On May 12, Judge Keenan of UCC products into India.10 only by special court orders he was granted the petition subject to Union Two weeks before the criminal later released on orders of the same Carbide accepting this jurisdiction.6 trial opens in Bhopal, UCC registers Chief Minister, after a junior UCIL On June 12, Union Carbide duly an Indian trading arm with a different staff member had been ordered to committed itself in writing to accept name, new directors &shareholders.11 sign a bail bond for Rs 25,000.4 jurisdiction of India's courts.7 The UCC refuses to appear in Indian Anderson mysteriously vanished dismissal of the US case was based on courts to face trial and numerous from the guest house. The world’s this letter. summonses are ignored by the three media, camped outside the front gate, foreign accused. never saw him go. Carbide refuses to appear Two years pass, throughout which Rejects Indian jurisdiction Carbide divests assets period, as alert readers will recall, May 16, 1988 Further summonses Between1984 and 1986, UCC’s assets Carbide and the Indian government against Anderson, UCC and UCE fell from $5 billion to were in secret negotiations to agree draw the following response from 2001 an estimated $697m. an out-of-court settlement8 (see pp. Robert Berzok, Carbide's director of WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 97

communications: ‘Union Carbide will UCC safety systems at its MIC plant With the criminal charges vanishes not appear because, as a United States at Institute, West Virginia. The visit the possibility of any real redress or corporation, it is not subject to India's is scheduled for February 15 and will of exemplary punishment and achance jurisdiction.’12 (for Berzok, see pp. 58-59) analyse the differences in technology, to deter other multinationals from UCE prepares to vanish particularly between the safety systems killing and injuring through negligent at the two plants. management of industrial hazards. Two weeks after an arrest warrant A furious outcry in the media, and arrives in Hong Kong for UCE’s A surprise settlement public disgust, force the politicians to Peter J Whitley, Carbide registers a The day before the investigators promise that they will reappraise the new company called Union Carbide are due to visit Institute, the Indian settlement. The five Supreme Court Asia Pacific (UCAP) under Delaware Supreme Court announces that UCC justices are subjected to such intense law.13 It will be sited in Singapore. and the Government of India have criticism, their motives questioned UCE begins transferring its regional agreed an out-of-court settlement.16 and their honour impugned, that one business managment to UCAP.14 UCC will pay $470 million in full of them is said to have cried in court.18 Bhopal court orders arrests settlement of civil claims. In return Criminal charges revived the Indian government will extinguish February 9, 1989. Things hot up. The the criminal cases against Anderson, On October 3, 1991 the Supreme Bhopal court issues a non-bailable UCC and UCE. This stretching of Court upholds the financial part of arrest warrant to Warren Anderson the law to breaking point and beyond the settlement, but orders criminal for repeatedly ignoring summonses was prescribed by one of the accused – proceedings against Anderson, UCC and declares Anderson, UCC and the Gokhale – within the first settlement et al to be revived. If UCC refuses to soon-to-be defunct UCE absconders proposal (see Towe letter pp 40 et seq). accept this, say the judges, they can from justice in India.15 India’s Attorney General Sorabjee have their $470 million back.19 The U.S. authorities finally grant said that the settlement compounded The court expresses the rather the CBI permission to inspect the ‘non-compoundable' offences.17 naive hope that UCC will contribute 98 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Rs. 50 crores, about £7 million, to all its Indian assets worth nearly $100 fear of the proceeds being seized. setting up a hospital in Bhopal for million. At the March 27 hearing, (See A Dance of Several Veils, p xxx) 20 the victims. UCIL, itself accused in the case, asks The quest of Sir Ian Percival that attachment of the shares be Court threatens sanctions deferred.23 On April 15, UCC creates December 10, 1993. Sir Ian Percival February 1, 1992. Revived criminal the Bhopal Memorial Hospital approaches the Supreme Court of proceedings recommence in Bhopal. Trust, in London, gifts it £1,000 and India on behalf of the new Trust. Once again, Warren Anderson, UCC endows it with all of the threatened He states that in order to alleviate and the dissolved UCE are absent. shares in UCIL. The sole trustee is Sir the suffering of the people of Bhopal The court orders them to appear on Ian Percival, who had previously been the Trust wishes to build a hospital March 27, 1992, failing which it will Mrs Thatcher’s Solicitor General.24 for them –not just any hospital, but order attachment of all UCC’s assets On April 30, the Bhopal court a superspeciality hospital. in India, including its shareholding refuses to recognise either the Trust The Trust owns the shares deeded in UCIL.21 or the endowment of UCIL’s shares, to it by Union Carbide, and would On February 3 the court publishes viewing them as malafide, a snub to like to sell these shares to raise the a proclamation in the Washington the court. Chief Judicial Magistrate funds to build the hospital. Post requiring Warren Anderson to Gulab Sharma remarks: ‘It is clearly However the shares are entangled appear in court on March 27,22 but on evident that the accused wants to in the case in Bhopal and the court the day he is nowhere to be seen. evade prosecution by any means.’25 had described the Trust’s intentions He directs attachment of all UCC as ‘malafide’, so the super hospital UCC’s dilemma properties in India. couldn’t be built.26 UCC faces a dilemma. If it comes Indian government steps in to court and is found guilty, it will Carbide’s Indian sales hit face potential punitive damages that 1993. Under the court’s attachment The Union of India now files an are limited only by its ability to pay. order Union Carbide (US) can no application asking the Supreme Court If it does not appear, it will lose longer sell its products in India for to enforce UCC’s obligation to build WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 99 the expert medical facility.27 issues are resolved you will not see Union Carbide find that it has for At a hearing, attended by Sir Ian, Union Carbide in India.'35 practical purposes all but disappeared. the Supreme Court represents to the UCC might not be seen in India, ‘From Day One,’ said Dow’s new Union of India that the Sole Trustee’s but it is there. Between 1994-2000 a CEO Michael Parker, ‘we planned ideas are ‘eminently reasonable’ and multi-million dollar trade in UCC for the close of Union Carbide. 300 ‘worthy of consideration.’28 products (see p. 102) is carried on in separate ‘integration projects’ began, On February 14, 1994 – the 5th India36 with the help of what UCC and with the aim of by ‘Day 730’, melding anniversary of the hated settlement – Dow lawyers will describe in a 2006 the two companies into one.43 a Supreme Court bench presided over brief to a US court, as ‘commission- by Mr Justice Ahmadi overrules the compensated middlemen’.37 Facing the market as Dow Bhopal court and permits sale of the August 24 1995. UCIL withdraws A sense that Union Carbide has attached shares.29 its legal objections to the attachment vanished, even as a name, is clear order which thus attains finality and from an email sent five weeks after Bhopalis file appeals remains in force to this day.38 the merger by a senior Dow manager: The news prompts Bhopal victims’ ‘All business activities are done under organisations file review petitions for Carbide prepares to vanish the umbrella of a Dow business. We recall of the order. They argue that The time has come for UCC itself to face the market as Dow. Reporters will the hospital was meant to be funded vanish from history. In August 1999, be tempted to keep talking about from UCC’s unencumbered assets, UCC announces plans to merge with Union Carbide but we should discourage that sale of the attached shares will Dow Chemical: ‘All Company Shares reporters from using the words Union permit UCC to escape justice in the shall no longer be outstanding, shall Carbide, unlessit's reference to a historical criminal case.30 be cancelled and retired and shall activity…All products are sold as Hearings of these applications are cease to exist.’39 Dow products…any current or future adjourned five times before being On May 3, 2000 a class action is activity of a business is done as Dow.’44 eventually heard on October 20, by filed against Dow by a worried Dow which time the sale of the shares has shareholder who alleges that Dow No separable segments already taken place.31 has violated federal laws by failing to Dow’s 2010 SEC filing confirms reveal to the Securities Exchange that: ‘Union Carbide Corporation's UCC shares are sold Commission that UCC still faces business activities comprise compo- In September 1994 UCC’s shares charges of culpable homicide and nents of Dow's global operations in UCIL are sold to McLeod Russel other crimes in a Bhopal court.40 rather than stand-alone operations… for Rs. 170 crores. UCIL is renamed Dow also had not disclosed that there are no separable reportable Eveready Industries India Limited UCC was refusing to appear to face the business segments for UCC.’45 (EIIL).32 After release of around Rs. criminal charges, was a ‘proclaimed 125 crores (including dividends) to absconder’ from justice, and that its No responsibility Sir Ian Percival’s Trust, the remaining Indian assets had been attached. The Dow claims that Union Carbide is proceeds of about Rs.183 crores stay shareholders claim the merger could a separate company responsible for attached.33 A series of later petitions cause them financial harm. its own affairs and liabilities. removes the whole amount from the A few days later Dow Chairman Responding to clamour for Dow custody of the Bhopal court and Frank Popoff says Dow considers to be dropped as an Olympic sponsor hands it to the Trust.34 Between them the Bhopal case settled, but admits because of its Bhopal connection, the Supreme Court and the Indian that the company is worried about George Hamilton, Dow’s Vice Pres- government loose the Bhopal shackles double jeopardy. ‘That’s a tough ident of Olympic Operations, said, from UCC, which soon vanishes question, one that we'll have to deal ‘Dow bought the assets of Union from the contaminated factory site. with.’41 Carbide seven years after UCIL had Carbide vanishes from India been divested to McLeod Russel, Carbide integrated into Dow India …We didn’t buy the Indian June 19 1995. Robert Kennedy, new February 6, 2001. Dow Chemical assets or liabilities because they had Carbide CEO says, ‘We would like and UCC merge in an equity swap sold them to McLeod Russel. So now to do business in India again as a plus cash deal worth a total of $8.1 to get Dow to take some action that supplier of technology, but it is very billion to a cacophony of concern.42 says we are responsible…Legally? unlikely at the moment… until these After the merger, those pursuing No. Ethically, morally? No.’46 100 THE BHOPAL MARATHON A Dance of Several Veils

Dow Chemical’s purchase of Carbide in February 2001 was part of an ‘unprecedented spending spree’ in which Dow spent $10.4 billion buying chemical businesses. ‘It's a big swallow,’ Dow CEO Michael Parker told Chemical & Engineering News 1, but commented that the merger with Union Carbide was in some ways the safest purchase because it would be easiest to integrate into Dow. Carbide was, he said, ‘a very low risk transaction for Dow’. Why no worry about Bhopal?

It wasn’t as if Dow didn’t know, or later took over the contracts signed for price approval, then passed the hadn’t been warned. In August 1999 by UCE.8 By 1990, UCE was dis- orders to MegaVisa Singapore which when Dow’s plan to acquire Union solved. Indian police said they were ordered goods first through UCC Carbide Corporation (UCC) was not able to pursue charges against a Singapore then Dow Singapore.16 made public, Bhopal survivors said dissolved company.9 Dow Asia Pacific managers were they would hold Dow liable for all After UCC & UCE refused to soon asking if they needed MegaVisa. UCC’s unfulfilled liabilities.2 appear for trial, the Bhopal court in ‘MegaVisa Singapore is a dummy company If Dow was not concerned, this 1992 proclaimed them fugitives, and who negotiates nothing and owns nothing, was presumably owing to the method issued an order that all of UCC’s Dow India now would like to do business by which it had acquired UCC. movable and immovable assets in with MegaVisa India direct…Can Dow Dow had performed what is known India be seized.10 From proceedings India supply UCC NA (North America) as a ‘reverse triangular takeover’, first in a US court we know that in 1993 products to MegaVisa India?’ 17 forming a wholly-owned subdisiary UCC issued a legal directive that its A Dow lawyer in Hong Kong which merged with UCC and then products not be shipped directly to replied: ‘Country management and I are dissolved itself. This left Dow with India.11 UCC wanted separate corpo- against this idea at the present time due complete ownership and control of rate affiliates be formed outside India to the threat of litigation and the protest UCC’s assets, Carbide shareholders to buy UCC products in the USA incident of a couple of months ago.’18 reborn as Dow stockholders and and resell them to end users in India. UCC board appointments at the sole MegaVisa set up a Houston office Dow’s perspective discretion of Dow.3 to act as conduit, describing itself as Commenting on an article in the Dow could now say that UCC ‘a reliable front-party’ for UCAP.12 In Independent covering the history of was a separate business with its own 1999 MegaVisa Singapore took over UCC, Megavisa and Dow, a Dow distinct legal personality, responsible from Houston as ‘front-party’ and spokesman said, ‘None of the alleged for its own liabilities. Indian orders for UCC goods were business transactions cited as violating 13 Evading court orders now processed through Singapore. the 1992 court order involved products In 1999 alone the ‘front-parties’ or technologies that are covered by In 1987, just two weeks before it helped to sell $24 million worth of the court order which only applied to was charged with culpable homicide UCC products to customers in India, UCC properties in India. It did not in a Bhopal court, UCC formed a including state-owned enterprises.14 apply to UCC products or technologies trading company in Bombay called acquired overseas and brought into Visa Petrochemicals4 (later MegaVisa). Cutting out the middle man India by other separate companies.’19 A distribution agreement was signed In the spring of 2001 the UCC- ‘No nexus’ with UCC with Union Carbide Eastern5 (UCE) Dow merger led to UCAP morphing which also faced charges in Bhopal. into Dow Asia Pacific.15 Thus the When Dow India and Dow US Arrest warrants were issued early fugitive and vanished Union Carbide were in danger of being impleaded in 1988 for officialsof UCC & UCE.6 Eastern appears to have ended up as into the criminal case in Bhopal, they In October UCC registered Union a Dow subsidiary. argued that Dow India had no links Carbide Asia Pacific Now began a complex dance of to Dow US but was in fact owned by (UCAP) to operate several companies: MegaVisa India Dow Singapore, and that neither had 2001in Singapore.7 UCAP fielded enquiries, went to Dow India ‘a nexus’ with UCC.20

102 THE BHOPAL MARATHON THE BHOPAL OLYMPICS 103

Jaan hai to jahaan hai. If we have life, we have the world.

I CALL HER MY ADOPTED MOTHER. slept there was a goat tied to the steel So many years after the disaster She says I am her daughter and that bed. When he offered her money she Mehboob Bee suffers from serious I’ll be there for her whenever she refused to take it, so he left it under head aches, often faints and gets very needs me. I just hope I will be, but her pillow. high temperatures for which there is these days I’m far away in England Mehboob Bi was married to no clear or obvious cause. and I can’t stop worrying about her. Chand Miya. She did not belong to ‘I am waiting, daughter,’ she tells I first met Mehboob Bee when Tim Bhopal. When she arrived here life me. ‘I am just waiting to go. I’m so and I were filming with the People’s was really easy as Chand Miya was tired, but who will look after these Tribunal – this is when she lived in working for Union Carbide. children then? The debt collectors her old house, it was a lot better than ‘We were so happy.’ she said. ‘We will tear them apart, the least I can do the house she lives in now, but the used to be well off, but my kismet was is spare them from debt before I go. moneylenders took it. written in Bhopal.’ ‘My husband warned me how She had mortgaged it to get Even today when she speaks of dangerous the chemicals were. If by money for medicines for her sick Chand tears roll from her eyes. She is mistake you put your hand into them husband, Chand Miya. He told her so deeply wounded, so hurt. The gas your hand would dissolve. not to spend money oh him, she has taken everything. ‘The day after the tragedy when replied, ‘How can I not?’ From the first time I saw her to we came back home our utensils were Now she has moved to a corner the time when I left for England her covered with a green coating. Chand of Qazi Camp to a house without a face has weathered. Her daughter, the Miya did not let us come in to the roof. In the monsoon the rain comes youngest one was so beautiful and house he cleaned everything up and right in. The house is beside the wild, she looked a lot like her mother washed every corner of the house stinking naala (an open sewage ditch). in the picture Mehboob Bee proudly before he let us come in. It was the only place she could find. I showed us of her and her husband. It ‘The days just before the disaster went to see the Chief Minister to ask was in an album of her pictures from were the last few days I saw him him for some money for a new roof. before her marriage. happy. Our miseries began on that He gave me 500 rupees, so I just spat She was stunning, dressed in night. All of us had breathed the gas, in the earth outside his house. After short kurtas with big goggles, two but he most of all. When he got really this Raghu Rai the photographer and plaits and curls plastered to the sides ill and could no longer work … I … some others paid for a new roof. of her cheeks. One of her daughters we ran short of money and I started Mehboob Bee, she has the most said ‘Ammi looks like Mala Sinha.’ work for the first time. He apologised wonderful presence, looks straight ‘No,’ said the other one, ‘she’s to me for putting me through this. into your eyes like she knows the like Sadhna.’ (Both Indian filmstars.) ‘I said jaan hai to jahaan hai, if we truth. ‘Chal hat pagli ladki’. Go on with have life we have the world. The film cameraman was being you silly girl. That is what she said to ‘He often told me not to spend an asshole and Mehboob Bee began to her daughter with a coy smile. the money on him and his illness. cry. I sat next to her and hugged her When her daughters were small “I will die,” he said, “don’t waste and cried with her. She had just lost and there was no food Mehboob Bee your money on me.” Chand, she was emotionally raw. You used to give them water at night to ‘And he did. He left me alone.’ could see the pain and feel it in her. fill their stomachs. Tim and I then took a French ‘Afterwards I came to know that Narrated by Farah Edwards, a Bhopali journalist to her the wells have been poisoned by that woman who met her husband Tim when house. In the one factory, the same cursed place that he cycled from Brighton to Bhopal to raise 2001 room where everyone tried to kill us all with gas.’ funds for the Bhopal Medical Appeal. 104 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

The summer of 2002 saw a worldwide hunger strike against an Indian government bid to dilute the homicide charges against Warren Anderson and UCC, and Dow’s refusal to produce Union Carbide in court to face the charges. Texas shrimper Diane Wilson, fasting outside Dow’s plant at Seadrift, explained to curious staff that the trial could add to the meagre compensation of $500 paid to sick Bhopal survivors. Back from Dow’s PR chief came the now famous reply: ‘$500 is plenty good for an Indian’1

he said, ‘what will it care about you?’ philanthropic since that would be From the moment it took control unfair to shareholders and could be of Union Carbide, Dow had adopted read as an admission of guilt. an intransigent and arrogant attitude (Statements of this kind inspired to the ‘legacy’ of Bhopal. the famous YesMen hoax of 2004 The survivors should pay for when Andy Bichlbaum, posing as Dow executive Jude Finisterra, told clean up, says Dow CEO the BBC that Dow was accepting full On May 9 2002 during a protest liability for Bhopal with $12 billion outside Dow’s shareholder meeting, set aside to compensate the victims, Bhopal survivors had an informal causing worldwide celebration.) encounter with Dow CEO Michael The Bhopal Medical Appeal Parker. Asked if Dow would clean should pay, says Dow director up the mess left by Union Carbide in Bhopal, Parker replied that rather When asked what she thought Diane Wilson, 2002 than pestering Dow, the survivors should be done to help the suffering should use their compensation to Bhopalis, Professor Barton said fund a clean-up of the site.2 there should be an international ‘My life as a fisherwoman has taught This jaw-dropping suggestion ‘passing of the hat’. Instead of trying me one thing, that there are no seas flipped the ‘Polluter Pays’ principle to pressure Dow the Bhopalis should with lines and divisions. So similarly (part of both US and Indian law) on organise an international fundraising if there is a border that separates me its head. Never before had anyone campaign to fund the clean-up.4 as an American from the anguish and suggested that the innocent victims of Given that the only international sorrow of my sisters and brothers in pollution should pay to clean it up. fundraising is done by the Bhopal Bhopal and their fight for justice, Philanthropy would be Medical Appeal, it seems Professor then that line is a false and lying one. Barton was actually suggesting that unfair to shareholders All the great religions teach that we the BMA’s generous donors should are one. One woman's pain is a pain May 19, 2003. Dan Feldman of the stump up for cleaning the plant site. to all. Injustice to one is an injustice CalTech Environmental Task Force Indian government must to all. Bhopal is a symbol of the un- sat down with Dow board member pay, says Dow’s new CEO finished business of justice that lies and CalTech chemistry professor before all mankind and the struggle Jackie Barton to discuss the Bhopal Greenpeace’s Technical Guidelines should never be abandoned.’ disaster and Dow's liability. In the for Cleanup of the UCIL Site October So wrote Diane Wilson in her half-hour discussion, Jackie Barton 2002 laid out standards and methods diary as she began her thirty-day fast denied that Dow had inherited any to be applied, concluding that the outside the gates of Dow’s factory in liability for the disaster or the soil cost could be around $500 million.5 Seadrift, Texas. One and water contamination.3 No doubt this explains why the plant worker advised Professor Barton said that though present Dow CEO Andrew Liveris 2002 her not to bother. she sympathised with the suffering maintained, on March 3, 2007 that ‘Dow does not care of the Bhopalis, she felt that it was responsibility for the clean up lay 2003 about its workers,’ impossible for Dow to do anything with the government of India.6 WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 105 106 THE BHOPAL MARATHON The Union Carbide site 18 to 20 years after the 1984 gas leak

(Based on guided tours by former UCIL plant operator T.R. Chouhan1)

1. Pile of carbaryl2 ‘rocks’ spilled in 1999 from a split tank in the rusting Sevin plant 2. The charred stack up which the 1 gases flew 3.The underground concrete bunker that held MIC tank E-610, cracked by the force of the explosion 4. Lindane3 and Sevin pesticides sift from sacks in an abandoned warehouse 5. Derelict control room with pressure valves still stuck on overload4 6. Ruined MIC unit. 7. Sacks of organochlorine pesticides 8. Reagents in the derelict laboratory 9. Dead calf that had strayed into 3 the Union Carbide plant

4

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10. Mercury spill 11. Upended drum of waste 12. Drums of lethal Sevin tar stored in a shed open to the elements 13. Shadowy ghosts in the MIC piping 14. The giant MIC tank E-610 lies in bushes like a dead locomotive 2002 15. Safety notice in overgrown grounds All pictures:Maude Dorr, Dan Sinha, 2003 Andy Moxon, Paul Bullivant, 2002-2004 WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 107

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13 14 15 108 THE BHOPAL MARATHON Women take the broom to Dow. Clean

It was us women who came JHADOO MARO DOW KO! Launch in Bhopal up with the idea of using the More than 200 women marched humble broom as a symbol of phool nahin chingari hain hum JHADOO MARO DOW KO! from near the Union Carbide factory our contempt, defiance, as an (not flowers but flames are we with jhadoos in their hands to the bus TAKe THe bROOM TO DOW!) stand and beat an effigy of Dow. invitation to clean the site or While traffic at this busiest street be swept out of the country – nai aazaadi ki nai ladaai crossing in the entire city stood still, everyone agreed the jhadoo JHADOO MARO DOW KO! the women burned the effigy amid (a new battle for a new freedom chants of phool nahi chingari hain hum, was a perfect weapon in our TAKe THe bROOM TO DOW!) nai azaadi ki nai ladai, and idhar se women’s struggle for justice. maro, udhar se maro. idhar se maro, udhar se maro Armed police, patrol cars, paddy JHADOO MARO DOW KO! wagons lined the entire stretch of the (hit from this side, hit from that On 15 August 2002, we started a TAKe THe bROOM TO DOW!) 1.5 kilometer march. The police were ‘jhadoo maro andolan’ (campaign), to peaceful despite the fact that, in show that Indian women who use the Hosh se maro, josh se maro keeping with our tradition we had broom to clean their houses, can also JHADOO MARO DOW KO! neither informed nor sought police use it against corporations. (hit with oomph and hit with wit permission. It helped that almost all We demanded that Dow take TAKe THe bROOM TO DOW!) the local and national TV channels responsibility for decontaminating and press reporters were with us. the Carbide site and its surroundings Atal ko belan, Advani ko chimta The spirit was brilliant. What a failing which, these jhadoos would JHADOO MARO DOW KO! clear statement a woman makes when sweep them and their business out of (Let Atal feel the rolling pin, she has a jhadoo in her hand and is Advani taste the tongs India and the world. marching with her sisters. TAKe THe bROOM TO DOW!) With what gusto Dow CEO Parker jhadoo’d 2002 and delight we sang: har naari ki yahi ladaai ‘Atal ko belan, Advani JHADOO MARO DOW KO! Inspired by this start, the jhadoos ko chimta –JHADOO (this is the battle of every woman travelled all over India and beyond. 2003 MARO DOW KO’ TAKe THe bROOM TO DOW!) Dow CEO Michael Parker was at a $75 a head luncheon in Houston's upmarket Hyatt Hotel to receive – wait for it – an environmental award when a camerawoman taking pictures of him proved to be Diane Wilson shrimp-boat-captain-turned-activist and merciless scourge of Dow. She interrupted Parker's remarks about Dow's love of the environment and said she had an announcement. Local Dow staff recognised her and began waving at their hapless chief, but Diane, using the power of lungs fortified by years at sea, told Parker that Dow merited no awards when it had not cleaned up the toxic mess in Bhopal. ‘We have someone here from WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 109 up or our brooms will sweep you away

Bhopal with a better award for you,’ she told him in front of 500 bemused guests. The Dow contingent were booing and shouting ‘siddown’ but fell silent when Kinnu appeared in her sari bearing two Bhopali jhadoos. She made her way to the stage, held out the brooms to Parker and told him he was wrong to say that Dow had no liabilities in Bhopal. Jhadoos in Europe In Milan Rashida and a team of Italian activists met Dow directors who expressed their personal shame, promised to take the message to top management. The Public Relations Director accepted the offered broom. In Switzerland, the Dow Europe CEO Respini grudgingly agreed to meet Champadevi who enumerated the Bhopalis’ four demands and held out the broom. Respini fled. Jhadoos in Norfolk Two strange beings arrived in the sleepy port of King’s Lynn, Norfolk and headed for Dow’s sprawling plant on the Great Ouse River. ‘We’ve come bringing a gift from Bhopal,’ they said. ‘Oh yes, we’ve heard of you,’ said the Environmental Health & Safety Manager. ‘You’re the ones who deliver soil and water.’ He sat marvelling as if they were beings from another galaxy. ‘I can’t take the broom!’ The campaigners said their piece. ‘Union Carbide,’ he said. ‘I don’t understand why we bought them, it was a mistake. We’ve enough trouble with our own history. We do try to be a responsible company, but this sort of thing really doesn’t help.’ 110 THE BHOPAL MARATHON If no one else will stop our water being poisoned we’ll have to do it ourselves. On 25 Nov 2002, fed up with government inaction, Bhopal survivors aided by Greenpeace toxics experts began a partial clean-up of the factory site. Someone filmed what happened.

waste disposal experts. They were heavily armed. Some with rifles, others in riot gear with shields and long sticks.

as they surrounded us, but joined in the survivors’ chant. The chief barked orders, a plump angry officer rushed in.

him alone. They stopped, then a cop hit him with his long stick, hard, on the ankle. It must have been very painful

Then the Greenpeace co-ordinator spoke up. They grabbed him. The inspector was shouting at him, ‘Bastard, who

2002 away to a police van. The journalist was first to be hurled inside. The fat cop Reserve Inspector WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 111

We brought warning signs. And began work. Before long, the police arrived in force and headed for our team of

Champa led the chanting. Jhadoo maro Dow ko! the women chanted. “Take the broom to Dow!” We sat down

Grabbed a human rights journalist and began dragging him off. People were protesting, shouting at them to leave

He asked them why they had hit him, and the tubby inspector got enraged. A few of them began roughing him up.

gave you permission to come in here?’ He slapped him. The police got hold of the two of them and dragged them

Chouhan clambered in after him and started punching him. They beat him up till the cameraman too was arrested. 112 THE BHOPAL MARATHON A report by the journalist who was beaten up in the police van NITYANAND JAYARAMAN

0830, 25 Nov 2002 in the factory? The women explained. Mr. Chouhan. He set upon us with a Did they have permission? vengeance, punching, kicking and It all started so peacefully. Permission for what? Cleaning up slapping people. Outside the factory, Children playing cricket inside a site that was polluting their water meanwhile, the police had started on the contaminated factory site made and poisoning their children? the everyday business of beating up way as a procession of gas-affected We wouldn't be here, they said, if innocent people. Women, including women and a large group of local chemicals from here weren't leaking residents and people passing by, were residents entered the factory to begin into our water, showing up in blood abused, dragged and pushed. a citizen's clean-up. and the milk of nursing mothers. With us were 30 decontamination We wouldn't be here if it weren't 1100, mass arrests experts, Greenpeace members from for the fact that nobody has done a The police confiscated the team's 16 countries and Bhopalis who had blind thing to clean up the wastes, by equipment. They even snatched the been given special training in waste now left lying for eighteen years. kites out of the hands of the children. disposal. The plan was to pick up the In 2001, Union Carbide and Dow A bruised but spirited convoy of loose chemicals abandoned by Union Chemical had merged into a single Bhopali women and their supporters, Carbide when it fled India after the giant chemical organisation which about 70 people, were arrested and 1984 gas disaster. We would pack the blankly refused to clean the site. taken to the Shahjahanabad police toxic wastes into drums, store them We wouldn't be here if the Indian station, outside which a crowd of safely in a warehouse on the site, and government had had the guts to tell about 500 survivors soon gathered hand the key to the authorities. it to clean up. to demand their release. All 70 were We were professionally trained We wouldn't be here, the women eventually charged with criminal and organised into four groups, each said, if the politicians cared as much trespass. Later on, police chief Arun with a specific task. Team members about justice for the victims of the Pratap Singh (who obviously had not wore biochemical suits and breathing world's worst industrial slaughter as seen the video) announced additional apparatus. Back-up units brought in about protecting the interests of charges of rioting. generators and petrol to fuel them. American multinationals. There was a road tanker full of water 1500 pm, community anger for washing down equipment and 0930, human punchbags We went back to the factory site, structures. Other trucks had drums Reserve Inspector P. S. Chouhan called a meeting of the community for packing up the waste. was angry enough to start pushing and explained what had happened. Planning was meticulous. The women and punching others. People were dumbfounded by the ICJB organisers had made models of Even as we were sitting peacefully savagery of beatings given by police the plant to help explain to the local outside, Chouhan pointed at one of to peaceful protestors who wanted people what was being done and why. us and told the other protestors that to protect themselves from Union There were even kites for the children he was a Hindu fundamentalist come Carbide’s poisons. They were angry. - red diamond shapes bearing the to spread communal disharmony. Shame on Union Carbide and legend Life Poisoned Daily. This was ludicrous, since many of Dow and on the politicians. When 0915, enter the police the people there – like 19-year old people try to stop their families being Waseem who was on his Ramzan poisoned, they should be helped, not The teams were inside the factory fast – were muslims from the locality. beaten with sticks and fists. site, starting work about 100 metres The crowd began chanting ‘We're from the broken boundary wall. human beings. We're Indians’, hum Nityanand Jayaraman is Within 45 minutes, police arrived insaan hain. hum hindustani hain. a human rights journalist who writes wanting to know what we were doing That didn’t make us popular with for major newspapers and journals WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 113 My memories of that day by

Greenpeace’s coordinator SHAILENDRA YASHWANT

Because you asked and because its morning was palpable. I remember dragged away along with two others. important to remember and tell, here noticing that the team with the water I don't any longer remember their is my personal memory of the 2002 tanker were having a problem at the faces but I do recall the strength and National Voluntary Day of Action at site gate which was stuck hard in the the friendliness of those two people the Union Carbide site in Bhopal. rust and grit of two decades. They who had their arms locked around From the day in 1998 when I first were pulling, pushing hard to bring my back to protect me. photographed the waste at the site, the gate down. I joined them and the And then it's mostly a blur aided piles and piles of it just lying around, tanker eventually drove through. by some of the debrief videos, that I I’d wondered what it would take to I recall checking in with Raj, our do not remember any more except the pack up and secure the above-ground lawyer on site, and running with part where Ananth is being slapped, stuff – stop it causing more damage. Kadir, the Greenpeace photographer which was shown at the Greenpeace In March 2002, I was called to be – hanging on to my radio with one International EDM. (For all sorts of action-coordinator for a ‘clean-up’ by hand, clutching my mobile phone in reasons it became cult viewing for a Greenpeace International at the site. the other – to join the survivors. while .) With experience of coordinating a We waited for a final signal from Without being overly dramatic, similar packing up and securing of the safety team and scientists inside even today I cannot believe we were pesticide wastes in an old warehouse the factory before signalling Tara to stopped, that the police confiscated in Nepal, I was confident that despite unfurl the banner on the roof and the all the packaging material, that the the audacity of the proposed action, loading team to proceed inside. action ended so quickly and violently, we could do it – in one day secure at I remember a flurry of calls with without even a kilogram of the toxic least the sacks in the cycle shed, the various people, and then clear like it stuff secured in a plastic bag. toxic heap around what I used to call happened this morning - the police I am not naïve enough to believe the core reactor and other dirty stuff. jeep entering the very gate I had just that the police and the administration I truly believed, right till the end, helped bring down, Kadir shooting weren’t aware of our intentions after that the cops and the collector's office pictures as he moved back and wide. over six weeks of hectic preparations, would see the sense in what we were I remember reminding myself that safety trainings, buying of equipment doing, as long as we didn't take away we would welcome the police, ask and materials, and negotiations with any ‘crucial evidence’. The worst case them to come join us, help us clean up various parties, all of which despite scenario was that we’d get only six the mess. I folded my hands to the our best attempts to be discreet were hours, so we would pack as much as first police officer I saw, adding the being widely talked about. we could and mark the rest for later. plea of an extra-low bend of my back I thought, no doubt naïvely, that By 7 am on the day, more than six and SLAPPP! – the sting in my ears, what we were attempting to do was so teams, each up to 20 strong, were in my glasses flew away in an arc, hands obviously right, place. Hazard tapes secured areas for breaking namasté to grope for them. and that the city the various stages of packing, teams I remember Nity being dragged authorities must brought in the packaging material, on the ground, me worrying about his see sense and let women and kids from nearby bastis, bad back, and him still chanting that us do whatever some barely awake were shown by slogan-song we had been singing as we could to stop volunteers to their appointed tasks. he was kicked by two constables. the filth from I remember being pleased with the Also the police officer pushing me ruining more large turnout. We all agreed that the shouting, ‘saala ringleader!’ innocent least we could do was secure what I remember Kadir yelling ‘Press, lives. waste we could and then ask for a full Dutch, Holland!’ as he was put clean up of the site along with health- into the back of a police jeep. and compensation-related demands. I was pulled out of the scrum Our togetherness of purpose that that had imprisoned me and 114 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

‘The day they got Saddam’ Was this a crude attempt to smear disaster victims as terrorists?1 Fake terrorist attack stirs debate among a fictional city’s chai-drinkers.

‘The terrorists killed the guard Says Zafar. ‘Friends, for a moment Who sneers at justice by refusing to because they didn’t like the coffee.’ think what’s really going on here. appear in court? Terrorists are those ‘What was wrong with it?’ What is terror? The dictionary says who cause terror, who end innocent ‘Not enough cardamom, maybe.’ it’s extreme fear, violent dread, plus lives, who don’t respect law. By this In typical Khaufpuri fashion there whatever causes it. On ‘that night’ our way of looking at it the terrorists are starts a debate about how cardamom people knew terror beyond what a those who run the kampani.’ or clove should be used in coffee, and dictionary can define. Who caused it? ‘It’s a strange world,’ says one, whether adding a few grains of salt Our people continue to feel extreme ‘where a kampani does acts of terror improves the flavour. fear, violent dread, because they and then portrays us, its victims, as ‘It wasn’t hot enough,’ says Zafar. don’t know what horrors might yet terrorists.’ Silence, a moment emerge in their bodies. Who refuses Extract from the novel Animal’s People of incredulity, a rose to share medical information? Our Shortlisted for 2007 Man Booker Prize, 2003 of laughter blooms. people want justice in a court of law. European Winner 2008 Commonwealth Prize WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 115 Escape from the land of rice gruel: the further adventures of Sunil Sunil is diagnosed with mild paranoia and is sent to an ashram in Kerala to be healed

Of course he did not want to go. ‘Sunil, will you stop throwing the bowl of kanji. Rice gruel for lunch, ‘They won’t understand Hindi,’ cat at me? Go to sleep.’ rice gruel for supper, what kind of he grumbled. ‘Food will be strange.’ Next morning VT asks, ‘Can you place is this? thought Sunil. How can To reach Kerala would take three describe the face?’ a human being live on rice gruel? days. Sunil was confided to the care ‘It was hideous’, says Sunil. ‘Very Well, breakfast will be different. of VT, a friend heading to his family’s foul, but in a way also familiar.’ But breakfast was a bowl of kanji. home in Goa. They’d spend a night ‘Yes. It was my brother.’ ‘Excuse me,’ asked Sunil, politely there, then go on to the ashram. ‘Ah, are you sure? It was horrible.’ as he could. ‘When do we eat other Late on the second evening they ‘No doubt. It was my brother… things. I mean other than kanji?’ arrived at VT’s house but Sunil could the one who looks just like me.’ ‘Kanji is the joy of us Keralites. So not sleep. In a basket by his bed a huge many types are there, hardly do we cat snored loudly. Sunil loathed cats. need to eat anything else. See, there’s He hadn’t realised they could snore. nombu kanji, jeeraka kanji and vishu It was a wild night. The wind was kanji plus uluva kanji and gothambu moaning, ripping at coconut fronds kanji. You’ve tasted kuthari kanji. and outside the window moonlit Wait till you try unakkalari kanji clouds were churning. or podiyari kanji and pal kanji In the deep of the night Sunil made with milk.’ woke to find a face staring in at It was at this point that Sunil him through the window. It was realised he would never be able a frightful face, with something to wait for VT’s return. familiar to it like the face of a He exited through a window ghost, it was goggling at him with and was gone, in his pocket just big horrified eyes. eleven rupees. (About 14 pence.) ‘VT! VT!’ VT wouldn’t wake so He took a bus to the nearest rail Sunil picked up the cat and tossed it head where he found that he’d have to on to his sleeping form. change trains in Andhra. VT sat upright and said, ‘Sunil, He did not have enough cash for did you throw the cat at me?’ When they reached the ashram a ticket, so he spent his last rupees on ‘This horrible face,’ said the lad. VT said to Sunil, ‘You’ll enjoy it here. some bananas for the journey. ‘Grinning at me in the window.’ They The food is first class. I will come Sitting gazing out of the window looked, but outside the window were back for you when the time is up.’ at the green fields and backwaters of only coconuts frantically waving in By lunchtime, Sunil was hungry, Kerala passing by, Sunil prayed, ‘If I the moonlight. wondering what kind of delicious am to be arrested for riding without ‘Go to sleep,’ said VT, returning dish might be about to be served. a ticket let it not be in here in Kerala. the cat to its basket. ‘It’s kanji,’ the ashram assistant Not in Kerala. Please, please let the Sunil lay down, but fear tugged at said, placing a bowl of rice porridge train reach Andhra first.’ his eyelids. What if the hideous, the on the table. ‘Enjoy.’ ‘Why Andhra?’ we asked, when he unspeakable thing, were still there? The kanji was cold and to Sunil’s got home, down to his last banana, His eyes flew open! It was back, the taste buds, trained on spicy Bhopali with a missing person hunt going on face! Now it seemed to have acquired biryanis, unutterably bland. full swing in Kerala. a triumphant leer. Never mind, he thought, there’ll ‘I had heard,’ replied Sunil with a ‘VT!’ yelled Sunil. be something good for supper. grin, ‘that in Andhra’s jails prisoners 2004 ‘VT! Wake up!’ But when supper came, it was a are served every day with fresh lamb.’ 116 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

The case of the bungled resurrection During legal proceedings Dow has sought to show that Union Carbide is a separate company taking its own decisions. But in 2004, on the eve of a vital court hearing Dow realised that Union Carbide no longer even had its own website. Something had to be done. Double quick.

After Dow’s acquisition of Union William Stavropoulos denied that representatives to explain why. Carbide in 2001, Carbide’s logo and the case even existed. In May 2003 he In their absence the case had been even its website disappeared. told Dow’s shareholders that there stalled for 20 years, during which When it was pointed out to Dow’s were no outstanding criminal charges thousands of victims of the disaster John Musser that a criminal case was against Carbide.3 perished from their injuries without pending against UCC, he said, ‘That ‘Our chairman did misspeak,’ justice or redress. is not a matter for Dow Chemical. It Dow Chemical spokesperson John Somewhere along the line, Dow is for UCC to respond.’1 Musser admitted.4 seems to have grown complacent and One wonders how he could say In the Central Magistrate’s Court appears to have overlooked the fact this with a straight face. court in Bhopal, Carbide’s ex-CEO that the court had now summoned a Balkrishna Namdeo, a survivors Warren Anderson, Union Carbide representative of Dow to explain why leader, told the Hindustan Times2 of his Corporation &Union Carbide Eastern Dow Chemical itself should not be anger when meeting the managing all stood accused of the culpable named as a defendant in the place of director of Dow Chemical India: homicide of more than 20,000 its absconding wholly-owned, fully- ‘More than seven times he repeated human beings.5 integrated subsidiary.6 the lie that Carbide had no pending Since 1992, the corporations and The hearing to determine this criminal liabilities’.In Anderson had been refusing to appear would take place on September 3. 2004 the US, Dow’s CEO before the court. They had never sent On September 1, Dow woke up. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 117 Union Carbide magically reappears

FROM BHOPAL.NET, SEPTEMBER 3, 2004 “Today Dow Chemical Company was obliged to appear in court in Bhopal to explain why it should not be named as a defendant, in place of its absconding 100% subsidiary, Union Carbide Corporation. “It produced a submission arguing that Dow, neither in the form of its Indian subsidiary, nor the Dow Chemical Company in the US, has any responsibility for Union Carbide Corporation, which it claims is an independent entity. SCREENSHOT ONE (12:54:38 ON 3 SEPTEMBER 2004): SHOWS GOOGLE'S CACHE OF UCARBIDE.COM “But. . . some of us remember that after the merger, Union Carbide did its best to vanish off the face of the earth. It disappeared into the bowels of its new parent. “So far from being independent was Union Carbide that if you looked up its website www.ucarbide.com, you would find yourself looking at Dow's homepage. “These days a truly independent company of Union Carbide's claimed size and importance would definitely have its own website. “With two days to go before the crucial hearing, Dow's lawyers seem to have woken up to this fact. “‘Help, if they find out that Union Carbide is really Dow, then we could be in big trouble. Quick, make them look separate. Give Carbide its own website.’ “So if you look at www.ucarbide.com today you will see a Union Carbide website, albeit identical in design to Dow's. (It has in fact just two new pages SCREENSHOT 2 (12:54:47 ON 3 SEPTEMBER 2004): and as for the rest ‘Some unioncarbide.com content TWO DAYS AGO, UCARBIDE.COM WAS THE SAME AS DOW.COM! is hosted on www.dow.com, the website of our parent company. In these cases, a separate window will open.’ “In other words they haven't had time to even make a realistic pretence of an independent website. “What would you have seen if you had looked for www.ucarbide.com two days ago, on 1st September? Luckily, we can see, because Google keeps a cache:

“Screenshot 1 (12:54:38 3 September 2004): (note cursor) shows Google’s cache of ucarbide.com

“Screenshot 2 (12:54:47 3 September 2004): Two days ago, ucarbide.com was the same as dow.com

“Screenshot 3 (12:56:41 3 September 2004: Now try dow.com - exactly the same!”

(The original page can still be seen at SCREENSHOT 3 (12:56:41 ON 3 SEPTEMBER 2004): http://www.bhopal.net/oldsite/heyprestoitsCarbide.html NOW TRY DOW.COM - EXACTLY THE SAME! 118 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Portraits in pain R ACHNA D HINGRA WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 119

I. Abdul remembers

DO YOU KNOW WHAT dahi-bada is? Of course you do. But I don’t mean the usual sort. I mean the sort I used to make, with real thick yoghurt and tamarind sauce, sour as a judge’s hat. I made a good living from them – dahi-bada and kachori and samosa. Off a handcart near Laxmi Talkies, I sold. The clientele thereabouts was always hungry. We had a good life. Well off we hardly were, but there was enough to get by. Our house was up near Islami Gate, Shahjahanabad. Those were good days. Screams of the dying When the gas leaked we stayed put. Why? Because the elders always said that during a dust-storm or a sandstorm, a person should sit tight. So we sat choking, noses astream, eyes burning, swollen shut, hearing screams and pandemonium, knowing that people were dying out there. The morning was the worst of our lives, many friends and neighbours were dead, some in the street, some in their houses. We realised we were all terribly hungry. Some dahi badas I’d made the day before were waiting to be sold. We ate them. It was a bad mistake. All the metal pots in the house had turned green, even the milk. We should not have eaten. We started vomiting and had diarrhoea. Whose kingdom? My breathing problems began one and half years after the gas and got worse and worse. I can truthfully say that I’ve never had a day’s health, a day without pain, since that night. I have taken treatment at govern- ment hospitals, but without much Abdul Kadeer Mansuri has lived 77 years, twenty seven of success. Ten years my wife Gulshan them spent in constant pain, breathless and panic. His wife, and I moved to Nawab colony – only Gulshan, who also suffered from breathlessness, died five later did we discover that the water there is poisoned by the same cursed years ago. The old man is cared for by his daughters. factory. I stopped earning long ago, 120 THE BHOPAL MARATHON about 14 years back because I was II. Lachho’s tears opened in Bhopal and learned to put just too ill to carry on. up with its nasty chemical smells. Five years ago Gulshan died and Lachho Bai sits in the door of her Laccho never knew much joy. She now I live with my daughter Munni. house, cradling a dress that belonged lost four children, each at less than a She looks after me and and even to her daughter. She’s speaking, but year. Her fifth child, a daughter, was helps me go to the toilet and all. what she’s saying no one can tell. She two years old on the venomous night Munni works washing dishes, but breaks into song, gives a little laugh. of December 2nd, 1984. does not get regular work. Often Sometimes, she cries. ‘On that night there were four of there is no food. Then the neighbours ‘She’s been thus for years,’ says a us,’ says her husband. ‘My wife and feed us. I take medicines that I make neighbour. ‘All day sitting in the myself, our little daughter and fate – myself – my uncle was a self-taught doorway, holding that cloth, talking we all fled together.’ hakeem you know. When I’m bad I to God or whoever will listen.’ How often described are those have to be taken to the hospital. All Hearing our voices, Laccho turns events – the screams, panic, street- the rest of the family are registered at and surveys us with empty eyes, then lamps reduced to pinpoints by thick Sambhavna, but it’s a bit far for me. gives a toothless and unexpectedly clouds of poison, dying figures I wish I could see all their faces one sweet smile. To look at, you would stumbling past in a tobacco light – last time. But it’s too late. One eye I think she was in her eighties, not but we can never know what it was lost to smallpox when I was small - forty years younger. like to be there. all my life I was called ‘one-eye’ and Laccho was born in Bhopal in Those who survived find it too would retort that in the land of the 1958. At sixteen she was married to terrible to remember. ‘We ran,’ they blind the one-eyed is king. But now Narayan, a hotel waiter. There was will tell you. ‘The gas burned our I’ve lost the vision in my other eye never enough money. She earned a eyes, we were choking. We fell. We and I no longer know in whose king- few extra rupees rolling leaf-cigars knew we would die.’ But these words dom I live. but the couple were always hungry. are mere formulae that mask how it Brother, I am tired of being un- Having no money to buy a hut, they really was – the horror and deep fear well. I hope that death will come built a shack of planks near the fine – that people can’t bear to recall. soon and take me. new American factory that had just Laccho was heavily pregnant and WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 121

could not run fast. In the crush she fell unconscious. A few months later she gave birth to a daughter. By this time both she and Narayan were too ill to work and fell into the most wretched poverty. In 1995 Laccho lost her mind. ‘She strays in the alleys,’ says her husband. ‘Often improperly dressed. Some make fun of her, but most feel pity. So many here have lost their wits, living beings who are no longer aware of their own existence.’ ‘When we lost Laccho,’ says her husband, ‘our daughters, needing a mother’s care, had instead to look after her. Now they’re married I do my best to keep her clean and cook our meals. I can’t hear well, my sight blurs, my limbs are numb. I take any work I can, yet I can’t fill our bellies.’ Laccho listens with a smile. Some trace of a forgotten life stirs in her, she feels the urge to offer us tea and gropes for a strainer and glass. ‘She can’t see,’ says Narayan sadly. ‘It’s the final cruelty. In June last year, she was betrayed by her sight. For her there’s no more day, just night everlasting. She sits at the threshold crying senseless words for this world with no one to feel her agony, other than me, and these eyes of mine are soft with sorrow.’ III. A day with Sunil A study by the National Institute its profusion of rice kanjis, Sunil’s batteries our voices sounded like two of Mental Health & Neurosciences telling of the story had his listeners cartoon characters, rapid jabbering found that at least half those exposed in stitches. broken by shrill chipmunk laughter. to Carbide’s gases were suffering from One day, on the flat roof of the old Funny, he could be about his life, some sort of mental health problem.1 Sambhavna building, he narrated the but Sunil’s illness did not improve. That was in1985, after which there tale to the present writer, who had set He said he heard voices jarring in were no more government studies, up a battered old recorder to capture his head, warning that people were but a 2000 study by the Factfinding it for posterity. coming to kill him. Mission on Bhopal found that nearly As the day wore on and shadows He sat in his room and felt fear. 6 out of 10 survivors still suffered clambered through the branches of Would his sister and brother manage significant losses of memory.2 the big tree that shaded the roof, the without him? The voices suggested When Mahesh Matthai’s feature batteries of the dictaphone gradually that he should take his own life. This film Bhopal Express was screened in ran down until the tape was rolling at last he did not say out loud, but the city, the audience wept.3 half-speed. wrote it down on a scrap of paper and After his escape from Kerala and When played back later with new pushed it across to me to read. 122 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

all born before the gas tragedy. I and house, there I lost consciousness, the my husband came from hard-working rest of the family got separated in the IV. Bano just talking farming families and we were in good dark and chaos. It was sheer bad luck that brought us health. My family were gone to Bhopal and cursed our lives for- My eldest, Saeed, was 18 when the ever to non-stop disease and mental gas leaked; Shameem was 15, Salim When I regained consciousness trauma. Three generations already 12, Ismaeel 10, Jaleel 9, Shahid 7 and three days later in Katju Hospital, I are living a life of the dead and don’t- the youngest Sikander two or three did not find anyone from my family know-how-many more generations months old. Shameem used to go to with me. I asked the nurses and other will suffer. the railway school… how we had staff about anyone inquiring about You ask me to say what happened great hopes for him. We wanted him me or taking care of me when I was to us? How far shall I narrate? to become a doctor. Can you imagine, unconscious. They said nobody had All of it? Details? Wah! Daughter, so naive were we. come looking for me. I realised to my boil more water, we’ll need plenty of On that night there was total shock that the entire family had got tea, some biskutt bring, our guests darkness in Jai Prakash Nagar. We scattered. The eldest Saeed returned will be here some time. all started coughing and felt like home somehow but he did not find Well, it has to start with the gas. somebody had put chili powder into anyone there. My brother, on hearing There was a life before, I had one, but our eyes. They turned blood-red and about the gas, rushed to Bhopal and I no longer remember it well. The gas were soon swollen shut. There was a reaching here the third day, took came and it became our life. lot of commotion, people running Saeed away with him. He tried to In 1984 when the gas leaked we without any idea of where to run. We find me and the other children but were living in Jai Prakash Nagar right all ran up to the cremation ground, could not. My husband also looked opposite the factory. I had seven boys, about half a kilometre from our for us and, after failing to find us, WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 123

went away thinking we all were dead. because we were all also sick. My stone that sometimes makes me cry My brother-in-law, his wife and brothers, who worked in the army with pain. My joints get swollen – my mother came to Bhopal to search and railways, helped us. kahan tak takleefain ginaoon? – (how for the other boys. We knocked at How my husband died many problems shall I list?) And oh every door, went to the police, to the yes, did I tell you that for three years hospitals and orphanages, We went Seventeen years ago, my husband after the gas, I underwent treatment to the NGOs. We tried to contact was on a truck with other porters on for mental illness? I had become so every person or organisation, every some job. He was still weak from the forgetful that I’d leave my children at government agency that could help fever he had suffered for a long time. somewhere then forget where I’d left us locate our children. How shall The driver and cleaner stopped the them. Couldn’t remember a thing. I’d I? – I can not describe to you how my vehicle at some place to drink tea. wander round not knowing where I feelings were in those days. That The porters went also. My husband was, where was I going. A few times was the most difficult phase of my got off the truck and sat nearby. After neighbours brought me home. The life. I almost went mad. I did not care taking tea, the others climbed up the doctors gave me innumerable electric about food or sleep. I just wanted my truck. My husband was still sitting shocks. Lots of them. children back. Remembering them, I behind it when the driver reversed it Now I am taking ayurvedic and wept all the day. All through the day and crushed my husband. He was allopathic remedies from Sambhavna I roamed around looking for them. grievously injured and admitted to I keep my illnesses under check. But As the days passed, hopes receded Hamidia Hospital but did not regain the moment I stop taking medicine, and I feared the worst. There were consciousness. The doctors used to the problems flare up. All this could rumours that unclaimed bodies had prescribe costly medicines but we have been tolerable had the illnesses been dumped in Narmada river by had no money. My brothers bought attacked just me. What pains me is government agencies. some medicines and mother-in-law, that my children and grandchildren who had come from U.P., spent Rs are also in bad health. I wish them My children are found 12,000 from her pocket. I even had to whatever little health and life I have. Only after three months did I find mortgage my small hut. But nothing My family’s suffering out that some kind person had taken helped him and he died. In a way, god four of my children Jaleel, Ismaeel, was kind to him and took him off to So then, listen, this is my clan. Shahid and Sikander, who were lost end his suffering. I, my children and Saeed, the eldest son, is frequently in the city, to the residential school grandchildren are still suffering. ill and is very weak. He cannot do for deaf and dumb children. They Sickness without end anything for long and loses interest did not know what had become of us. in work. He is not fit for any hard Even then, after the children had You asked me to speak about my work. He develops boils all over his been found and the boys were calling own health. Well, when I left hospital body. Maybe because of the ground- me, ‘Mother, mother!’ the authorities several days after the gas tragedy, my water he drinks. Sixteen years ago, he refused to hand them over, asking for limbs felt burdened as if the life had was treated for a kidney ailment at proof that I was their mother. It took gone out of them. I was hardly able Khan Shakir Ali Khan Hospital. He a lot of effort. Even the neighbours to move them – they still feel painful. was not allowed to eat rice. Currently, and local politicians came to speak My ear developed some infection. It his condition is very bad. Oh, I forgot for us. I told the school authorities still gets infected. After all these to tell you. He used to complain of that one of my sons had an old burn years, I am not able to walk and start heaviness in head and underwent mark in his hand. They finally gave panting after 15-16 yards. What? yes, treatment for one and half year (both us our children after making us and I do go for the demos, the rallies. Ayurvedic and allopathic) before he the witnesses sign several papers. Breathlessness, I won’t let it stop me. recovered from mental illness. He After the tragedy my husband lost I just have to go slow, gasp, but I can also used to lose his way and could his ability to work. He became very still cry out. My voice is heard. I went not remember where he was. irritable and wasn’t able to digest on the padyatra, we walked 500 miles My clan is now divided in two food nor sleep well. He’d could work to Delhi. More on health? So then, houses. Saeed, his wife Eidul, their one day after four or five days sick. my digestion is all wrecked. I have to three sons and two daughters live in We had money problems. Children take sleeping pills. I have diabetes New Arif Nagar. Jaleel with his wife were too young to earn at that time. It these last eight years. I develop rash- Zareena and two children Aasia (8) was serious, a very worrying time, like spots on my skin. I have a kidney and Rehan (8 months) also live there. 124 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Shameem, his wife Sabina, and Hospital from where they used to even that supply has been reduced to their children Imran, Niha, Suhail, refer him to Hamidia Hospital. His alternate days because of last year’s Roshni and Mahak live in J.P. Nagar face still looks swollen as if he had drought. We have no choice but to house. Salim, his wife Rubina, and some liver problem, his limbs are use the poisoned groundwater for three kids Sameer (12), Faizan (10) thin, and he has protruding a belly drinking and cooking. and Aman (4); Ismaeel, his wife like a malnourished child. He is also My life is divided into taking my Aasia, and their children Faisal (10), married and has four children – two family to hospitals for treatment. Suhaib (8), Muskan (6) and Saba (4); sons and two daughters. He does Me, my children and grandchildren. Shahid and his wife Afroza and their porter’s work irregularly. His sons My daughters-in-law all have eye daughter Tehseen (5); and Sikander Faisal and Suhaib are very weak and problems and need regular treatment. (who is not married) also all live in do not go to school. Ismaeel’s wife is How this endless cycle of illness has the J.P. Nagar house. also gas affected. She is my brother’s tired me. Aur meri yeh potiyan mere sar Saeed has five children. The eldest daughter. She has been diagnosed per bojh hain. Kaun inn se shadi karega? one, also named Shahid like my son, TB and is under treatment. (And these my granddaughters are a is 20 but very weak because he has His daughter Muskan is six years burden on me. Who is going to marry continuous indigestion. The other old but looks hardly two years old. them?) children are alright. Saeed is skinny You sure you want to hear more? I am angry, I fight back and unable to work. He has regular Jaleel, my fifth son, fell down in treatment at Sambhavna. the street while running during that Normally I won’t talk about these My second son Shameem did well night. His jaw was broken. It has not things. Who to talk to? Everyone at school but could not continue after healed properly and his mouth gives round here is in the same boat. I have his father’s death. Paisa kahan tha a foul smell. He is also married and replied straightforwardly to what you hamare paas? (Where was the money?) does porter’s work. Jaleel’s wife is asked about our health, or lack of… He does welding work for others. also gas affected and very weak. She Now I will say what I want. Doesn’t have a workshop of his own. suffers bouts of giddiness. Union Carbide, Dow, our corrupt Gas ruined our health My sixth son Shahid has shown and selfish leaders, I curse them all, abnormal behaviour since the gas every one. For many years I’ve been Shameem’s wife Sabina, whose tragedy. As he grew up, he used to active in the survivors’ community – parents too were gas victims, is also have bad moods. He threw things me and Hazra, who lives near me, we frequently ill. She gets rashes all over around. We initially thought it was go to every rally, to all the meetings. her body. My granddaughters Niha, just childish behaviour. But when his I walked to Delhi [in 2006] with the Roshni and Mahak have stunted condition did not improve by the time rest, so many good adventures we had growth. Niha and Roshni are 14 and he was three, we consulted doctor. on the way, then sat in the street waiting 12 respectively but look 10 and eight. His treatment continued for three for the Prime Minister to notice us. Grandson Imran is 16 but looks 11 or years and he is by and large cured. He The police beat us, they kicked me in 12. He has eye problem, indigestion is also married and he runs a small the chest and I was in hospital. I came and ear and nose infections. shoe-shop. out next day and went back to the Salim’s first son Sameer was born The youngest son, Sikander, when protest. We won’t be pushed around. premature – at six and half months. he was five, suddenly fell off bed Next year I went to support those He has an abnormally big head and with a violent fit of some sort. He who were on hunger strike but I had often has fevera. He is 13 now and was admitted to Hamidia Hospital. to come back. My son, my 40 year never went to school. He has constant Doctors said it’s a mental problem. old son, was ill. He has bad kidneys. cough, his feet often get infected, his Now he has a growth protruding out I wanted to donate one of mine, but eyes get red, he has indigestion and his stomach. Don’t know what kind don’t have money for the operation. often gets infection in nose and ear. of growth, maybe from the bad water. Prime Ministers, Chief Ministers, Salim’s second son Faizan is also He gets treatment at Sambhavna. Chief Executives,we’ve seen them under-developed. His wife Rubina come and seen them go. They care not has irregular menses and complains Our water is poisonous one jot for what we have suffered and of pain in abdomen and backache. The civic authorities say they are they don’t know what we are made of, Ismaeel used to get some sort of supplying Kolar Dam water to gas- but as the injustice deepens year by fits… his limbs would suddenly go affected communities, but the supply year, our anger deepens. We will fight stiff. We’d take him to DIG Bangla is irregular and insufficient. Now on till we win. We will never give up. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 125

Bano with Subina, Aasia, Rubina & grandchildren 126 THE BHOPAL MARATHON Hum Bhopal ki naari hain We are the women of Bhopal,

Women are the backbone of the survivors’ movement, Muslim women and Hindu women putting aside their veils to join hands and fight together for justice, health and a life of dignity. They have been active since the beginning, but 2004, the 20th year of Bhopal’s marathon, was the moment when the importance of the Bhopali women’s struggle was internationally recognised and the Goldman Prize for the Environment was awarded to two of its leaders1. In these pages women talk about their lives and struggle. PROFESSOR SUROOPA MUKHERJEE

Just over twenty years ago, the writer Suketu Mehta was in Bhopal (see pp. 48-49) on assignment for the Village Voice: ‘On any Saturday,’ he wrote, ‘you can go to the park opposite Lady Hospital and sit among an audience of several hundred women and watch all your stereotypes about traditional Indian women get shattered. I listened as a grandmother in her sixties got up and hurled abuse at the government with a vigour that Newt Gingrich would envy. She was followed by a woman in a plain sari who spoke for an hour on the role of multinationals in the third world, the government’s wasteful expenditure on sports stadia and the rampant corruption to be found everywhere in the country.’

The women of Bhopal are doughty campaigners. It is said that the state’s Gas Relief & Rehabilitation minister Babulal Gaur is nowadays terrified to face them. Mostly poor women with next to no education, they have been remarkable not just for their tenacity in tackling issues as diverse as compensation, pensions, rations, healthcare, employment, toxic water contamination and environmental remediation, but in coming to grips with complex issues of 2004 chemical engineering, WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 127 phool nahin, chingaari hain. we are not flowers but flames.

environmental pollution, law, and medical science, both allopathic and ayurvedic. They weren’t always so daunting. We have already seen how naive were the women of the Stationery Workers Union when they set out on a 500 mile walk to Delhi in 1989 (story on pp 50-53). They did not know in which direction Delhi lay, nor how far it was. They did not realise that they should brief the media, or let the Prime Minister of India know that they were coming to meet him. Other groups of women who were finding each other in the confusing chaotic days after the disaster, had a similar lack of worldly experience. What is a Chief Minister? Rabiya Bee was a founder of the Women’s Sewing Union. Recalling its beginnings she reflects wryly: ‘When I started working I did not know what a Chief Minister was. I was poor, looking for a job... I was 28 years old at that time and I had five daughters. We did not know what a union could do nor what it was. When Nirmala Buch (the owner of several sewing centres) began exploiting us it would make me very angry but I somehow continued to work despite the exploitation because I had a small baby to feed. Soon I raised objections and then, to isolate me, they pointed me out to the other women who did not object. So I began talking to these women to motivate them to join me. The women slowly began to get my point and we spoke about this more regularly at lunch and break times. ‘Then ideas to make this group stronger were proposed in order to build pressure on Nirmala. The idea 128 THE BHOPAL MARATHON of stopping the pattern-cutting for a them. To start with it was just work- so many years, not just for compen- day came up in one of the discussions place issues, then other things started sation but for all issues. We have not and it was accepted because that way coming up. After discussing things in fought just for ourselves but for all the centre would come to a standstill the working committee, proposals the 572,000 victims. Our fight will and work to all 300 women would would be announced in full meetings only end after Warren Anderson is stop. When women began to raise and with a show of hands we would brought to India by the CBI and questions, the supervisor of the shed see if people agreed with us or not. awarded death. told Nirmala Buch, who complained Razia Ruksana I feel that today if a girl wears a that I had organised all the ladies in & burkha people get more curious and the cutting unit. We learned a lot from the struggles try to look at her but if she is open ‘A senior woman from the group of these years. A lot of changes have they do not pay much heed. This is had a husband who was working in a come about. At first we never came my experience. A lot of women also public service and he supported my out of the house and were involved changed after they came to meetings. views. Then we began getting ideas; in the daily activities of the home. After they saw their leaders without the first one was to go to the Chief We had never even seen the roads the burkha they gave it up too. I am Minister but we had no idea how to of Bhopal, and only when we came to thinking of Aneesa Bee, Chand Bee approach him, we had no petition, no fight the struggle we saw everything. and a lot of other women – I can say banner, nothing. We still went ahead Previously we used to go to school at least1,000 women. with the plans, we reached the CM’s and then back home. Personally I made my daughters- residence. The security guard would My father never gave permission in-law give up their burkhas as soon not permit us to enter the premises. to go out and always used to say that as they were wed to my sons. We insisted, so he asked why we were when school closed we would all sit Compared to the early days there there and we poured out our story to at home. Because of the struggle we are fewer people involved because a him. Instead of the CM, we had our got an opportunity to come out of lot of people are getting weak and meeting with him. The security guard the house. First I did not even know sick, a lot have died and many were then explained the whole concept of what a demonstration was, or a cam- displaced by the government to far a CM to us. What one was, what it paign or movement or union. Then off places and they cannot afford to did and so forth. He also explained we saw all these things. come here. My family never opposed to us the concept of a trade union and my involvement because I managed advised us to form a union.’ Noor all my responsibilities. I start my day I used to give speeches wearing at 5 am, I cook for a family of eleven Mohini Devi my purdha back then, during press (eight children, two in-laws and my When women got together at the conferences the reporters worried husband) then I head for field work sewing centres we realised just how that I would be sick if I continued to at 10 am and stay out till 8 pm, then I many atrocities we were facing that wear it and even Jabbar Bhai was come back home and start my sewing we should speak out against. One of concerned but I still did not give up. work which carries on till 2 am. the things that brought us together Then I met Shankar Ram Neli from The government has not helped was the first time the authorities tried Bhilai who was also fighting for us a bit, they are not even talking of to close down the centre… It started labour rights – he was assassinated – the Below Poverty Line cards for the with just a few women and then news he was a very good friend of our or- victims. The victims are all living in spread and more and more people ganisation. We all went to meet his rented houses and they pay all their came and our strength grew. In the family and when we returned Jabbar savings towards rent plus they have early days meetings would be held Bhai made me take my burkha off, I to pay more for the provisions. The every day since women would come wore it again the next day but then problems of widows of the disaster daily to the sewing centres. Later it the reporters made me take it off. need to be heeded. changed to two days a week and now My perspective changed slowly I We have been fighting through we meet only once a week. But in the felt very awkward for some time. I do the law and we hope that the law will beginning there were about four or not need to wear a burkha to show certainly bring Warren Anderson to five of us who got together: Rabiya, that I am dignified. justice. Tara Srivastav, Laksmi etc. All we We raise all sorts of womens No political party has helped us did was speak about the issues and rights issues at our meetings like they have just watched. People in the think about doing something about dowry, abuse etc. We have fought for party are gas victims but they don’t WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 129 130 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

care. who used At that time we were collecting demanding the withdrawal of the set- to be the is from donations of 25p and 50p in order to tlement. Then we attacked the office Bhopal, in fact Lakerapur which is my run the campaign. We never begged of Union Carbide, around 15 of us. husband’s home. We expected him to even when we desperately needed We ransacked it. We came outside do something since he himself is a gas money for court cases. We always got and burnt an effigy, the police came victim but he never raised anything. help from our sisters in the centre and we faced the police. Then we held The widows of the communal who would even sell their jewellery a press conference. riots get Rs. 1,000 per month. We to get us the money. We also fought for employment. worked as well with the victims of We never believe in taking money Whilst the Congress was in power, the communal riots, we arranged for ourselves. I have been to the tour 2,200 women were employed. The shelter and food for them. of 7 states with Jabbar Bhai and still cloth-cutting happened in JP Nagar. At first most claims were being we did not take any money. All we Each seamstress got four half-pants accepted but when the numbers were took were the tickets that had been [pairs of shorts] and four frocks to rising they passed a law that only arranged by the local hosts for us. make. It didn’t help them a lot but it victims above 18 years of age will be was a good support. They made 500, eligible. Domestic animals like cows, Hamida 700 or 1,000 rupees, depending on goats, chickens all were compensated We challenged the unjust [1989] the time they could spend. for but if my 5 year old child who has settlement but the Supreme Court The government saw our strength been exposed to the same gas cannot dismissed our claim. Then Prashant increasing, we demonstrated all the file a claim. How is this? Bhushan [an advocate] called us and time, we entered the Chief Minister’s They also messed up with names we ran around in a panic informing house and we would be in Delhi in when the claim forms were being the public and overnight we gathered huge numbers. So the BJP [political filled. Officials came from Kerala strength. The next day at least 15,000 party] government tried to break the and Madras who knew no Hindi… people demonstrated in Delhi in 2,200-woman union. But we were an extra line or a missing dot messed front of the Supreme Court. When too strong for them. up the names. Thousands of people we reached there we ran amok with Rabiya could not claim because of these the judges and they ran. We painted mistakes. (see Shammu’s story p. 59) the court premises red and black, [We fight] to keep the sparks alive, WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 131 whatever issue it might be, the gas take any one person’s name because healthy but who made us people into leak, employment, helping the poor, the common man is unhappy with all unfortunates? Our government and or the Narmada Movement; be it the the politicians and leaders. our own people did this to us, it does floods, or people who are affected by If I think about it I don’t feel like not feel good. On the other hand it floods – we fight for all of them– the talking to you about the corruption also feels like at least someone comes youth and the social workers, and if that is taking place today. Being the to share our sorrows. It feels good in there is one person from each house woman I am, I definitely don’t feel that at least some one is there. But it who listens to people’s problems and like it. I say to the young children, also makes one say at times, see how helps them out, our country will be a come to me. It is my duty to tell you ‘unfortunate’ we have become that happy and a safe place. Even Bhopal about good things and the old times, people come off and on to remind us can have a happy future and so can about those who were once living. of our pitiable situation. Sometimes our whole country. It’s not like Bhopal I say to them today this India is an it fills a woman like me with anger is the only… there was such a huge independent country but who helped when the anniversary comes, people disaster in Bhopal that it is held to be her win it? Your and my ancestors it come from outside shouting slogans. next after Hiroshima… but there are was who struggled and fought with I don’t go out any more these last other cities besides Bhopal, and we honesty. They did not think about two or three years but I sit at home are not the only people suffering. saving their homes but their country, and curse, curse my government and We feel the pain and sorrow of their city, their mohalla. They fought Anderson. I curse the fact that this humanity and all the citizens of for all this and not for themselves. rogue and our government together India. Because in India live followers Whereas the leaders today want to pushed Bhopal into a pitiable state, of all the seven religions. We should come to power for their own benefits. and used Bhopal as a means to earn not think that we are Muslims so we Many people come from outside money. The government is taking full should look only at the sufferings of to help us. We people of Bhopal are advantage of us. It does not provide Muslims or are Hindus so we should pitiable… pity… pity is a very bad the proper sum of compensation nor see only Hindus suffering… No, we abuse. Someone became blind, some- decent health care nor employment. are humans. Before everything else body else became lame, all became They have made specimens out of we are humans and Indians. pitiable. Who made us pitiable? us, these politicians, and during each Politicians come to us, ask us for Our government and Anderson anniversary they appear with their our votes, talk big and all they do is made us pitiable. God gave us two words of pity, care and concern and fill their pockets. I am not going to eyes, hands and legs and made us then they leave. 132 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

someone’s mum, now I’m a granny. Some women can contribute part Hazra on women My children have seen the conditions time and not full time, or only inside at home, my husband abandoned me, Bhopal and not in actions outside, in in the campaign I have raised my children and they Delhi. Or they only come to meetings understand my difficulties they have at the potato factory but not rallies. In the campaign most who take part never stopped me they encouraged Why? Because she has small children are women, there are fewer men. I was me, they are proud of our strength – to look after, they have to be sent to a woman before the gas disaster and that their mother is capable of this school, need to be fed, need to be I am a woman today, in between I was and their mum is everything to them. looked after. Her husband goes out someones daughter, someones wife, This is because my children to earn and returns in the evening and someones mother. So a woman needs through their childhood, have seen there is always the fear of a quarrel. to think, analyse the situation and me getting beaten, working hard and My daughter was married and is then make a decision to participate. If fighting. They also saw my tehzeeb divorced. Because of her father. The there are people who can’t, it may be (demeanour) and the respect others groom was from his village. My girl that some are helpless because of their gave me, the way people respected was not a bride even for one night and circumstances. Many men do not let and spoke to me, so this way a lot of her life was destroyed over the issue their daughters participate and many encouragement comes from home. It of dowry. They demanded the money fathers do not let their daughters comes also through difficult times, from the first compensation payment take part, a lot of brothers do not let pain, hunger. If we are furthering and a car, when I couldn’t even afford their sisters participate and a lot of ourselves and there’s some advantage a bicycle. When I could not give them sons do not let their mothers to join in that and if my other sisters feel a car they abandoned my daughter, in, considering the situation outside. supported through this, or if their they never came back. In the Muslim community you see a minds open up or if their fear is taken Then I sued them and fought the lot of such things. I am a Muslim away then there is nothing wrong case for 3 years and made them return too, I have been someone’s wife, I am with that. the dowry that I had already given WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 133

them ‘give it back, you don’t want to Some say that Bhopal has become that my voice will be heard, maybe keep my daughter, return her dowry’. a place where people come from all through the a book or television or 18 utensils were missing and I made over the world come to conduct their paper or a film. At least if it opens up them pay up for that. I am a fighter. I research, write and print their books, the minds of other people, refreshes won the case in the court, then I got earn personal fame, that Bhopal is their memory and maybe it kindles my daughter married again. being used and the gas victims are some sympathy, then people from When I realised that being illiterate being used. And it is true that a lot of outside will join our voice and our in these circumstances is so difficult people have come over the 20 years, voices will be amplified, our struggle I got my children educated. I got my documentaries were made, books and fight will get strengthened so daughter educated till the 10th grade were written…but you see with all that we don’t accept defeat. I feel very but I was spending time taking my the books that are written and all the good that we are getting strength children to the hospital and sewing organisations that we work with and from friends we don’t even know, all and doing housework and the girl the way we are fighting I do not feel over in other places. was in school. When she was a little that we are being used, because if Actually, my life is such that from older she took charge of the house. someone’s gain somewhere through the day that I realised and accepted She said, ‘my mother sews, works our stories or if we receive donations the reality of the bodies in front of rolling beedis (leaf cigarettes) plus from outside we can do something me, lying in the roads, in the grounds spends time with my brother at the worthwhile in the world. We do not of the hospital, all those people who hospital’ so she started doing some take money from gas victims, we our- died such miserable and frightening cooking and also went to school. selves are poor, all the gas victims are deaths, I did not sit at home that day, She passed the 10th grade and one poor, all those who are fighting are but went in search of my son the next son, the older one completed the 5th poor people. We do not go to the rich day, I found him lying unconscious. grade and the second son somehow corporations for money, nor ask the I imagined the plight of other also completed 5th grade because his rich. And if we are fighting against mothers who had gone through the teacher was a good man. the government we will not accept same thing and that’s when I got the After that my life was chaotic, my money from them nor of course will hope, motivation and anger to fight – husband left me. The youngest one the government give us the money. So from that day I made up my mind to does not even know the meaning of the work that goes on in Sambhavna live and work for others ruined and school, he is 24 years old today. My is only because of kind people from wrecked, left sobbing by the tragedy youngest son is illiterate because I outside donating money. that happened in our lives and if their was engrossed in thinking about each So I feel that I should not call children went through all that my day’s food, from where would it come? them wrong, anyone who writes our children went through, then maybe How was I to send him to school? – stories, or captures our words either others might get some relief from my from where would I get his books and through a book or a video. I wish fight. So we live. So we go on. uniform? This is the story of my life. Every time we have fought for our rights we have won them and even today I feel strong enough to fight the government and we will get what is rightfully ours. Even if we die it won’t be before we have motivated children from the same poor families who are already coming out to fight for their rights. No matter how long it is, 20 years or beyond that, we will not give up, our fight will continue and we will not stop attacking the government and we will not just take our rights but wrest them from the government because we are not beg- ging, we are taking what is rightfully ours. Our human rights. Playing holi, the festival of colours, in mourning black at the 2007 ‘Tinshed’ protest 134 THE BHOPAL MARATHON Rashida Bee and Champadevi Shukla

Joint winners of the 2004 Goldman Prize, often called the Nobel Prize for the Environment, the award recognised their years of work for the victims. They used the $125,000 prize money to found the Chingari Trust to benefit children born damaged from gas and water poisoning.

C: The story of how we women began struggle was not just for the women C: …We were rather naive. work in the movement we have told in the union but all who had suffered, R: In 2002 we went to South Africa already (See pp.50-53: The long walk against the corporation and our own to the Earth Summit. It was meant to of the Bhopal women ) governments which continued to let be about the environment, but while R: For me this was a new chapter us down, betray the victims. At first, United Nations and prime ministers of my life, coming out of the home we were trusting, but after years of from all over were there, corporations and out of the veil. After we formed disillusion we learned the hard way like Dow were too.We appealed to the the union we soon realised that our how a struggle is waged… organisers to show some sincerity in their efforts. Making fine speeches is not enough. In fact it is no use at all. C: Actually, worse than useless as it dupes people into believing that something worthwhile is going on. R: Allowing such corporations to take part mocks their fine intentions. We raised our jhadoos and appealed to women all over the world to join us to fight against the corporations who contaminate air, water and soil. C: May 2003, we visited America. We held an anshan (hunger strike) of 12 days in Wall Street near a statue of a bull. In Washington we sat outside the Indianembassy to shame them that they and the Indian government had made no effort to extradite Warren Anderson who was moving around freely playing golf and the like. R: We went to Dow’s shareholder meeting and demonstrated outside the building. Their officials invited us to come in and talk, we refused and warned them we would continue our protests until they had accepted responsibility towards the victims. C: In June 2004 in Delhi we sat on a fast without water, which was very tough. The heat was awful. A US court was asking for a certificate that the GoI had ‘no objection’ to Dow cleaning up the factory site. Who could possibly object? but no letter was written. Finally they sent it on 2004 the last possible day.1 WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 135

R: The government had sat for so many years on Union Carbide’s cash [from the settlement] that the sum in the bank with interest had multiplied threefold. Then they decided to give a lot of it to the state government, which had done nothing for us, which at the time was ignoring a Supreme Court order to provide clean water in the contaminated areas.2 The state said it would spend some money to make a museum for the gas victims, but most would be diverted to the Narmada dam project. We said, we will make our own museum, and the money belongs to the victims, not to the government. It is not theirs to give. We went to the Supreme Court which agreed with us and ordered all the money to be given to the victims within three months.Various parties filed five separate applications to stop or stall the order. Politicans’ greasy fingermarks were all over this. C: We burned five effigies every day in each of the 36 gas-affected wards and about 150 of us women blockaded the Director of Gas Relief in his office which we captured for five hours. We only left when he gave it in writing that the Supreme Court’s order to supply clean water would be obeyed and carried out. R: In between, Sathyu bhai called us and said we had won something called the Goldman Prize. He said what will you do with the money? C: ‘What money?’ we said. We were so startled. R: Then he told us the Goldman prize would give us $125,000 and we two could do whatever we liked with it. So we talked. In both our families there were damaged children. They didn’t count as gas victims and the government gave no help whatsoever to children born damaged by all the poisons in the water. C: We decided that we would use all the money to help children born damaged from the gas and water. So this is how Chingari began. 136 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Our fight for clean water and life In May 2004 the Supeme Court of India orders the state government to provide clean water to contamination-affected communities.1 The order is ignored. When women and children go to the government offices to ask why nothing has been done they are beaten up by police. The politicians announce grand plans to spend hundreds of millions on ornamental fountains.

The red paint on the pump says the near the plant are sick. (Page 90 has an January 21, 2005 water is unfit to drink, but the child A-Z of the many and severe health prob- cannot read. In long ago 1969, before lems linked to contaminated water.) Rioting with deadly weapon even her mum was born, Carbide was Neither the State nor the Central We women decide to remind Gupta already dumping its wastein Bhopal. government showed much interest. of his promise. We sit outside his On the ground, in pits, into huge In May 2004 we petition the gate singing songs. Gupta’s PA calls ‘solar evaporation’ ponds. Wherever. Supreme Court which then ordered us in and receives our petition. All is By 1982, the ponds were leaking. the State government to supply clean peaceful, but nine people, including The lawyer Babulal Gaur brokered water to the contaminated areas. Champadevi Shukla, 51 (winner of a settlement between Union Carbide In August 2004 Bhopal’s Gas the Goldman Prize) are arrested and and farmers whose cattle had died Relief Minister Umashankar Gupta police charge them with rioting with while grazing near these ponds.2 grandly announces that all affected a deadly weapon, a crime carrying a Years later the same Babulal by the leaking toxic wastes will get two year prison sentence. Gaur became the State Minister in clean drinking water within three May 18, 2005 charge of Gas-Relief, then Chief months. Each day we watch but Minister. By now never is there any sign of any work ‘Are we less than human?’ 2005 many people living beginning. We enter the office of the Director of WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 137

Gas Relief and ask to meet him. We February 12, 2006 wait singing songs. Three truckloads Umashankar’s birthday of armed riot police turn up. On his 53rd birthday supporters of Gas Relief Minister Gupta give him a two mile procession with elephants, camels and dancing horses followed by fireworks and a cake weighing 53 kilos – one for each year of his life. One of his garlands is 21 feet long.

The cops are kicking out, hitting really hard with thick sticks. I am trying to get my children out of that place and see Sathyu dragged by his hair all the way down stairs then beaten with sticks.

Dow promises clean water for every person on earth. (Except Bhopalis.)

Fireboats hired by Stirring stuff. But when Liveris I don’t see the man who hits me. Dow’s PR agency was asked if Dow would clean up The fist comes flying from nowhere 2006 jet aloft tall sprays Bhopal, where the drinking water into my eye. Such pain, I’ve gone over the Hudson River as the of tens of thousands is poisoned by blind I thought. Im so scared for my world’s diplomats gather for a toxic wastes dumped by Union kids. When we’re outside I sit down speech by Dow CEO Liveris. Carbide, and birth defects are many and I’m shaking. That they treat us ‘More than a billion people are times commoner than in the rest of this way, are we less than human? in peril every day because they do India, Dow's CEO says ‘We don't not have enough water or the water feel this is our responsibility.’5 June 16, 2005 they have is unhealthy. Lack of July 26, 2006 £180 million for fountains clean water is the single largest No money is available for piping safe cause of disease… more than 4,500 Sunil takes his own life water to the contaminated slums, but children die each day because of it. Next day, Sunil Verma, 34, who Chief Minister Gaur unveils plans to We are determined to win a victory over lost five family members in the spend £180 million beautifying the the problem of access to clean water for 1984 gas disaster, despairing of city with ornamental fountains and every person on Earth – we need to ever gaining justice, puts on a tee- opening gymnasia and badminton bring to the fight the kind of things shirt that says NO MORE BHOPALS courts to promote public health.3 companies like Dow do best.’4 and hangs himself. 138 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Life & death of a mad Bhopali child. His friends say farewell to Sunil. This tribute to Sunil from all his friends was published a few months after his death. He was much-loved, an orphan of the disaster which had taken most of his family. He worked hard to bring up his younger sister and brother and despite his illness had a great sense of fun.

Sunil, for much of your short life, to be burning and your lungs on fire, family vanished who knows where? you thought people were coming to nor that it’s your mother doing the When you learn of the terrifying, murder you. screaming and your dad shouting at thing that has happened you return ‘Rubbish!'We, yourfriends,tried you, ‘Run, run!' to Bhopal to look for your family. our best to reassure you. ‘The sky's Nothing in your life has prepared Alone, too numb to cry, you roam the blue. We are all here. You’ve done no you for what now happens. streets. Everywhere you see posters harm to a soul, why should anyone Your family bundles outside, into showing the faces of corpses as yet want to harm you?' darkness thickened, and quickened, unidentified. On each brow rests a ‘I guess I'm mad,' you'd say, who by something that blinds and burns. numbered scrap of paper. This is could see nightmares in sunlight and All around you frightened people how you learn that your mum and hear voices bellowing in his head. are choking, throwing up, moaning. dad and three of your brothers and Mad? And if you were mad, was A woman lies convulsing where last sisters are dead. it very surprising? afternoon you were playing marbles. What of the rest? You search on When you are 13 years old, asleep In the panicky rush to escape you and by a miracle find them, your tiny in your house with your parents and stop for a moment and find yourself brother of 3 years and your sister of five brothers and sisters, you do not separated from your parents and are nine, alive. You bring them back to expect to be woken swept away to fall unconscious. You the only home you have, the house by screams. You do wake on a truck taking you away to across from Union Carbide’s factory. 2006 not expect your eyes another city. You are alone, lost, your So at 13, mad Sunil, you are the WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 139 man of the family, the breadwinner. Instead you find yourself at the again do you piss in a snake's hole. You find casual work as a day Union Carbide AGM in Houston. In Ah, Sunil, little brother, the cool labourer and at night wash glasses at the hotel lobby you are handing out and beauty of the herb garden were a tea stall. You keep your little family copies of an environmental report not enough to keep the demons from going and somehow manage to get when you're arrested. Union Carbide, you. Again you tried to take your yourself to school often enough to whose gases entered your house and life. You drank rat poison and after ger through the 10th standard. killed your family, charges you with we'd had your stomach pumped, you Champa didi says she remembers criminal trespass. You're thrown in rang the bastard who through his you walking to classes with a rose jail. It takes hundreds of phone calls tears is writing this and said, ‘Guess pinned to your shirt - she’d give you to the mayor of Houston before you what, it tasted sweet!' pickles and parathas for your lunch. are released without charge. At last Dear Sunil, we did our best to get Mad, are you? For the sake of you can go home. help for you, but there was little help your brother and sister you refuse to Years pass and the voices in your to be had. Although some 60,000 give up or be defeated. You are kind head grow louder. They taunt and survivors suffer from depression, to others and your house becomes a torment you. By now you know your anxiety, memory loss, panic attacks, refuge for kids whose parents beat mind is playing tricks. You’re anx- insomnia and other afflictions, the them. You ask, ‘Is it better to have ious all the time about being killed, government refuses to accept mental parents who beat you, or no parents yet you show courage to defend health problems as a consequence of at all?' those you love. When your friend the gas. Today, in all the government You learn all you can, dear crazy Sathyu has a bomb thrown at him hospitals in Bhopal there’s only one friend, about the disaster that took while he is riding his motorcycle in part-time psychiatric consultant. away your family, and you join other the street, you insist on sitting be- When you were a child, you told survivors. You are young but you hind him each time he goes out any- a journalist that the people respon- take the lead. When neither Union where during the next several weeks. sible for the suffering and death in Carbide nor the authorities give any You can’t sleep and talk of taking Bhopal should be hanged. (See p 45) medical help, it's you who lays the your life. Your friends try to joke Never were they even brought to foundation stone at the pole-and- you out of it, but they’re worried. trial. In the end, the only one hanged thatch health centre the survivors Then, mad Sunil, you find a new was you. You left a note saying that themselves start, which will soon be way to quit this cruel human world. when you decided to end your life ripped down by the police. You run off into the jungle to live as you were absolutely in your senses. You march at every anniversary a free creature. ‘I lay on my belly and You bathed, oiled your body and with a lighted torch. Your voice is drank from a ditch like a dog,' you chose a tee-shirt that said NOMORE heard. Then, dear madman, you are tell us when our frantic search parties BHOPALS.Then you switched off the sent to the USA to give evidence in finally find you. ceiling fan and put it another use. the Indian government's case against You can’t get work,but when we You thought you were mad Sunil, Union Carbide. You’ve never flown open our free clinic, Sambhavna, you but a world without justice is madder. before and don't care for the food. instantly volunteer.You're penniless, At least you are now safe. The government lawyers tell you, but refuse to be paid for your work. Your ashes we scattered in the ‘be brave and honest, just tell your Every day you scan the papers for flooded Narmada river, and for your story straight’. But neither they nor gas disaster stories and remember the funeral feast followed your precise the government consult you or the tiniest details. You work in the herb instructions: quarter bottle of Goa other survivors before they do a deal garden and for a while your voices brand whisky, mutton curry from with Union Carbide that makes its abate. One day you piss into a cobra's Dulare's hotel near the bus stand, share price jump for joy. hole shouting ‘Come out! O cobra betel nut, tobacco and all. You are outraged. Off you go on maharaj!’ When the outraged reptile Were you there with another world tour against injustice, erupts us? If not, who was it to Ireland, Holland, the UK, which from its that in the darkness you tour with Bianca Jagger, telling defiled chuckled, ‘I am no your story to whoever will listen. home, longer afraid of You're mixing with famous people, head raised, hood spread, being killed – I but you, poor mad bugger, just want you sprint full 200 yards to am already dead to be home in Bhopal. the big tamarind tree and never and fearless.' 140 THE BHOPAL MARATHON ‘Our poorest people can come here and New Sambhavna Clinic: a centre for

The new clinic in two acres of medicinal herb gardens was built with help from the Pro Victimis Foundation, Geneva, Greenpeace, Netherlands and the Dominique Lapierre Trust, and fulfils its healing mission thanks to the warm-hearted support of individuals in the UK and all around the world.

The new clinic, built after we out- grew our original building, opened in 2006. Ecologically constructed throughout it is designed to provide a pleasant and uplifting environment for people coming to us for care – and we think it plays an important part in the process of healing. Its shrubs, trees and climbers, not only create a pleasant environment for gas-affected people, most have specific uses in Ayurvedic medicine, which is used in conjunction with modern medicine at Sambhavna. The garden has 90 varieties of herbs. The heart-shaped leaves of Tinospora cordifolia, are effective in dispelling different kinds of fever. Distinctive for their foliage are small trees of Ricinus communis, good for easing pain in the chest, abdomen, limbs and joints – all key symptoms of gas exposure.Visitors find shade beneath the trees and can relax in the rustic hut we have made, which has a clay hearth for making tea. It is a wonderfully soothing place to spend time, especially so when some of the plants are flowering, the garden is full of 2006 sweet herby scents. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 141 know this lovely place is just for them.’ healing, nature, science and laughter. 142 THE BHOPAL MARATHON The Chingari Trust begins work

The Goldman Prize funds won jointly by Rashida Bee and Champadevi Shukla were donated to benefit the victims of the gas disaster. In 2004 they created the Chingari Trust with an all- women board, to provide physiotherapy, social skills and rehabilitation to children born with birth defects, disabilities or life-threatening conditions caused by gas- and water-poisoning.

When the Sambhavna Clinic moved school, where children could come isn’t a child alive that wouldn’t run to its new building (previous spread), for the day, thus giving mothers some and jump if it could. Our children the old building was taken over by hours of freedom. Those who needed begin with games designed especially Chingari as an office, and work began physiotherapy to help unlock stiff for them, and end up running races, planning what the Trust would do. limbs and paralysed bodies, would playing Bocce (boules) and other From the beginning Champadevi receive regular treatment. games. We have had children come to and Rashida had decided that, true to To prepare a child for life outside us who couldn’t walk who can now its origins, it should be focused on the straitjacket of disability, the basic run freely. the needs of women. The early aims skills of daily living, bathing, eating of Chingari included finding work meals on their own, learning to hold Database of special needs that women could do to provide them spoons and cups, utensils and finally One of the first big achievements with an income. An important aim a pencil, would be taught. Children of the Chingari Trust was to create a was to help children born damaged would move on Special Education database of children special needs. to gas- or water-affected parents. sessions, each of no more than 20 This is continuously updated and Having children born with birth minutes, training them to maintain by September 2010, more than 300 defects in their own families, the two eye-contact, recognise and name children of all types of disability women knew very well the pressure, colours, write their own names. were registered with us, and at the grief, worry, extra work and cost of Those who were able would begin time of writing 120 receive treatment caring for a damaged child, and that formal education with the eventual in our Rehabilitation Centre. there was no help at all to be had from aim of moving to ordinary schools. For some children, free medicine, the state there was no help at all for and expenses for medical treatment, the families. The children were not Speech therapy for example, surgery, are provided by acknowledged as victims of Union Many 2nd- and 3rd-generation the Trust. Carbide’s chemicals and not entitled victims of the gas disaster are born The Chingari Trust is exploring to the few benefits that gas victims with congenital deformities such as options for providing psychological received. A major part of Chingari’s cleft lip and impaired hearing. support and counselling so that the work then, would be to bring aid to Speech therapy is important as it children can live normal lives within the children and their beleaguered helps these kids convey their needs their communities. We currently offer families. and feelings which in turn helps them physiotherapy, speech therapy and to integrate with society at large. lessons in sign language and reading Focus on children However at Chingari we not only and writing in Braille at the Chingari In view of the Trust’s available provide the children with speech Rehabilitation Centre. funds – basically the $125,000 from therapy. Children needing speech the Goldman Foundation – Rashida therapy may have autism or cerebral Nutrition programme and Champadevi decided that they palsy. Training varies according to Most recently, in 2012, noticing would concentrate their efforts on the whether a child is visually or aurally that many of the children coming to children, as this would directly help impaired, orthopaedically disabled us were undernourished and weak, their mothers and families as well. or suffering from multiple problems. we have begun serving every child a They planned a Speech therapy good, nourishing lunch from a menu Centre, run on the that changes every day.(See the story of 2006 lines of a primary All children love games. There Abdullah the rice pudding p.167) WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 143 in the old Sambhavna building

Alex Masi, 2011

Actor Dev Patel, star of Slumdog Millionaire &Best Exotic Marigold Hotel visits Chingari on August 28, 2011 144 THE BHOPAL MARATHON Children of Oriya basti sing for Gandhiji

Oriya basti is a small settlement two- went all around the basti, picking up thirds of a mile from the Carbide site. plastic bags and other rubbish. The Although, at first glance, its shacks, students taught the children to sing constructed from staves, clay plaster Mahatma Gandhi’s song Raghupati and sacking look like crude shanties, Raghava Raja Ram. closer inspection shows how people On Gandhiji’s birthday all the have tried to recreate village houses children gathered in the community using whatever materials they can centre and the students told them find. The settlement was badly hit by stories from Gandhiji’s life, about his the gas, many people are chronically love for the poor and his struggle for ill, and Sambhavna’s health workers, India’s freedom. The children gave a who were frequent visitors, wanted to vigorous performance of Raghupati do something to help the community Raghava Raja Ram and other songs. and particularly the children. Some recited poems and two would- The settlers of Oriya basti came, be comedians did stand-up routines. as the name suggests, from Orissa, Academically, the school is doing recruited in the 50s to work on as well. We are exploring possibilities railway gangmen and helpers. They for senior students to sit the 5th Year still speak Oriya to each other but the Board Examination, meanwhile our children, in Hindi-speaking Bhopal, 35 children take exams set by the are caught between two cultures. teachers. The four classes recently They grow up speaking a patois achieved pass rates of 71%, 88%, 83% and can find it hard to communicate and 100% respectively. even with their grandparents. Nor, Under the guidance of Gangaram are they good at Hindi, so they don’t and neighbours, pupils have made a easily fit into municipal schools and garden around the school and are many drop out. growing medicinal plants. They have In 2002 with the financial support produced 20 kilos of shatavari roots of French writer Dominique Lapierre and an almost equal quantity of aloe whose book Five Past Midnight in vera – both excellent in the treatment Bhopal strongly features Oriya basti, of gynaecological problems, which Sambhavna opened a Community are common among women who were Centre, followed by a primary school exposed to gas in 1984. for the youngest, both administered In order to give focus to this work by elders of the community. the teachers are doing a house-to- The school has four classes and house health survey of the basti’s 79 all pupils learn Oriya, Hindi, English families. Problems most encountered and Maths to prepare them for entry thus far are headaches, pain in the to mainstream schools and to help limbs, joints, chest and abdomen, school drop-outs rejoin the system. coughs and fevers. From the school’s 2006 Report: When the survey is complete, Students from the Bhopal School Sambhavna’s Ayurvedic doctors will of Social Sciences came to work with work with Gangaram and the school us. We formed the children to plant the medicinal herbs children into litter- that will do most good for the basti 2006 picking teams that dwellers. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 145 146 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Feb 27. In an echo of the first padyatra 17 years ago are walking to Delhi to ask the Prime Minister Familes and children turn out see us off, many in (pp. 50-53), women parade behind their banner as for a National Commission on Bhopal, to provide tears. Several padyatris are currently ill, most marchers leave the city through Bhopal Gate. We safe drinking water and make Dow clean the site. have little with them but a pair of sandals and a 500 miles on foot to Delhi: the story of the second padyatra If we want to get clean water, we’ll have to walk to Delhi, daughter, To bring killer Carbide to trial we’ll walk to Delhi, mile by mile

organised a warm reception. After a splendid Next morning, garlanded and treated to breakfast meal of rice and daal cooked on a wood fire, we of jalebis and poha, we set out again. Now begins spend our first night under a sky of brilliant stars. a period of early starts, long days of walking and

in the morning, about 4.30 a.m. and go on until meet and hand out leaflets about the march and about 10 a.m. We rest until 4 p.m. and go on for its purpose. The going is tough, especially for another four hours. As we go we talk to people we those with health problems. After entering a

a rapturous reception, and we are told meanwhle The villagers bring vegetables, buttermilk and that Coca-Cola officials are trying to find out ‘if dough for a delicious khaddi and roti supper. The 2006 the Bhopalis plan to protest against our factory’. headman sends for milk, so there’s kheer as well. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 147

few clothes, some are elderly. Ganesh Prasad, In the crowds near the bus-stand women of the hugging Champadevi who with Rashida had led (left) is 73, Jaganath Das (far right) is in his 90s. stationery union, who had walked the route in them on that famous occasion, because they know Hindu sadhus and Muslim elders walk together. 1989, give our marchers an emotional send-off, very well what lies in store for her and all of us.

Shehzadi, Nafeesa, Kanchan and others chant: A light lunch of aloo-puri at Shingarcholi. Only spirits and walk along singing. But by the evening Bhopal’s marchers say; come leave your work today; a few miles from Bhopal but we notice how cool everyone is tired, bodies full of aches. By evening come you old, come you young; walk with us a little way. and tasty is the village water. People are in high we reach Gandhinagar, where the villagers have

innumerable kindnesses from village and town the full account is on bhopal.org/2006padyatra. In cake fire. In Shyampur the we are invited to sleep folk along the way. There is no space here to tell Sonkacch we enjoy a memorable meal of baatis – in the spacious community hall and sent off in the all of each day’s experiences and adventures, but wheat doughballs slow baked over a cowdung- morning with cups of chai. We start walking early

landscape of wheat fields, it comes as a shock on A Coca-Cola factory is draining the groundwater about the way Coca-Cola manages its business reaching Pillukhedi to find it contaminated and which villagers say now tastes foul and is ‘yellow here and discussion about the good and harm stinking. Handpumps lie unused or dismantled. as donkey’s urine’. There are dark suspicions done by factories. The local high school gives us

A long road awaits. Many people are having a bad Lunch and a dholak recital by Jagarnath at the After a long, gruelling walk in the heat of the day time with blisters and sore joints. Bano, a diabetic, temple of Teej Valdi, ‘three hills’, where all faiths we finally come to the Ghorapachhar (‘knocks passes out and is taken ahead by auto rickshaw. were warmly welcomed. Note unimpressed dog. down horses’) River. It can be swift and furious, 148 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

but at this season is little more than a trickle over of clothes washing. Bano, now back with the Paakahriya Pura where people ask about the gas a vast bed of rocks. People seize the welcome marchers, has a reinvigorating plunge. A further disaster and are keen to see Bhopal Express, but the chance to lave blistered, swollen feet, and do a bit stretch of baking road brings us to the village of village will have no electricity until 10 p.m. The

the dangers we face on our journey, which now and soon enough begin to see signs that this is a wayside plaque shows that other riflemen also far enters a stretch of bandit territory. Now all walk troubled area. Men with guns are on the roads, from home, were once here. They are gone, and as a tight group. ‘Stay together!’, people call out and by now we are a very long way from home. A few tigers remain, but the place is still dangerous.

Once in a while we find somewhere pleasant to Despite their tiredness the walkers’ spirits are still of Sambhavna come by jeep to take them home stop, and snatch a few hours of rest from the heat high but severe pain and bad health compels a few and check the rest of us. The lush fields as we of the day and a chance to attend to other things. of us to give up the walk. Dr. Jay and Dr. Qaiser near Gwalior are ravishing to dust-caked eyes.

grab our yellow fliers. The beautiful and historic will stay, and are thrilled to find bathing stalls, working like a dream. We take a rest day, do some city gives us a warm welcome. We eventually toilet stalls, clean floors and no rats. We’ve walked shopping and admire the great fortress, dating to reacht the Sindhi Bhavan Dharamshala, where we 432 km. Sambhavna’s ayurvedic medicines are the 8th century, that looms over the ancient city.

In Morena there was no electricity in the whole welcomed by our hosts, local representatives of We set off at sunrise and by afternoon reach the city. After winding through an endless maze of Amnesty International, who treated us to a slap Chambal river, crossing by a dilapidated bridge narrow streets, we arrived at our lodgings to be up meal of pooris, daal and rice. with sections of railing missing. The river is large WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 149

Bhopalis assume everyone will be in bed by then, The sun gave us a spectacular greeting — glowing In this glorious dawn the Bhopalis begin the long but at 10 p.m. the entire village turns out to see JJ deep red, it shoots rays through holes in the trek to Guna. An overloaded public carrier has and Naseeruddin in the horrific story of that night. clouds across half the sky and over the landscape. toppled and shed its load. Trucks are just one of

Each day now is the same, waking in the small setting off in the dark to try to outpace the sun, Days pass and the road stretches onward, towns hours wrapping up against the cold to brew tea, which is growing fiercer with every day. The long come and go and villages where at night we rest gratefully cupping hands round our mugs then road takes its toll of tired legs and lacerated feet. our aching limbs, and our dreams are of walking.

We are seeing India in a visceral way, feeling it A farmer on a cart asks what we are doing. When he says when we part. It’s raining as we enter with our feet, experiencing it with all our senses, Rashida tells him he gets down and walks with us. Gwalior and we get very wet, but sing and chant its changing colours, scents of plants and farms. He is 85. ‘I pray Manmohan Singh listens to you,’ and hold our banners high. People reach out to

Next day at a press conference in our comfortable We leave Gwalior at sunrise with some regret, for At Banmore, our midday stop, a giant centipede sleeping quarters, every local paper is present and ahead lies some wild terrain, the Chambal ravines is discovered lurking in a most inconvenient place, Rashida gives an interview to a few TV channels. with their bandits, and Agra is still a long way off. but the people enthusiastically support our cause.

and alive with fish, but across it the landscape is whose bizarre shapes conceal a labyrinth of cuts We arrive at Dholpur at sunset and after what transformed. We find ourselves staring out over and ravines, perfect hideaways for the bandit seems like a fleeting sleep, are up and off again to an endless sea of strange, craggy landforms gangs for which these badlands areas are famous. the border. Along the way we hand 150 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

out leaflets to everyone we meet. People seem For much of the way to Agra we are surrounded At 10 a.m. we stop at a chai stall for a rest. When eager to know about our march and most, being by peacocks, flocks of sheep and goats pass, and the chai maker learns the reason for our journey, themselves poor, with hard lives, are sympathetic. we are questioned by their inquisitive shepherds. he serves everyone tea and won’t take any money.

Gulab Bai, who can barely hobble, flings herself In the late afternoon, most of the Bhopals decide We spent hours slowly walking in and around the into a passionate dance. Each of us has to perform to visit the . Only a few of us have seen building. After the stress of our journey, the calm a solo as the rest sit around singing and clapping. or visited it before. Its beauty is overwhelming. and peace of the Taj Mahal is a welcome relief.

The sightseeing Bhopalis are bemused to find Cows wander the streets near the temple, looking A monkey steals an orange from Munne’s bag. dozens of foreign sadhus wandering the streets for something to munch. Our three padyatris here When Munne approaches it the monkey jumps near the Hare Krishna headquarters in Mathura. from l. to r. are Shanti Bai, Babita and Narain Singh. onto his shoulders and gives him a good shaking.

giving us a little shade. much appreciated after so all day, which is lovely when not combined with There are now a lot more cars, buses and trucks many hundreds of kilometers through baking, the dust from the trucks thundering past. As we that go so much faster than the usual bullock unobstructed sun. The wind blows quite strongly get closer to Delhi the traffic inevitably increases. carts, taxi rickshaws and the dangerous wide load

There’s water, the Bhopalis remark, fresh and we have come here, to get the Prime Minister to Luckily we soon come to the Pandit Cis Ram clear for the tourist route to Agra, but none for intervene and make sure we get the water. The Park we find gardens with lawns, flowers, trees our poisoned people. It’s one of the reasons why heat on the road is so bad that Munni Bai faints. and benches. Most people lie down and snooze. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 151

Agra is now not that far ahead, but to the bone- We reach Agra at noon. Our songs attract crowds Our press conference is attended by the media, weary any rest is blessed and anything will do to who ply us with questions. Amnesty International senior advocates and judges. Next day it’s Holi. rest on. Every minute is precious, the road awaits. people greet and garland each exhausted walker. We can relax, a flock of gaudy birds of paradise.

Our route out of Agra goes past a magnificent We leave Agra in a fierce dust storm blowing and In Mathura we pass a poster advertising mobile building which turns out to be the tomb of the when it clears find ourselves overtaking a fellow phones has Krishna calling up a red-haired gopi, emperor Akbar. We stop for a rest and to explore. traveller. Delhi is near now, only 200 kms away. ‘Hello, Krishna speaking.Want to do multi-media?’

After afternoon naps, we carry on walking. These We become more and more excited and anxious as difficult as it is, to end. The landscape is mostly huge swollen things keep crowding us, almost the closer we get to our journey’s end in Delhi., lush and green with crops, the road lined almost knocking us down, full of wheat husks, we think. There is also a sense of not wanting this padyatra, continuously with tall eucalyptus and other trees,

tractors that knocked poor Ismail off his feet. As is different — crowded, clogged, and aggressive. blasting their horns in our ears and tearing by us, we enter the outskirts of Delhi our journey is Suddenly there is little room for us on the road missing us by hairs. When the traffic crawls we through an increasingly urban scene. The traffic and many cars and motorcycles are impatient, hand leaflets to bus passengers reaching for them.

Already we sense that our journey is over. These of spring flowers. Lilabai offers the bouquet she some, like Irfan bhai, whose shoes disintegrated are its last precious moments We reach a park to has picked to Maude Dorr taking the picture. We this morning, will not be sorry when it ends. Our rest. Narain Singh rests his legs. The place is full cherish these last moments of our walk although thoughts now turn to the new ordeals that await . 152 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Our first rendezvous within Delhi proper is the are in good voice, the tiredness of the road behind Waiting to greet us are students and trade union park near Humayun’s tomb where we are to hold us, aches and pains forgotten, in the excitement of representatives. We learn that thousands all over a rally and give a press conference. The marchers the beginning of this new phase of our mission. the world have sent faxes to the Prime Minister,

years and returning with empty promises from Delhi only after all our six demands are fulfilled.’ officer of Chemicals & Fertilizers Minister Ram successive prime ministers. This time, we will not Joined by people who have come from Bhopal by Vilas Paswan. Paswan we’re told ‘is not in town.’ return to Bhopal with mere promises; we will leave train, some 400 Bhopalis stage a sit in outside the ‘Isn’t he responsible for clearing up that chemical

your young husband with children to support? If is poisoned? If you must give your kids polluted Police break up the demo. Bano, 55, is beaten and you carry a baby nine months and he’s born dead? water. So you’re doing your duty? Why isn’t it kicked before being carried away. She ends up in If you breastfeed your child knowing your milk your duty to protect us? To jail corrupt officials?’ hospital. Even old women and kids are beaten up.

Some leaders meet minister Paswan, who assures theNarmada dam are camped on the other side of Prime Minister, silence. Some of the Bhopalis them ‘of all possible help’. His department will Jantar Mantar from us. They come and entertain take the chance to do some sightseeing. Rashida, talk to the state government. Campaigners against us with songs and dancing until late. From the Nafeesa and Kanchan marvel at the Quitb Minar.

Still Manmohan Singh is silent. A dozen people into which Union Carbide is now totally merged. Film star Amir Khan visits us at Jantar Mantar. begin a hunger strike vowing to continue until the We hold a candlelit march and vigil. In this dim The marchers are sceptical, recalling Pillukhedi, government takes action against Dow Chemical, photo, author is watching with us. and ask him why he does adverts for Coca-Cola. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 153

urging him to meet us. Twenty members of the At sunset we reach the Bharat Scouts and Leaders Next morning, we marched to Street US Congress have written urging him to heed our Camp, the same place where marchers on the first to begin an indefinite dharna. Rashida says, ‘We just demands. We are entertained by a street play. 1989 padyatra stayed, to find this sign on the door. are tired of repeating the same demands for 21

dump? Isn’t it his duty to resolve a problem that the media. ‘He said he’d send a team to investigate Suddenly hundreds of police appear. They order has been damaging us for the past 21 years?’ asks within the next eight days. But nothing happened. us to leave. ‘Why do you treat us so badly?’ the Shehzadi. ‘We met Paswan last year too,’ she tells How can the government treat us like animals?’ women yell back. ‘What would you do if you lost

A kick knocks Ashraf, 60, senseless. In hospital Next day Bano (see p. 129) and Ashraf rejoin the met the survivors but the police got there first. a doctor accuses her of faking pain. ‘I’ll open up group, now at Jantar Mantar. From the Ministry ‘When I die,’ says an old lady, ‘I’ll be a ghost and your abdomen. Then you will know what pain is.’ of Chemicals comes an apology saying they’d have strangle Manmohan for causing such suffering.’

Narain at the Red Fort, at the Diwan-e-khaas, the Bhopalis pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi at Raj Now, as the Prime Minister continues to ignore emperor Shah Jehan’s private audience hall where Ghat where he was cremated. Our non-violent us, we stage a die in. The corpses are not real but from his Peacock Throne he dispensed justice. struggle against injustice is based on his teachings the grief over the shrouded bodies is real enough.

It’s halfway through April, almost two months Suddenly there’s a call to a meeting. The Prime People are feeling a wild mix of relief, excitement, since we set out from Bhopal. The hunger strikers Minister agrees to four of our six demands. The exhaustion and bewildered happiness. We have the are weak, still the Prime Minister will not see us. hunger strike ends with glasses of orange juice. Prime Minister’s promise. At last we can go home. 154 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Gandhiji, thank god you never lived to hear these stories In February 2008 a woman led her small daughter, who was carrying a doll, out of their house in Bhopal. Along with fifty other people they set out to walk the 500 gruelling miles to Delhi – the second time in two years that Bhopalis had made this journey. In 2006 the Prime Minister had made promises but kept not a single one; his government had seemed instead to be siding with Dow Chemical. In 2008 he kept the Bhopalis waiting on a pavement four months.

They walked on blisters, hungry, for the second time in two years. children who being born damaged: perpetually thirsty, sleeping where children with cleft palates, twisted “The Prime Minister broke every they could find shelter, waking at legs, flipper hands, growth defects, single promise he made us two four each morning to outpace the cancers, and other injuries so horrific years ago. So we are going again burning sun. that their photographs could not be to ask him to honour his word.” When the mother felt exhausted be published in a newspaper. How to and unable to carry on, she told her In 2006, the Prime Minister had tell him, this is just the living, those daughter, ‘If Gandhiji, at his age, promised to provide safe water for born mercifully dead often bear little could do this, so can we.’ the thousands of families forced to resemblance to human beings? This woman was one of fifty men, drink water poisoned by chemicals Along the road the child plagued women and children, many elderly, leaking from Carbide’s derelict site. her mother with questions. ‘Why do several of them He must surely remember what people have to die?’ ill, walking from they’d told him last time, him and his ‘They just do. They grow old, 2008 Bhopal to Delhi, ministers, of the unusual numbers of then they die.’ WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 155

‘Uncle Kabir wasn’t old.’ The child had nightmares and cried Carbide but does nothing to stop it After thirty eight days of walking in her sleep. ‘What scared you?’ the absconding from the Bhopal court. the Bhopalis reached Delhi but just mother asked, but the girl recalled Those who were there say that as like last time the PM was too busy to only a sense of terror. they read out the first three demands meet them. So they set up camp on a ‘What are you most afraid of?’ the Prime Minister nodded. When strip of pavement where trucks and ‘When I go out of our house, the they reached the fourth, he placed his buses roar past in clouds of diesel lane is full of ghosts.’ hands over his turbanned ears. He fumes. It’s the only place in Delhi The next day a group of mothers would not endorse any trade bans or where protesters are allowed to wait. and children, among their number agree to the demand for Dow to be There are no sanitary facilities on women with damaged children, went prosecuted in place of Union Carbide. a pavement, nor relief from dust and to the Prime Minister’s house heat. For weeks the Bhopalis waited. and chained themselves and One night mother heard the child their children to his railings. whispering to her doll. ‘Don’t be so Police vans soon arrived. silly, always crying. I’m here aren’t I? The chains were roughly cut, I’d never leave you behind all alone. and the mothers and children Don’t worry, the Prime Minister will arrested. The policewomen who meet us soon, then we’ll go home.’ led them away were weeping. News reached them that the PM ‘Mama, I hate being in jail,’ and his ministers were looking for a the doll said. way to assist Dow Chemicalin its bid ‘We mustn’t ever give up,’ replied On the pavement world, suns and to dispute successor liability. the child. moons rolled overhead. In June the Dow was dangling the carrot of a Author Arundhati Roy said the temperatures rose above 100ºF but $1 billion investment and ministers government’s failure to pursue Dow from the Prime Minister came only like Chidambaram, Kamal Nath and Chemical was a message to foreign silence. Then thirty-four women and Cabinet Secretary B.K. Chaturvedi corporations that ‘In India you are children went to the street outside his as well as the tycoon Ratan Tata were free to poison, rob and kill our people. office. They lay on the ground and urging Dow’s case. The government will protect you. draped themselves in white shrouds. The Bhopalis drew blood from You will never be brought to book.’ Each of the thirty-four ‘corpses’ their arms and a girl wrote a letter in On the pavement discussion was outside Manmohan Singh’s windows blood to the PM. There was no reply. about the Prime Minister. represented more than 700 dead. Delhi citizens rallied in support ‘We are the same age as the Prime Soon the police were there among of the Bhopalis. Sixty international Minister’s grandchildren,’ said a girl. them. The photographs show burly organisations from five continents ‘Would he let them drink poisoned men in khaki with stomachs bulging wrote urging the PM to accede to the water or leave them sitting on a hot over their belts. The women and kids Bhopalis’ demands for clean water pavement for months?’ were hustled off the ground and and justice. 280 lawyers including ‘This time we’ll would not leave shoved about. ‘Rip the clothes off ex-judges wrote saying that to grant with empty promises. these darkies,’ one man shouted. Dow immunity would be illegal and ‘We said that last time,’ someone In the lock-up the policemen unconstitutional. observes. ‘How do you make a Prime began laying about them with fists Another month passed. Minister keep his promises?’ and a belt. A weighty blow caught a The night of May 17 was stormy. In 2006, after a month in the street six-year-old girl in the face. and a five-day hunger strike, ‘Why did they beat us?’ asked the the survivors had finally met child. ‘Didn’t you say that we are just the Prime Minister and asked doing what Gandhiji used to do.’ for these things: Support the Said her mother, ‘It means the survivors campaign. Clean up government is afraid of us. Gandhiji the toxic waste at the plant. would have been here in jail with us.’ Give water to the communities In the darkness of her second whose water it has poisoned. prison cell the child’s voice spoke to Take legal action against Dow the doll. ‘Poor Gandhiji, it’s better he Chemical which owns Union is not alive to see these things.’ 156 THE BHOPAL MARATHON ‘Why do these people torment us?’

India’s Environment Minister poses with rock python before visiting Carbide’s site, picking up a fistful of soil, saying ‘I’m alive, so it must be safe’.

Babu Lal Gaur is a much-reviled man in the settlements surrounding the derelict Union Carbide factory. ‘If betrayal had a human face, it would be Gaur's,’ says Hazra Bee, a gas victim, and veteran of two 500- mile marches for justice from Bhopal Environment to New Delhi. ‘As Minister of Gas Minister Jairam Relief and Rehabilitation, Gaur has Ramesh visits done nothing to help me, my son or Bhopal, Sept 2008 others in our situation. But he works to let Union Carbide and Dow get away.’ Now 54, Hazra Bee finds it hard to keep from crying when she talks about her son. Twenty-five years ago, times the national average,’ says Mr governmental studies confirm the she carried her four-year-old son as Satinath Sarangi, a long-time Bhopal presence of Carbide's poisons in the she fled the poison cloud. Now 29, social worker and founder of the free water used by thousands of people.3 Mansoor has severely compromised Sambhavna Clinic. ‘Gaur knew all The only reports that found no lungs and cannot do strenuous work. about Carbide's toxic contamination groundwater contamination were ‘As a child, he was susceptible to before the disaster.’ made for Carbide in 1990 and 1997 frequent coughs and ruptured an A lawyer, Gaur had negotiated a by NEERI (National Environmental eardrum during a coughing fit. The 1982 settlement between Carbide and Engineering Research Institute). ear was operated on, but pus still farmers whose buffaloes died after Gaur now says that groundwater flows from time to time,’ his mother drinking Carbide's effluents.1 contamination in the area was caused says. ‘I pray to Allah that no mother In 2004, after Gaur's right-wing by ‘the oil depots of petrol, diesel and goes through the torture Bhopali Hindu party won the state elections, kerosene near the area,’ not by Union women have experienced.’ he told the Christian Science Monitor: Carbide.4 Survivors charge that Many will. Toxins leaching from ‘Our state pollution control board in NEERI's reports, and protestations Carbide’s factory have been linked to December confirms contamination by Gaur and other politicians, are congenital disorders, damaged births of the groundwater.’ He blamed the part of a campaign to divert attention and brain damage. defeated Congress Party for keeping from the contamination issue, and to ‘A pilot house-to-house study we the studies under wraps. ‘The new deflect corporate liability. did found that birth defects in areas government wants Dow to clean up.’2 Says Syed M. Irfan of the Bhopal where the water is Today Gaur denies the presence of Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangarsh contaminated are contaminants in soil or groundwater, Morcha. ‘Both the central and state 2009 occurring at many but at least 13 governmental and non- governments hope to use the 25th WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 157 anniversary to bury the disaster and Establishment and Dr T Chakrabarti Technical subcommittee of the High pending liabilities. This is what Dow of NEERI. Places laid for the Chief Court's Task Force set up to advise wants. Rather than clean up the site, Minister, senior bureaucrats and Mr. on the technicalities of remediating it is trying to clean up its image Babu Lal Gaur remained predictably the Union Carbide site. He was never through deceit and denial.’ vacant. consulted on the decision to throw It’s toxic, it’s untoxic ‘The faux banquet is Bhopal's the factory open. comical, cynical response to scientific Watered down In September 2008 India's flashy skullduggery,’ said Rachna Dhingra, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh one of the buffet organizers. ‘This In August 2005, Hazra Bee went demonstrated his flair for publicity was our way of taking a dig at the with several women exposed to the stunts by posing in sunglasses with a scoundrels that are masquerading as contaminated water to Gaur's office. python to dispel fears that snakes are scientists,’ she added, referring to the In a ritual that commits brothers dangerous. That same day, he entered support from heads of high-profile to protect for their sisters, she tied a the Carbide factory and handled toxic scientific institutions for the State rakhi around the minister's wrist. material. ‘I’m alive,’ he told the aston- Government's decision to throw the ‘Brother, won't you give us water?’ ished press. ‘I am not coughing.’5 dangerous site open to the public. He happily posed for photographs. Irate Bhopalis burnt him in effigy, Some months later Gaur’s ‘sisters’ prompting an unconditional apology. There will not be any death visited him to ask him to keep his Not to be outdone, Gaur declared ‘For a 70kg man, there will not be word. He called the police who beat that he would throw open the factory any death even if he takes 200gm [of up the women and charged Bee and gates for 15 days leading up to the toxic wastes stored inside Carbide's ten others with armed robbery. 25th anniversary to let people see for premises] by oral route,’ wrote Dr. A Supreme Court order of May themselves how safe the site was.6 Vijayaraghavan of DRDE.8 Plans to 2004 directing the state government Public protests kept it closed but open the factory site for public visits, to provide safe water to the poisoned Gaur vowed to open it anyway and he wrote in an official opinion, would people still lies unimplemented. keep it open forever. His boss the not cause ‘any untoward, adverse or Eight Prime Ministers, 13 hunger chief minister declared the site ‘100 toxic effect to the public.’ strikes, 1,130 demonstrations, and a percent safe’. In a November 2009 letter to the 1,500 mile-long march to Delhi later, ‘The toxic waste is lying for years, Government of Madhya Pradesh, this essential item has remained as and the toxicity, if there was any, has Dr. Chakrabarti, acting director of elusive as Union Carbide itself. been washed away during the last so NEERI, testified, ‘I have visited the ‘For all of our struggle and all the many years,’ he told Business Standard site umpteen number of times without indignities we have suffered at the and, in what must have been music to experiencing any health problem.’9 hands of government and police, we Dow's ears, added, ‘We will not allow The government presented both have got the [Union] government to Dow to even enter the factory [to do letters as scientific opinions to the state allocate ($2.8 million for water,’ says a cleanup].’7 High Court to seek permission to Bee. ‘A third of us now get clean open the site. The court acquiesced. piped water from time to time.’ Science for sale ‘These two letters are completely ‘Caste and religion play a big role To mark the 25th anniversary of useless,’ opines Dr. P.M. Bhargava, an in explaining why [most] Bhopalis the disaster, Bhopal survivor groups internationally respected chemist and have not yet got clean water,’ says served up a feast of ‘toxic delicacies’ molecular biologist. A former vice- Dhingra. Some 80% of the residents like Semi-processed pesticide on chairman of the prestigious National of the 14 contamination-affected watercress; Naphthol tar fondue; Knowledge Commission, he is rueful areas are either indigent Muslims or Sevin tar souffle; Reactor residue about the quality of Indian scientists. Dalits belonging to the lowest rungs quiche; and Lime sludge mousse. All ‘How corrupt our institutions can of India's oppressive caste hierarchy. served with a complimentary bottle be. Anybody can make any statement. ‘The state's right-wing pro-Hindu of B'eau Pal water. ‘Your appetite Where are the data? How did they BJP is hell-bent on diverting the will contribute to a cleaner Bhopal,’ test? What did they test for? All the [Union government's] allocation to the invitees were told. The chef and other studies indicate that the site is provide water [to our communities] sous-chef were two distinguished completely unsafe. I wouldn't put to 22 additional areas which are of scientists, Dr R Vijayaraghavan from my foot on the ground.’ predominantly upper caste Hindus,’ the Defence Research Development Bhargava is also a member of a explains Dhingra. 158 THE BHOPAL MARATHON Collecting and adding to knowledge &

The Sambhavna Clinic Library and Documentation Centre holds the world’s largest collection of primary source material and archives on the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal. We add to this knowledge by conducting medical and social research studies. All are freely available to students and researchers.

The Sambhavna Clinic’s Library and Documentation Centre holds the world’s largest collection of archives on the . Our documentation unit searches out, collates and distributes medical, social and legal information covering all aspects of the disaster. The source archive contains thousands of news- paper articles going back to the gas leak.There are many medical studies and references that cannot be found elsewhere, plus unique photographs, videos, DVDs, CDs, documents, campaign literature and educational material. All information is available free to survivors, researchers, the mediaand others. Possibly, this is the only public repository of documents government initiatives to document was approved, other issues involving of its kind. As the disaster continues, the continuing disaster are rare. ownership structure, finance, design, it is a work in progress. engineering, technology, management After nearly three decades, all the A ball of entangled issues and labour relations all played their interrelated issues: political, legal, The story of the ongoing effects parts in brewing a catastrophe. technical, chemical, medical, social, of Union Carbide’s disaster in Bhopal Historians of the disaster must environmental and managerial, are so is rooted in international, national understand the Indian subsidiary’s entangled that unravelling the story and local trade and politics; in India’s relations with its US parent, decision- virtually requires a PhD. need to feed its huge population and making in the Union Carbide group, Much source material on the 1984 the US multinational’s desire to ex- lack of maintenance, cost-cutting, Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal pand its commercial empire. and an endemic disregard for safety. and its aftermath is lost, unavailable The causes of the disaster can be (There had been several gas leaks, or classified. A large part of what is traced back almost forty years to the some fatal, prior to 1984.) available remains privy to a tightly- decision to turn Carbide’s Bhopal With the huge gas leak of 1984 the knit circle of bureaucrats, scientists, pesticides-formulation plant into a subject acquired a new medical and medical researchers and academics. manufacturing facility, and to begin social dimension and immediately Union Carbide & Dow Chemical making lethal MIC, an ingredient in began to sprout lawsuits and legal to this day withhold information on carbaryl-based pesticides, on the site. stand-offs. Not till 1999, a year after the composition of the gas cloud, Worries about conducting such a Carbide had abandoned its factory hindering efforts to treat survivors. hazardous activity at the edge of a site full of toxic waste and fled India Government efforts to collect and densely populated city created from was it clear that a second disaster was share health data the outset arguments about safety, unfolding as the drinking water of are almost non- risk assessment, town planning and some 40,000 people was poisoned 2009 existent and non- infrastructure. Once the MIC project by wastes left in and around the site. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 159 sharing it freely with everyone who asks

Research Studies 1999 - present THE MAGNITUDE OF THE HEALTH DISASTER in Bhopal demands research into the effects of exposure, 1999 - Effects of Yoga on respiratory disorders to develop appropriate ways to detect and treat illness. related to the 1984 Union Carbide Gas Disaster Twenty-two studies begun by the Indian Council of Population: 30 gas exposed persons with respiratory disorders Medical Research had begun were abruptly terminated Parameters: Spirometry values, pulse and respiratory rates in1994 on the grounds that the crisis was over. But as the Finding: Yoga can lead to a sustained improvement in lung function of persons with chronic respiratory problems ruinous illness of the survivors showed, it had hardly Outcome: Yoga instructors trained by Sambhavna Trust are now begun. Following years of pressure from survivors’ providing care in two government hospitals groups, the studies were resumed, but in the intervening years thousands died and a unique 2001-Effect of parental exposure on children opportunity was squandered. Population: 141 children of exposed and unexposed parents Parameters: Anthropomorphic values Sambhavna is committed Finding: Male children of exposed parents are thinner and lighter to carrying out meticulous, with a smaller cranial circumference compared to male children well documented, peer- of unexposed parents. Outcome: Published in Journal of the American Medical Assocation reviewed epidemiological and medical research to 2006 - Follow-up of persons exposed benefit the survivors of the to toxic gas in-utero gas and contamined water. Population: 141 children of exposed and unexposed parents Given the lack of interest Parameters: Anthropomorphic values, Tanner stage Finding: Early stunting among male children of exposed parents from Indian politicians and is followed by a catch-up growth. continuing refusal of Dow & Outcome: Publication in Journal of the Federation of American Union Carbide to share medical Societies for Experimental Biology information, this work is 2007 - Study of offspring of gas exposed parents trebly important. and their younger and older siblings Population: 262 offspring of parents exposed and unexposed Shakeel (then 15) to toxic gases and their siblings. took part in the Parameters: Anthropomorphic values, Tanner stage, hormone assays. Outcome: Publication awaited 2001 study. There’s a good 2007 - Anaemia in communities exposed and interview unexposed to contaminated ground water with him on Population: 300 adults exposed and 303 adults unexposed bhopal.org to contaminated ground water Parameters: Haemoglobin levels Finding: Average Hb concentration of men exposed to contaminated groundwater was shown to be almost 1g/dL lower than that of men with access to clean water Outcome: Publication awaited

2008 - Comparative efficacy of Yoga therapy in treatment of Dysmenorrhoea of women exposed to contaminated ground water Population: 60 women with Dysmenorrhoea Parameters: Menstrual pattern, Severity of pain Findings & Outcome: Ongoing

2009 to present - Survey of diagnosed cancers and birth defects in gas- and contamination-exposed Population: 100,000 persons exposed to gas, 25, 000 persons exposed to contaminated water Parameters: Diagnosis of cancer, birth defects Findings & Outcome: Ongoing 160 THE BHOPAL MARATHON Dear Mrs Bano, in respect of your 26__ years of serious illness, the loss of your eyesight and1 __6 members of your family, you are hereby awarded compensation of

On June 7, 2010, in the 23-year long criminal trial eight Indian officials of Union Carbide India were found guilty. They were each fined Rs 1 lakh (about £1,150), sentenced to 2 years in jail, and immediately freed on bail.1 If all the fines were theoretically divided among the 512,000 survivors who had received meagre compensation (see p.107) it would come to Rs. 1.75 or just over 2p each. The US accused did not appear and the judge ordered proceedings against them to be continued.2 Indian media and public reacted to the verdict with rage. India’s Law Minister described it as ‘justice buried’3 and a scared government said it would file a ‘curative petition’ to reopen the 1989 settlement.

Journalist Rajkumar Keswani, whose Investigation) went on TV to say that was defeated only after a worldwide articles seeking to warn the city of the investigators had been told by the hunger strike in 2002). It now came impending disaster (see pp. 32-35) had Ministry of External Affairs to go out that he was the same Justice who been ignored, went to the court to slow on Anderson’s extradition.4 in 1994 had been talked by Sir Ian hear the verdicts pronounced. Nestled among the 1,500 articles Percival (see p. 100) into allowing the Police would not let anyone but universally decrying the mockery of sale of Carbide’s attached shares to the accused inside. Keswani watched justice were one or two curiosities. build a hospital. Bhopal survivors the accused arrive – and leave again . Robert Blake, a spokesman of the had warned this would allow Carbide ‘They had come,’ he wrote, ‘with Obama administration hoped ‘this to escape India. All now remembered return tickets in their pockets.’ verdict helps to bring some closure that exactly this had been the result. The anger and disbelief surfacing to the victims and their families’.5 Ahmadi had been rewarded with in the media was reminiscient of the Outside the court, gas survivors the Chairmanship of the Carbide- furore that followed the infamous had wept at what they saw as contempt funded hospital – public anger now 1989 settlement. The judgement was for their lost loved ones. Hamida Bee forced him to resign. described as ‘a travesty’, why had the said, ‘Nobody knows how we suffered The Prime Minister appointed a Americans got away scot free. Who experiencing death so closely every Group of Ministers (GoM) to look had released Anderson and allowed day … the rich and influential have into filing a ‘curative petition’. The him to leave the country? Why had he wronged us. We lost our lives and GoM was headed by Home Minister and Union Carbide Corporation not they can't spend a day in jail?’ Chidambaram, ex-corporate lawyer been pursued? TV stations carried an The media’s rage swirled around who had once represented Enron and endless stream of interviews with ex- ex-Supreme Court Justice Ahmadi, included minister Kamal Nath, both officials eager to excuse themselves. whose two-man bench in 1996 diluted active Dow supporters (see p. 155).7 B.R. Lal, a former the criminal charges against the Indian Cynical Bhopal survivors said it Director of the CBI accused (the CBI’s attempt to extend was mere public relations, a balm for 2010 (Central Bureau of this dilution to the foreign accused the nation’s ire and wounded pride. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 161 ‘I won’t pay a penny to Bhopal victims’ Thanks to Shobhan Saxena for letting us use this piece from his column in The Times of India

Because the line between democracy heart of Bhopal, paid no attention to – On February 2, 2008, the Ministry and manipulation is very thin, at its maintenance, ignored warnings of Law told the Prime Minister that times it becomes blurred. Today, it about gas leakage, cut funds and staff irrespective of the manner in which dissolved completely as the Group of at the cost of safety and gave itself a Union Carbide (US) has merged or Ministers (GoM) recommended a clean chit as bodies were piling up at has been acquired by Dow Chemical, number of steps to cool public anger the cremation grounds and grave- if there is any legal liability it would over last week’s ridiculous judgment yards of Bhopal in December 1984. have to be borne by Dow Chemical.’ in the Bhopal gas disaster case. So, when poor Indians die by the acts So why on earth should we pay for The reported recommendations of a rich American corporation it’s the crime of Union Carbide? Why are: Compensation of Rs 10 lakh for poor Indians who bear the burden of should UC officials — in India and the families of those killed in this destruction. And the government US — be allowed to go scot-free? crime; Rs 5 lakh for those crippled pretends that it cares for the people. The Bhopal case is not just about for life; and Rs 3 lakh for people with It seems the government of this compensation and money. It’s also partial disability. As for cleaning up country is more loyal to American about justice. It’s also about all the tons of toxic waste buried at the Union corporations than the people of this liability issues that may arise in the Carbide plant in Bhopal, the GoM is poor, wretched country. What could future. Today, Chidambaram’s GoM believed to have recommended that be the reasons? Does the government has told foreign MNCs – come here, the Madhya Pradesh government fear that prosecuting US companies mint money, exploit people, kill them would do the dirty job with financial will vitiate the investment climate? if you wish and we guarantee that you help from the Centre. On the issue of Or is it because Dow Chemicals is will have no liabilities – financial, Warren Anderson, ministers will make said to have paid enough money in legal and criminal. a ‘valiant attempt’ to get the criminal- bribes to powerful people in India to This is a slap on the face of all in-chief extradited from US to India. make sure that it doesn’t have to pay those people who have been fighting If the recent Bhopal judgment any compensation. for justice for Bhopal for the past 26 was shameful these recommendations The US Securities and Exchange years. It’s an insult to the memory of are outrageous. Now, the betrayal of Commission punished Dow Chemical those who lost their lives in this Bhopal, and India, is complete. under the Foreign Corrupt Practices crime. It’s also an insult to those poor With ministers planning to set Act for paying $200,000 in bribes to people who have knocked at the aside Rs 1,500 crore to compensate Indian ministry officials to fast-track doors of the government, judiciary Bhopal victims – 25,000 dead and the registration of their controversial and big corporations in order to get 500,000 crippled, two generations pesticide Dursban (which it sells for justice. It’s a challenge to those of us poisoned forever – it’s now clear that residential use in India though it is who still believe in the idea of India the money will be taken from Indian banned in America).’ Dow got out of despite the travesty of justice in this taxpayers’ pockets. The money for this trouble by paying $325,000 as a country everyday. cleaning up toxic chemicals which penalty to the American SEC. The The money for compensation and have been poisoning Bhopal’s air, government of this country is silent clean up Union Carbide’s plant must soil, water and even the city’s soul, on this bribery issue, as on various come from Dow Chemical. will also come from our pockets. The commitments it made to courts and I don’t want to pay one penny to Home Minister P Chidambaram-led people of this country: Bhopal victims from my pocket. I am GoM has given a clean chit to Union – On June 28th, 2004, the Indian no penny-pincher, but I refuse to be Carbide and its new owner Dow government wrote to a New York part of this second gas attack on the Chemical. Now, these corporations court that as per the ‘polluter pays’ people of Bhopal. I refuse to be part don’t have to worry about paying any principle recognized by both the US of a charade in the name money to the victims of the world’s and India ‘Union Carbide should bear of democracy, which worst ever industrial accident, which all of the financial burden and cost is being reduced to happened because the Union Carbide for the purpose of environmental manipulating people’s dumped outdated technology in the clean-up and remediation.’ emotions in this country. 162 THE BHOPAL MARATHON December 3, 2011. Stop the trains!

‘Secret’ minutes of the Group of Ministers meeting of 18-21 June 2010 obtained by survivors revealed that the government’s ‘curative petition’ would massively downplay its own official death and injury figures (quoting 5295 deaths instead of 22917, 4902 permanently disabled instead of 508,432) and use the same unjust injury categories as before1 (see pp. 54-57). The survivors asked the government to act honestly, present the correct figures and amend the flawed categorisation system which excluded 93% of victims, many seriously ill.2 Ministers did not respond. In June 2011 one hundred Bhopali children stood with banners outside the PM’s office. In July the survivors wrote him a letter. Further letters went to officials in October and November. None got a reply. On 17 October the survivors warned officials that on the 27th anniversary of the gas leak they would stage a peaceful ‘rail roko’– that is, they would lie on the railway tracks to stop the trains. No response. Here are two accounts of what happened.

cops and put into the police vehicle. I continued to sit and so did everyone and when police asked us to leave we told them that we wouldn’t until our demands were met. Then all I could hear was sound of lathis (bamboo poles) and women around me being beaten up. I also got hit twice. A lot of women were running and I started to run with them but then I fell. There was massive stone pelting from both sides. I cannot remember much, but I do remember that two young boys took me to an emergency vehicle. Inside were 3 policemen. The nurse dressed me up and asked me to go. I could barely see. Both my eyes were swollen. I was in intense pain. I started to walk and covered one the women from my neighbourhood eye with one hand as it hurt too much MEENA, 40 and we were also listening to slogan to keep it open. Then I saw a woman At around 10:30 am about 45 women chanting happening on the PA system. I know and called her. She hardly from my neighbourhood left to join Then police started asking us to recognised me and she brought me the Rail Roko. We reached the tracks leave the tracks and started dragging back home in an auto-rickshaw. at 11:20 am. There were many women one of the women who was wearing I have been so scared of the police already lying on the railway lines and blue clothes. They were dragging her that I did not go to the government we also lay down on the tracks. I was into the police vehicle and while she hospital to get any treatment. I can surrounded by lots of women. All the was being dragged one of the police barely afford the private doctor but I men were sitting women kicked her as well. have been paying him Rs 200 to come beside the track. I I saw a young girl in black clothes and visit the house every day so that 2011 was sitting with pulled and dragged by two female he can give me injections for pain. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 163

that my mother’s head was bleeding and I had a black eye and swelling on my face. Then the police sent me to the emergency vehicle for dressing of my wounds. I received two stitches on my head and I was asked to go home. We must have reached home by 3:30 pm and for next two days we did not go to the government hospital. We have been scared that police are going to come pick us up and will take us to jail. We have been reading in the newspapers that police have filed charges against 1,500 people and they have been picking up men from their houses at night. We didn’t do anything to deserve such treatment. We had just gone to MULLO BAI, 65, & HER out as she is very old and it would be ask for our rights and we sat on the hard for her to run. tracks peacefully. I did not even think MOTHER JAMVATI, 82 I grabbed my mother’s hand and that police would beat us so brutally. My mother and I went with 18 other then my mother was hit by a police women from our neighbourhood to lathi on her head. She fell down and FALSE CHARGES take part in the rail roko. At 11:00 am she was bleeding profusely. Her sari The police charged 35 named and we all reached Barkhedi crossing. We was covered with blood. There was 2,000 unnamed gas survivors with a sat on the tracks for almost an hour so much blood and it seemed like list of crimes including attempted and there were thousands of people someone had slaughtered a goat. murder. Several old ladies aged over all around us. We were all shouting Then three men came and they 80 and suffering from severe health slogans. There were lots of police picked up my mother, gave her some problems were accused of violently and then a few female police started water and put us in an auto. I took rioting using swords and country- dragging women towards the blue her to the nearest private hospital made guns. police truck. (Mansi Hospital) and she got eight The rail-roko, in which 20,000 When police started dragging the stitches. The hospital asked me for people took place at six locations in women two men pleaded with them Rs 200 and I told them I had no Bhopal, went off peacefully except at not to drag women like that. The money to pay them. I was so afraid the Barkhedi crossing, where police cops did not listen to anyone and that if my mother’s injuries were not launched their lathi-attack on the old must have dragged 3-4 women into attended to she just might die from ladies and men tried to protect them. the police vehicle. Then I saw total excessive bleeding. The Chief Minister of Madhya chaos break loose. There must have This hospital is situated on the Pradesh is now supporting the gas been 100 cops with lathis who just main road and when we got out I saw victim’s demand for correct figures started to beat up women. They did many policemen running on the to be used in the ‘curative petition’. not bother to look at who they were streets chasing men, even women, hitting they continued with lathis with sticks. I pleaded with them to and whoever came in their way got stop their violence. I asked them if hurt. they would kill us today by beating During all of this one of the police us. Then two policemen who were lathis hit me in my right eye and then blocking our way let both of us leave. came the second lathi which hit me in After walking 20 steps we were the back of my head. I saw blood stopped by more policemen and they coming out I realised that I had to asked what had happened to us. I leave and also had to get my mother told them it was due to their lathis 164 THE BHOPAL MARATHON ‘Justice in a world of demon rulers’

Salim’s tea shop in a backstreet of the Old City, is a favourite place for discussions of all kinds over a glass of Bhopal’s famous chai (sweet with a pinch of salt). Salim takes a dig at a rival as he explains to his friends the secret of acquiring a kampani’s assets without its liabilities.

‘Let me put it this way,’ says Salim, ‘Listen and you may learn. Malik ‘No! Because Malik Tea Shop and pouring four glasses of “cutting tea” is not an idiot. He knows that I am Salim Best Chai are totally separate from his old blackened kettle. ‘If I personally responsible for allowing concerns. Lacking nexus totally, I am serve you this chai knowing that rat poisoned food to be sold. But I will telling. Ask Malik and he will say, poison has leaked into it, then am I or be far away. He also knows that when “this is not a matter for Malik Tea am I not responsible for your deaths?’ people can’t find me they will come Shop. It is for Salim Best Chai to ‘You would be,’ says Shekhar. ‘Let after him, so he has a special plan. Its respond. Kindly ask them.”’ us hope it is a theoretical example.’ name’ – he pauses for full dramatic ‘Malik can say what he likes, but ‘And if my poha and jalebis are effect – ‘is reverse-triangle-merger…’ there is no them, only him. Explain – also contaminated, but I send them to ‘You see,’ says Salim, having got there is another bus I can catch.’ a wedding feast, will it be my fault if the reaction he wanted, ‘Malik dares ‘The secret’ says Salim, ‘is to use all the guests are taken ill?’ not simply buy my business because the bit of paper called reverse triangle ‘Of course. It is your duty to make then its difficulties will become his. merger. It says you can own a business sure that you serve only clean food.’ But with reverse-triangle-merger all without taking its liabilities. Any ‘So then,’ says Salim, ‘let’s say a such problems vanish.’ other paper would be useless.’ crowd gathers calling for my head. ‘What? Are we talking of magic?’ ‘How should it be possible,’ asks What refuge do I have?’ ‘We are talking of total brilliance. Gangu, ‘that a kampani hurts people, ‘You rascal,’ says Zubair. ‘We will Malik does not buy my business. He kills their families and poisons their find you wherever you hide.’ starts a new one called Faltu Services.’ grandchildren, but can escape justice ‘Brother, you’re wrong. I’ll easily ‘Why Faltu?’ by selling itself to another kampani escape. I’ll go next door to Malik and ‘Name doesn’t matter. Faltu owns and signing a paper? Who cares what say to him, “Malik, do you have some nothing and makes nothing. In fact it the paper says, by what right does it cash lying spare?” “Why?” he will ask. does nothing, it’s just a name.’ wipe away our tears and blood? ’ Then I will say, “Everyone knows my ‘A good name for such a business.’ ‘It’s an Amrikan paper. It must be chai is better than yours. I am off to ‘Malik is 100% owner of Malik powerful because if you ask Prime my ancestral place and thought that Tea Shop which owns Faltu 100%. Minister Manmohan and President maybe you’d like to buy me out.”’ Faltu merges with Salim Best Chai Obama and Premier David Cameron ‘Wait, wait!’ says Shekhar. ‘Does getting 100% ownership, in return I and Mr Lord Coe not to let Malik he know of your troubles?’ get a small share of Malik Tea Shop.’ sell his chai at the Olympic Games, ‘Really, Shekhar babu. Don’t be ‘So now you and Malik are one.’ they will all express sorrow for your silly. Is anything secret in this town?’ ‘In your eyes. But technically no. terrible trazdi, tell you they remember ‘So then he will not buy.’ Because here is the best and cleverest where they were when they heard the ‘On the contrary, he is keen.’ bit. Faltu Services dissolves. It no news, and their grannies are Indian, ‘He must be a fool,’ says Gangu. longer exists and this leaves Salim but mainly that Malik Tea Shop is a ‘Not at all, he’s smarter than you. Best Chai fully owned by Malik.’ reputable company, nothing at all to He plans to close my shop and take ‘You are personally responsible!’ do with Salim Best Chai.’ all assets, utensils, plus this excellent ‘Catch first then prosecute. I am ‘Who will help us? How can we samadan as his own.’ long gone and Dilli dûr ast.’ defeat such injustice?’ we ask. ‘Salim, says Shekhar, ‘my bus leaves ‘What’s so clever?’ asks Shekhar. ‘My friends, the rich rule and the in five minutes. if you have any kind ‘If Salim Best Chai is fully owned by poor drink their chai Bhopali-style – of point to make, I Malik, surely Malik must compensate salted with tears – and this is justice request you make it us whom Salim Best Chai poisoned in a world of demon rulers.’ 2012 snappy. And oblige. ’ and pay our medical bills.’ ` WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 165

December 3, 2007, Bhopal survivors burn an effigy representing the lords of misrule 166 THE BHOPAL MARATHON Sachin’s poem neither friend nor enemy I have, nor fear of dying, nor wish to live

seems that while god gave me life he made me forget how to walk

sure, he gave me a body, but forgot to fill it up with life

I myself have now forgotten whether I’m alive or if I have died

when misery is taken to be happiness and happiness sorrow, this we call everyday life

when pain dissolves in laughter, this is called Chingari

the love shown by Apa and Didi and all the folk at Chingari has taught me to love my life Sachin

As Dow Chemical profits from its Olympic association with health, strength, fitness and games, we think of Bhopal’s damaged children, those who can’t play games, whose childhoods have been stolen from them. The pictures and stories that flow from Chingari inspire us all. Sachin’s poem tells of how bitter life can seem to a child born damaged and how joyful it can become.

Sitting in Sussex, thinking of Sachin, little – when he first came to Chingari first lines of this poem, sent to me by I see him always with a grin stretched – you see a solemn little lad, not very Chingari’s tireless Tabish. But in the right across his face. This is the way sure of himself. These were the first last lines perhaps lay the clue to the he is these days in the photos that pictures I ever saw: our cover shot by change in those photographs. come to us from Chingari. French photographer Micha Patault, Something amazing is going on at Usually he is carrying a bat, but he and a picture of him batting taken by Chingari, as it has also at Sambhavna always did. I’ve known him for years Maude Dorr. (see the article on pp. 74-75). and think of him as a friend, without As Sachin grew, so did his smile. When Sachin wrote of the love once having met him as I have not Look at the picture by Nino Ellison shown by Apa (Rashida Bee) and been to Bhopal for a while. If you on the facing page. He’s now 16, and Didi (Champadevi Shukla) and, as look at pictures of a happier lad it hardly seems possible he says, all the folk at Chingari, I knew 2012 Sachin when he was to find. So it was startling to read the he meant it, because I have felt it too. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 167

of sight. Often the only love a child A child grows to love his has known will be the arms of its mum, and she has other children and a house, and all the other problems life: the secret of Chingari that make a woman’s life in Bhopal I talk to Tabish most days, I suppose, talk. He could say ‘pa pa pa’. Didi so particularly hard. and he is always full of stories of this said Abdullah had eaten four bowls of Chingari’s reputation is spreading, or that child, and what they’ve been rice pudding at Chingari that day. we have more than once instance now up to: ‘Shyam Babu saw me and said, For parents who often have had to of a Bhopali child being taken to a Tabish, you look stupid in glasses. watch their children go hungry as physiotherapy centre in or Don’t wear them.’ there is no food and no money to buy Delhi to be told, ‘you know the best The patience of the staff during any, Chingari’s nutrition programme place for your child is the Chingari the recent sports day was evident in is a godsend. Every day they get a clinic in Bhopal.’ the hundreds of pictures that came in. different meal. So far rice pudding I decided to ask Apa and Didi Although some of the children had and fruit seems to be the favourite. what in their view makes Chingari struggled, all wanted to take part and What is most striking about the special. Didi said, ‘My eldest boy was did, and every single one won a prize, tales one hears from people who have constantly in distress because his and this wasn’t an empty symbolic worked in Chingari, from volunteers lungs had been badly affected…’ She gesture since every one of them had and photographers like Alex Masi stopped and said, ‘but it isn’t that.’ done their best and deserved a prize. (see pp 172-3) is how much the kids Apa said, ‘It’s when a child comes, Play and games are an essential like going there. like Ayaan, who couldn’t speak or part of childhood, vital to children’s Damaged children, especially ones walk and he comes smiling to greet physical, intellectual and emotional with speech problems or difficulty you and your heart just lights up.’ development, but for many Bhopali moving, frequently find themselves ‘Yes,’ said Didi. ‘That’s it. What kids, playing games is something in a lonely world where they have no can you call it? Well, I suppose… I they can only dream of. friends and are painfully aware that suppose the word is mohobbat.’ Abdullah’s father came to thank they are in some way a problem, or ‘Prem,’ Apa agreed. ‘Yes that’s it.’ Chingari and told Didi how pleased even a shame. Some families, naming Two words, both meaning exactly he was that the boy had started to no names, keep disabled children out the same thing – which is love. 168 THE BHOPAL MARATHON When Sachin goes in to bat

Nowhere, not at Lords nor any Indian ground, is there a better game of cricket to be seen than those played in the green and pleasant corridors of the Chingari Trust, where children who cannot stand bat and bowl with elan and scrupulous fairness.

SACHIN, HE-OF-THE-BAT, IS 16. bowler, tapping the heel of his bat, When he grows up he wants to be a lifting it ready to strike. That’s how professional cricketer. Sachin Tendulkar does it. For Sachin Zaid – here bowling – is 10. He Yadav it’s not so easy. plans to study to be an ear-specialist. ‘Sachin! Sachin!’ his friends do He will have a house, one with a big indeed shout as he hobbles out to the garage so he can keep a car and give crease leaning on his bat, but if he his granny and granddad rides. lifted the bat he’d fall. Sachin’s mother was exposed to Our Sachin can’t stand unaided. Carbide’s gases. He and Zaid both His legs don’t work So he settles on come from areas where the water is the ground and takes his line from a contaminated and many children are notional leg stump. All too easy for a born physically or mentally damaged. fellow who can’t move his legs to be Both lads come daily to the out lbw. Chingari Trust Rehabilitation Centre Sachin’s bespoke bat where, between physiotherapy and lessons, they engage in spirited Sachin loves to quote a line he games of cricket. heard once on the radio, ‘The Indian A tale of two Sachins team without Sachin is like a kiss without a squeeze.’ Every Indian lad dreams of As befits a serious batsman – being cheered to the wicket, taking and the namesake of the world’s top his stumps, turning to frown at the scorer – his bat was specially made

2012 WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 169

for him, carved by his grandfather ‘Well, I don’t,’ says Zaid. ‘I like from a piece of pine. It is slim, light to bat, bat, bat. I don’t want to be out.’ enough to be wielded with one hand. Zaid’s hero is West Indies & Its blade is extra long so Sachin can Royal Challenger Bangalore batting reach balls tipping outside the off- ace Chris Gayle, and wielding the stump and bouncers flying over his willow is his deepest love. head. In particular it enables him to This small person is the most take a line well outside the leg-stump determined batsman we have ever and so avoid any possibility of being known. In vain does his great pal out leg before. Sachin chuck down yorkers, 0ff- breaks and doosras. Be he caught, Bowling a wrong ‘un lbw, clean bowled, or (notionally) Zaid, gallantly bowling because stumped, Zaid is never out. it is Sachin’s turn to bat, has issues of ‘I never get out,’ says Zaid. his own. ‘He doesn’t,’ says his mother, ‘ Zaid has scoliosis of the spine. because if he gets out he cries.’ We met him two years ago, after a badly botched operation on his spine Zaid’s operation had left him unable to stand. Zaid has not taken the field for a Now he crouches on the floor while as in April he had corrective planning his attack. surgery on his back (we footed the Fast bowling is not an option bill) and is recuperating at home. when you’re effectively 18 inches We go round to see him every high, and leg-spinning is impossible few days. Last time we found him when your wrists, like all your other able to sit upright and swing his legs. joints, are painfully swollen. He can stand with help. His legs are wobbly, he has a way to go, but the Just wouldn’t be cricket outlook is hopeful. Zaid bowls again. Sachin strokes Zaid was cheerful, excited about it powerfully to the leg boundary, his new baby sister. He had watched which for the nonce is Physiotherapy every match of the Indian Premier Room Two. League cricket championship and ‘Shot sir!’ cries Zaid sportingly. gave as his opinion that, despite a few The boys pick up these English stumbles, Bangalore would triumph. phrases from the TV and the green corridor echoes to cries of ‘Cow The spirit of fair play shot!’ and ‘Sixer!’ Sachin and Zaid have no illusions Balls ricochet wildly round the about the difficulties of their lives corridor, thumping on doors behind (see Sachin’s poem on p. 166) and are de- which Mahima and Ayaan, 7 and 8, termined not to be defeated. both born with cerebral palsy, are ‘People ask if I’ll play in cricket learning to recognise and say letters. matches for Special children,’ says ‘Well bowled!’ cries Sachin. Sachin. ‘Yes, but what I really want is This last when Zaid delivers a to play normal cricket and to earn ball that catches the great batsman on fame like Sachin.’ He pauses. ‘Or the knee. ‘Owzee?! Out! Out!’ maybe being myself Sachin, I should Given that Sachin is unable to say Dhoni.’ These boys would laugh stand at the wicket someone suggests if you said that they are – in their own that he be exempted from the lbw way – superstars. But they are and rule. Sachin looks appalled. ‘If I am thanks to the work you make possible, playing cricket I want to keep all the they will keep on performing feats of rules.’ sport and sportsmanship. 170 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

How a damaged child turned into a little fizzing ball of mischief Back in 2009 Minakshi couldn’t stand. Now she’s always whizzing about. She couldn’t speak. Now she sings, shouts, she screams with laughter. At her early age to be joyous is important.

How old do you think Minakshi is? to have a blood test. (She really hates friends. This is important work. Our She may look about four but in fact injections – after the last one she Chingari and Sambhavna clinics are is nearly ten. Like many children in sulked a full hour.) Minakshi used the only places in Bhopal where chil- Bhopal whose growth is stunted, she to have a miserable existence, now she dren sick from the poisoned water was born in a poor neighbourhood has found health, freedom, skills and can get free and loving health care. where the water is contaminated by by Union Carbide’s chemical wastes. In such areas children are born damaged at a rate many times higher than the national average. Minakshi’s father is a temple drummer who earns hardly enough to feed his family. She came to our Chingari clinic undernourished, too weak to stand unaided. Physiotherapy strengthened her limbs. Now she plays basketball and shoots baskets in style, probably the shortest athlete ever to do so. Minakshi’s mind is a little slow. But like our other children she has learned to read words and numbers in Hindi and English. Tiny she may be, but is a huge character, zooming around keeping everyone cheerful. During our assemblies she sings in an unfeasibly loud voice, which also 2012 protests mightily whenever she has WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 171 Supreme Court’s August 5 deadline passes

The Supreme Court had given the Madhya Pradesh government until August 5 2012 to provide clean water to people living in settlements around the Union Carbide Factory A gold medal for Ishrat who for three decades have been forced to drink contaminated water. ISHRAT IS 13. For most of her life no the Special Olympics at Anantpur in ‘The entire exercise should be one expected much of her. She did the southern state of Andhra. completed within three months from not speak until she was 9 years old, Over the next nine days, Ishrat the communication of this order and and her mother had to clean and played games and took part in many both the State government and the dress her as she couldn’t manage by events, proving herself to be a good Bhopal Municipal Corporation shall herself. athlete. She won a Silver medal for ensure that the work does not suffer Nobody really knew what was ‘Throw Ball’ and a Gold medal for or is not obstructed on account of the matter with the quiet child, but coming a clear first in the 50 metres inadequate or insufficient funds.’ children of gas victims were often in sprint. When she returned to Bhopal An affidavit was filed by the M.P. some way damaged. she was so happy she could not stop government stating that they had When Ishrat was 10, her mother chattering about these achievements. plans to supply drinking water via brought her to Chingari. She told us In fact we were later to learn that over-ground pipelines and provide that she and her husband, an onion- had Ishrat run just .037 of a second each household with a tap but that it seller who was frequently ill, had not faster she would have qualified for would take ‘some’ time to complete. taken their daughter to any hospital the Indian national team and might because they could not afford to pay have been attending the Paralympics Double whammy of illness for medicines and examinations. All in London in the summer. The court, however, relied on the their time and energy went on trying submission of the survivors’ lawyer to provide food for the family. So Karuna Nundy that the chemicals in poor were they that their relatives did the groundwater were known to cause not visit, to spare them the small cost cancer, birth-defects and other chronic of offering tea and a samosa. diseases. People had been drinking At Chingari, Ishrat came to life. this water for about 27 years and had She learned to read and write and en- been subjected to a ‘double whammy joyed her lessons. Her enthusiasm of diseases’, first because of the gas led us to enroll her in Year 3 of a local leak and then from contamination of Government School. We paid for her their water by the same factory, which books and uniforms. Ishrat passed had never been cleaned up. her exams and today is in Year 4. Last year Ishrat travelled with a As of August 5 2012 the work specified group of children from Chingari to by the Supreme Court had not been done. 172 THE BHOPAL MARATHON ‘When I look through my camera in Bhopal, always I see the children’

The brilliance of Alex’s portrait of the factory can hardly be overstated: it captures both Bhopal’s disasters, the escaping gas and the dark toxic threat that still hangs over the city. Bhopal’s Second Disaster by Alex Masi is due out from FotoEvidence. Please pre-order (see donation form) for a decent discount and to help raise funds for the Bhopal Medical Appeal.

Alex Masi came to India to do stories We complimented Alex on his shot about children’s rights. It was some of the factory (left and see the full-size months before he visited Bhopal. He image on pp. 60-61). How was it done? had heard of the 1984 gas disaster but ‘It took me around three days to did not know about the poisoning of get that picture. It was monsoon, the water, nor about the toxic waste. with dark clouds hanging over the What he saw horrified him, and factory. I had an idea for the picture brought him back eight times to make but had never been in the right place a body of work that won him a series at the right time. The only place to of awards, culminating in the 2012 now she runs (see previous pages). She put the camera was a small railway FotoEvidence Prize, a major part of couldn’t speak but now she sings, she cabin near one of the affected areas. I which is the publication of his first shouts, she screams. At that early age went each morning and afternoon for book, Bhopal’s Second Disaster. to be joyous is important. about three days. The clouds would Alex describes himself not just as ‘I don’t go into someone’s home to melt away, we'd leave, then I’d see the a journalist and photographer but get the shot I want, but to work with clouds thickening again, so I’d run nowadays also a participant. what’s actually happening there. I back, and we did this over the course ‘Bhopal is a story’, he says, ‘where had a very good translator whom the of three days. I took probably more it's impossible to be impartial. The children liked and knew as a friend. than 400 pictures of the factory facts are stark, the toxic waste is not So I could just get on with what I do. under clouds, using different zooms, something that can be disputed, nor I look, and photograph. I don’t ask changing angles. I knew this would that Union Carbide didn't care about people to do anything they wouldn’t be one of my leading pictures, if I the people living near the factory. normally do. You can always see that could get it right. I decided on a wide ‘Normally I work on a story for a sort of fakery in the pictures. lens 24mm-35mm to give distance month, but in Bhopal once I began ‘I want to make images that will and then just waited and hoped. visiting disabled children, to see the touch the emotions of people who see ‘At some point everything came way they and their families lived, it them. To do this I have to allow my together, the clouds were in the best led to looking at how others were own emotions to be touched. position they could be – luck comes coping. I also wanted to show that ‘When I have my camera to my eye when all the elements are already in there is life beyond disaster – so for I think only of the picture I’m taking place and you’re waiting prepared. example I was glad to get the shot of – what does it represent, what is it ‘There’s also a silver light behind the girl with the shiny red ball at the going to mean to people who see it the clouds, as if to suggest there is Dussehra festival – to photograph later – I have to be quick and act from hope that they will lift. people and their children having fun. a purely artistic point of view – but ‘The Bhopalis say they have given I love going into the Chingari Centre technique is useless if I do not feel up hope, as it only leads to despair. probably because the kids love being what these children and families are Bitter as this sounds, they usually there so much. I’ve seen them make experiencing. I cannot describe a laugh as they say it. I think they have fantastic progress. feeling, just feel it and try to find a discovered something stronger and Minakshi in 2009 visual style that will evoke the same finer than hope and I aim to share 2012 couldn’t walk but feeling when people see my pictures.’ that powerful feeling with the world.’ WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 173 174 THE BHOPAL MARATHON Dear Mr. Lord Sebastian Coe, here’s why we burned your effigy

Bhopal survivors upset by Dow’s sponsorship of the London Olympics had long wanted to meet Lord Coe, Chair of LOCOG, but had not been able to do so. Was it fate that brought survivor Sanjay ‘Kunkun’ Verma, who lost seven of his family of nine in the terror of that night, face to face with Lord Coe in a Hoxton cafe1, at a moment when neither of them expected

I am the Indian guy who came in way from India to London to meet I said, ‘I know that Dow took on when you were sitting in the Pitfield you. I am here to ask why do you Union Carbide’s responsibilities in Cafe. It was on May 2nd. You were keep defending Dow Chemicals? the States, how come they are not having a meeting I think because you (For Lord Coe’s defence of Dow, see p. 5) taking them in Bhopal?’ had files and papers spread out. I took We believe Dow has responsibility to Again you said, ‘It's not true.' the chair opposite you and asked, cleanthe contamination that is causing My friend Colin said, ‘It is true.’ ‘Are you Mr Lord Sebastian Coe?’ so many to be born with birth defects Your PA asked Colin, ‘Who are You said, ‘Yes, I am’, so I introduced in Bhopal, and here is Dow becoming you?’ So he replied that his name was myself. ‘My name is Sanjay and I am a sponsor of the London Olympics. Colin Toogood and he was from the one of the thousands of survivors of Why are you defending it?’ Bhopal Medical Appeal. the Bhopal gas tragedy. Most of my You said, ‘It is not true. I wonder I informed you that Dow had to family died in the gas. how much do you even know about pay nearly a billion dollars to cover 2012 I have come all the Dow Chemicals?’ Carbide’s asbestos liabilities. It would WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 175

“We celebrate the Olympics, their ancient sanctity and nobility of spirit. We salute the Games that unite us all in delight at the health, strength, beauty and grace of the young athletes from around the world. All these things we believe the association with Dow debases and disgraces.”

not cost so much to clean the factory. I wonder if you understand how maybe it’s just a way for angry, helpless Your aides started packing up papers we feel. I honestly think that if you people to send their own pain and but you did not move. knew more about Bhopal and the anger up in flames. I asked, ‘Do you know that people pain of the victims and how they have When I told people in Bhopal are still dying in Bhopal? How come had to struggle for the simplest and that I would write to you, an old lady you repeat things that Dow tells you most basic of human rights you called me over and said, ‘Son, are you without even meeting the victims of might not be so supportive of Dow. writing to Mr Lord Coe? Then tell Bhopal?’ Do you not worry as I do, that him this, that when he sits down in You said, ‘Last week I met with pronouncing to the world that Dow the great stadium, we would like Amnesty International.’ is right and the survivors are wrong him to remember the dead of Bhopal ‘Are you aware that Dow took in legal matters might make things and to imagine them in the stadium over UCC in full knowledge that it harder for them? sitting there silent among the living, had criminal charges pending for We learn that Dow is sponsoring thousands upon thousands of them, culpable homicide?’ the British Paralympic team while at as they were when Union Carbide’s You said, ‘that's not true. It was all this very moment in 2012 the toxic gases took their lives on that night. cleared up. There was a settlement in chemicals left by its subsidiary are From their mouths will come that 1989.’ creating disabled children in Bhopal? foam we saw, red with blood, they ‘Criminal charges are still alive I hope you see the irony of this. will sit silent among the crowds and against Carbide and it is officially a We would like you to know that we their silence will be louder than the fugitive from justice in India. How feel insulted and angered by your cheers. And when the runners come come you don’t know this?’ support for Dow and the fact that dashing into the great stadium then Colin said, ‘If you had spoken to your granny was Indian is of no among them, greater in number by us at the beginning you might have comfort to us. one thousand times, I would like him saved a whole lot of trouble.’ I hope you will read the stories in to remember the horde of wretched ‘That wasn't necessary.’ this book because then you will learn people running, in nightclothes, rags, Colin said, ‘Oughtn’t you to have more about the suffering of the or in nothing at all, and the families spoken to us, as we are considered Bhopalis…how my family died, how choking and falling down dead. If he authorities on the subject?’ in despair my brother took his life. had seen them stumble and fall and Your PA interjected, ‘Lord Coe About old women in bad health who drag themselves he would never in knows more about the Bhopal gas three times went 500 miles on foot to his life be able to forget this sight, it disaster than you do.' ask for justice and each time it was would be with him, as it will be with I said, ‘Mr Coe if you ever get a denied to them. us, until all of us are gone.’ chance to come to India, come to You should read what it says right I said to her, ‘Granny, these are the Bhopal, maybe it will change your at the beginning, that if you had kept words of your sorrow and bitterness. mind.’ running in 1984 after your superb Please give another message.’ As you got up, you turned to us, 1500 metres gold medal win and Then I told her about your Indian gave a long look and said, ‘You know, never stopped but kept running for granny, and she thought for a time, my grandmother was Indian.’ more than a marathon of years, you and said, ‘So then please tell him that I was much struck by that remark would by now have know what it in the hereafter when our families and as we went away I thought a lot feels like to be a Bhopali. who died meet his granny, they will about it. While one cynical part of me Mr Lord Coe, in our view your comfort her. And tell him this also, was wondering whether you choose support of Dow is shameful, this is that when my own time comes I will to live your life through meaningless why we Bhopalis burned you in effigy seek her out in the fields of flowers, soundbytes, another was thinking and why the old ladies called you bad greet her like a sister and wipe away that your granny’s memory is surely names – maybe it was to cleanse the her tears.’ something you cherish. thought of you from our minds. Or SANJAY VERMA 176 THE BHOPAL MARATHON WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 177 Here are the other Paralympics, the ones not being sponsored by Dow.

Dow Chemical, the "Official Chemical Company" of the Olympics, is "really despised among large swaths of the community in the UK, because of Bhopal,"says sportswriter Dave Zirin, quoted in PRWatch1, which says that “Dow reportedly paid $100 million to sponsor the games”. Why not spend the money cleaning up Union Carbide’s mess? Why not help these children?

On July 25, 2012, there was a Special the Olympic Games, but also of the children taking part in the special Olympics held in Bhopal, where the the Paralympics. It is not clear how Bhopal games loved every moment young athletes were children born to Dow hoped this savage irony would of fun. Many of them will need care parents affected by Union Carbide’s go unnoticed, but Dow says that it is all their lives. Their marathon is just gases, or born in areas where the ‘beyond belief’ that anyone should begun. You, our donors and supporters, water is contaminated by chemical protest. What really is beyond belief are the only people who have ever helped wastes dumped by the same company, is that Dow can’t see that cleaning up them. We will continue working with which is now wholly-owned by Dow Bhopal is probably the fastest and least them to show that humanity, decency Chemical, proud sponsor not only of expensive way to mend its image. The and justice can’t be bought.

1. http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/08/11691/corporate-sin-washing-embracing-olympic-brand-pays-sponsors, retrieved August 13, 2012. 178 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

Ward Morehouse, founder of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, died while swimming in a pond near his home in New York State. He was a modest lovely man, a loyal friend and doughty warrior WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 179 A message of thanks to our friends

On December 3, 1994, the 10th anniversary of the disaster in Bhopal, confronted with an evil that had already lasted too long, taken too many lives and caused too much suffering, the Bhopal Medical Appeal came into being as a genuine, good-hearted collaboration of ordinary people to help in whatever way they could. You are one of those people and these words of thanks are an attempt to say something meaningful about what your help has meant.

We started with nothing at all, not the meagre amounts deemed to be There was a clear need for medical one solitary penny. adequate as compensation. Even in treatment, but people whose bodies There was in those days no Bhopal where life in every sense was are damaged by toxins need gentler Sambhavna Clinic with its beautiful cheap, no one could live on 10p a day. care. So the plan was to use ayurveda, gardens, nowhere that gas survivors But no one was listening. the ancient Indian system of medicine, were welcomed, where they were Worst of all, there was no proper not instead of but in conjunction with received with dignity and accorded medical treatment for the survivors modern medicine. the respect to which each of us is who continued to suffer and die as How could this be achieved? surely entitled. politicians looked the other way. The survivors sent messengers In the city there was a spate of Hope, often dashed, frequently and said, tell people you meet what is horrific births, but no Chingari Trust betrayed, was no longer a sustaining happening here and what we plan to where damaged children could have force, but had begun to have quite the do. They will surely help us as we life improved by physiotherapy and opposite effect. The suffering people would help them – an expression not speech training, where their families became despairing and the survivors of hope but of trust in people’s innate could find support and comradeship of Bhopal learned the hard way that goodness. in their misfortune. despair is an excess of hope. You answered, and so began all By 1994 the factory had already Then people in Bhopal had the the work that we do together. been poisoning the groundwater for idea of sending out a mission to the Everything we do today, every- many years but this was the exact rest of the world, which seemed to thing we have ever achieved owes its middle of Union Carbide’s ten year have forgotten Bhopal. Visitors to life to your having answered that silence and there would be five more the city had expressed amazement to desperate cry for help. years of anguished birthdays before find that the people’s situation was so So we would like to thank you Greenpeace’s report established the bad – time after time they heard, ‘But for something much greater than danger. With no Sambhavna and no we imagined it must all have been your unfailingly generous financial Chingari community workers, there sorted out long ago.’ support. For all those things that was no one to warn people in districts The Bhopalis had realised by can’t be added up on a calculator or where the water was contaminated, this point that there was never going even easily put into words. no programme of self-help, and the to be any help from Union Carbide, Apa said, ‘It’s when a child comes, long struggle for clean water still lay nor from the political leaders either like Ayaan, who couldn’t speak or in the future. in New Delhi or in Bhopal. They walk and he comes smiling to greet In Bhopal there came a time were on their own and since no one you and your heart just lights up.’ when all hope seemed extinguished. else was going to help them, they ‘Yes,’ said Didi. ‘That’s it. What It was five years since the shameful would have to help themselves. can you call it? Well, I suppose… I settlement between Union Carbide People asked themselves, what suppose the word is mohobbat.’ and the Government of India, a plan do we need here? How can we ease ‘Prem,’ Apa agreed. ‘Yes that’s it.’ made and agreed without consulting people’s pain? How shall we lead Two words, both meaning exactly the survivors. lives in which there is some dignity? the same thing – which is love. Everything about the settlement was wrong, from the grossly under- The survivors’ struggle for health, played figures of dead and injured to justice and a life of dignity goes on 180 THE BHOPAL MARATHON 190 Sources & References

Sources and citations for all footnoted articles are here. Full versions of all quoted documents and an online version of The Bhopal Marathon may be found at www.bhopalmarathon.org

1 & 5 THE BHOPAL MARATHON December 2-3, 1984. May 1985 Scientist, Nov 28 198524. New Scientist, p. 41 1. Indian Ministry of Law note to Prime Minister’s 8. ‘Do to do and La dee da’, Dr L.S.Loya quoted in 23, 24. Agarwal, Anil, and Sunita Narain. The Office, Feb 2, 2008 The Culture of Make Believe, p. 286, Derrick Jensen, State of India's Environment 1984-85: The Second 2. Lord Coe appearance before House of Commons Chelsea Green Publishing, Jan 1, 1990 Citizens' Report. New Delhi: Centre for Science and Culture Media & Sport Committee, Nov 15 2011 Environment, 1985, p.219. 3. , Union Carbide Corporation ‘Union Carbide’s own pronouncements from the US and others vs Union of India and others, Oct 3, 1991 added to the chaos. Carbide’s medical director in the 4. Andrew Liveris interview with Bloomberg, US, Bipin Avashia, cabled the authorities in Bhopal to Feb 28, 2012 administer sodium thiosulphate to the victims “if cyanide poisoning is suspected”. But at his press 12-19 AFTER THE GAS conference in Bhopal 10 days after the disaster, All newspaper cuttings and original photographs Avashia got into a slanging match with Bhopal’s from Sambhavna Document Library Collection doctors crying out: “It is not phosgene, it is not p14 ‘True Death Toll Testimony of municipal worker phosgene, it is not phosgene”. He argued that there Mohammed Karim as given to BMA Trustee Tim could be no cyanide poisoning and sodium thio- Edwards, April 2001 sulphate was no antidote to MIC poisoning. Union p 16 Justice in Alligator Boots, by Trevor Fishlock, first Carbide even issued a statement: “MIC is not a published in The Times, London, Dec 11, 1984 cyanide. In no way should it be confused as such. MIC naturally degrades in the environment by reacting 20 THE VOYAGE OF WARREN ANDERSON 9. ‘The State Health Director finally received solid readily with water to become harmless substances 1. Warren’s Anderson’s possible escape by rowing information on the chemical (MIC) from the World while cyanides do not react with water.” But when boat from the account of journalist Anjali Deshpande, Health Organisation several days after the accident’, quizzed how he could have suggested administration also quoted in her 2012 novel Impeachment, p.97. ‘They Report of the ICFTU, p.11, May 1985 of sodium thiosulphate in his first cable, he simply had waited and waited, typewriters perched on the low 10. Bhopal Chief Pathologist Dr Heeresh Chandra, said that he could not be expected to know what sort boundary wall of the building, notebooks in hand… Financial Times, Dec 8 1984 of gas the Bhopal plant stocked. However, the telexed trying unsuccessfully to hound the cars that brought 11. Dr Ingrid Eckerman, The Bhopal Saga p.53-55, prescription had clearly referred to ‘treatment of MIC in US embassy officials, till agencies flashed the news Universities Press (India) Pvt Ltd/Orient Longman, pulmonary complications.’ that he had left Bhopal. Even the fact that he had been Hyderabad, India, Dec 2004 25. Asbestos Information Association, minutes of smuggled out of the unused rusty back gate, taken off 12. Dr John Bucher, US National Institute of meeting held on Dec 9 1976 at the Mayflower Hotel, its hinges after the padlock hung on the thick iron Environmental Health Science, quoted in Health & Washington DC chain refused to cooperate with officials desperate to Safety at Work, p.7, Aug 1986 26. Statements of Dr. Hans Weill and Dr. G. Peter let the man in their custody escape, rowed across the 13. Dr N.R. Bhandari, 25 Years of Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Halberg, Encouraging Prognosis Is Seen For Gas Victims, lake in a boat and taken to the airport to be flown to Inside Story and Untold Truths, Lalwani Publications, William K. Stevens, New York Times, Delhi...’ Bhopal, 2010 Dec 15 1984 14. Quoted in Tara Jones, Corporate Killing, p.26, 27. Quoted in Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects, Barry 22-27 LIE & LET DIE Free Association Books, London, 1998 I. Castleman, p.570, Aspen Publishers, 2005 All news cuttings and contemporary photographs 15. Chemical and Engineering News, Feb 11, 1985, p. 37 28. New Yorker June 10, 1985, Annals of Law: The from Sambhavna Trust Document Library 16. ‘Minutes of the Chemical Manufactuers’ Assoc. Asbestos Industry on Trial pp49-101, especially p.89 1. Phosgene Unit & Methyl Isocyanate Unit Safety Executive Committee Meeting,’ January 28, 1985 29. Agarwal, Anil, and Sunita Narain. The Considerations Report UCIL W.O. 930-4533/4534, 17. Health Effects of the Toxic Gas Leak from Union State of India's Environment 1984-85: The Second Engineering Dept, Chemicals & Plastics, Union Carbide Methyl Isocyanate Plant in Bhopal: Technical Citizens' Report. New Delhi: Centre for Science and Carbide Corporation Technical Center, South Report on Pathology and Toxicology 1984-1992, Bhopal Environment, 1985. Charleston, West Virginia, USA, UCC E.O 938-6795, Gas Disaster Research Centre, Medico Legal ‘Pointing out that if UCC had been honest about by J. F. Dodd, G.E. Rutson et al, Dec 16, 1974 Institute, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal cyanide poisoning, hundreds of lives may have been 2. Jackson Browning, quoted in Clouds of Injustice: & Institute of Pathology (Indian Councul of Medical saved, an angry article in Business India concluded: Bhopal Disaster 20 Years On , p.50, Amnesty Research) New Delhi, 2010 ‘The impression is inescapable that there were International, AI INDEX- ASA 20/015/2004 18. Telex from Union Carbide USA, Dec 5, 1984, concerted efforts by the senior-most members of 3. Telex of UCC Medical Director Dr Bipin Avashia, reproduced in The Bhopal Tragedy, One Year After, an Bhopal’s medical establishment to suppress cited by Dr N.R. Bhandari, Medical Superintendant, Appen Report, Shabat Alam, Malaysia, 1985 p.110 information on the nature of this mass poisoning.’ Hamidia Hospital, Bhopal, in ‘The Cloud Over 19. Environmental Pollution and Bhopal Killings by Said Tania Midha in another report in The Telegraph, Bhopal’, Anil Agarwal, New Scientist, Nov 28 1985 Bhojendra Nath Banerjee, p. 121, South Asia Books, ‘Interestingly, most documents produced by Dr 4. Statements of Dr. Hans Weill and Dr. G. Peter 1987 Mishra in refuting the validity of Dr Heeresh Halberg, Encouraging Prognosis Is Seen For Gas Victims, 20. Minutes of a Meeting Between Medical College Doctors Chandra’s claims, are studies by Bryan Ballantyne, the William K. Stevens, New York Times, Dec 15 1984 and Dr Max Daunderer on 8 December 1984 reproduced expert sponsored by Union Carbide to visit Bhopal.’ 5. Bhopal Collector Moti Singh’s visit to the UCIL in Appen p.111 30. Bhopal: Disaster Seeking An Antidote, Ian Jack, plant described by Additional District Magistrate 21. ‘The toxicological studies carried out so far… Sunday Times, Dec 1, 1985 H.L. Prajapati in The Gas Tragedy: An Eye Witness, have clearly shown that, at least in the survivors, there 31. Unfolding the Betrayal of Bhopal Gas Tragedy, pp.216- pp25-27 and p. 31, Mittal Publications, New Delhi, is evidence of chronic cyanide poisoning operating as a 220 Moti Singh, B.R. Publishing Corporation, 2008 2003 result of either inhalation of hydrocyanic acid or more 32. Copy of confidential letter by B.B.L. Mathur, 6. UCIL Chief Medical Officer Dr L.S. Loya probably subsequent generation of cyanide radical Dean of Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal, quoted in ‘Paying For Bhopal’, Russell Mokhiber, from the cyanogen pool in gas-affected victims. The reproduced in Appen, p.121. Multinational Monitor, Vol VI, No 10, July 31 1985 changes in urinary thiocyanate and in blood gas before 33. ICMR interim results May 1985. ‘ICMR 7. International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, and after thiosulphate treatment substantiated the instructed the state government to use sodium thio- The Report of the ICFTU-ICEF Mission to Study the above findings.’ Observations of the ICMR, February sulphate because patients given the injection reported Causes and Effects of the Methyl Isocyanate Gas Leak at 1985, quoted in Tara Jones, Corporate Killing, p.114 remarkable improvement, and tests showed 8-10 times Union Carbide Pesticide Plant in Bhopal, India on 22. The Cloud Over Bhopal, Anil Agarwal, New increased quantities of thiocyanate in the urine, which WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 181 indicated that the body was getting rid of the poison. Toxic Gas Leakage, Dr S. Varadarajan et al, Dec 1985 from Union Carbide Eastern, Union Carbide In early May, ICMR announced that biochemical 6. Union Carbide India Limited Methyl-Isocyanate Agricultural Products and Union Carbide India tests had confirmed that MIC had affected the haemo- Based Agricultural Chemicals Project, Review of Limited - documents obtained via discovery in 1985-6 globin in the blood through a ‘carbamylation’ process, Capital Budget Proposal: 1973-8, Feb 1977 and 2010-11 reducing its ability to carry away from 7. Union Carbide India Limited Methyl-Isocyanate 14. Confidential memo from R. Natarajan, Vice the tissues. Thus, even though the blood was rich in Based Agricultural Chemical Project, Capital Budget President Union Carbide Eastern, UCE Hong Kong oxygen, tissues were starving for it.’ Proposal, Dec 2, 1973 to J.B. Law, Chairman, UCE Danbury, Connecticut, 34. Agarwal, Anil, and Sunita Narain. The State of 8. Confidential memo of Union Carbide Eastern Ltd Subject: A Review of UC India Ltd’s Ag Products Business, India's Environment 1984-85: The Second (Hong Kong) dated Feb 24, 1984 Feb 24, 1984 Citizens' Report. New Delhi: Centre for Science and 9. Business confidential Operational Safety Survey 15. Sept 11, 1984, Union Carbide Had Been Told of Leak Environment, 1985. p.220 CO/MIC/Sevin Units, Union Carbide India Limited Danger, Philip Shabecoff, New York Times, Jan 24, ‘Heeresh Chandra argued that death was due to or Bhopal Plant, C.S. Tyson et al, conducted May 3, 1982, 1985. similar to cyanide poisoning and pushed for the circulated July 23, 1982 16. p.37, State of Madhya Pradesh vs Warren immediate use of sodium thiosulphate — the known 10, 11, 12. Multiple sources including Bhopal: The Anderson and others, criminal case no. 8460/1996, antidote — as patients were still dying. A large number Inside Story - Carbide Workers Speak Out on the World's decided June 7, 2010 by Judge Mohan P. Tiwari of deaths occurred within the first 48-72 hours. But Worst Industrial Disaster, T.R. Chouhan, Apex Press 17. Memorandum of Law in Support of Union Carbide for inexplicable reasons, he only met with ridicule May 1995; International Confederation of Free Trade Corporation’s Motion to Dismiss These Actions on Grounds from his own colleagues who demanded more Unions, The Report of the ICFTU-ICEF Mission to of Forum Non Conveniens, 31 July, 1985, in In Re Union evidence. Said N P Mishra: “You are a doctor of the Study the Causes and Effects of the Methyl Isocyanate Gas Carbide Corporation Gas Plant Disaster at Bhopal, India dead, so do not interfere with the living.”’ Leak at the Union Carbide Pesticide Plant in Bhopal, India in December, 1984, 634 F Supp 842 (SNDY 1986) on December 2-3, 1984. May 1985, articles by Rajkumar 18. Union Carbide: Disaster at Bhopal, Jackson B. 28-31 HELL’S ANGELS Keswani in Jansatta, Indian Express; Clouds of Browning, Vice President, Health Safety and All newspaper cuttings from Sambhavna Document Injustice: Bhopal Disaster 20 Years On , p.50, Amnesty Environmental Programs, Union Carbide Library Collection International, AI INDEX- ASA 20/015/2004 Corporation Photo pp. 28-9 by Micha Patault, of Bhopal coroner 13. Confidential memos and telexes of the Worldwide 19. Jan 7, 1987, Government of India response to Dr Satpathy with aborted foetuses at Hamidia Agricultural Products Team, comprising executives Union Carbide Corporation sabotage claim. Hospital, Bhopal 1. Dr Ingrid Eckerman, quoted in Graveyard Bullies, Outlook India, Oct 19, 2009 2. Article based on The Babies of Bhopal by Ritu Sarin, Sunday Magazine, July 1985. 3. Dr Daya Varma’s Sept 1985 study published as Epidemiological & Experimental Studies on the Effects of Methyl Isocyanate on the Course of Pregnancy, Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol LXXII, pp153-157, September 1985 4. Pregnancy Outcome in Women Exposed to Toxic Gas at Bhopal, Dr N.R. Bhandari et al, Indian Journal of Medical Research, Section B, 1990, Vol XCII, No 2, pp.28-33 5. Article by researcher N. Ganesh in The Lancet Volume CCCLX, Number 933614, Sept 2002. See also Frequency of Acrocentric Associations in Bhopal Gas Tragedy Survivors, International Journal of Cell and Molecular Biology, I (2010) pp.26-30 6. Health Effects of the Toxic Gas Leak from Union Carbide Methyl Isocyanate Plant in Bhopal: Technical Report on Pathology and Toxicology 1984-1992, Bhopal Gas Disaster Research Centre, Medico Legal Institute, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal & Institute of Pathology (Indian Councul of Medical Research) New Delhi, 2010

32-35 ON THE EDGE OF THE VOLCANO Newspaper cutting from Sambhavna Document Library Collection, Judge Rejects Sabotage Theory, Jan 4 1986 (the judge referred to is Keenan in New York) p32 - Union Carbide ad widely published in National Geographic and other US magazines c.1962 1,. Wake Up People of Bhopal, You Are On The Edge of a Volcano, Rajkumar Keswani, Jansatta, Sept 1982 2. Based on occupational health and safety exposure threshold limits 3. International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, The Report of the ICFTU-ICEF Mission to Study the Causes and Effects of the Methyl Isocyanate Gas Leak at the Union Carbide Pesticide Plant in Bhopal, India on December 2-3, 1984. May 1985. The report, based on interviews with UCIL workers, says 82 tons were stored in tanks E-610 and E-611, but ‘some of the MIC in the second storage tank, 611, was converted to carbaryl after November 24th.’ 4. Affidavit of Eduard Muñoz in Union Carbide Corp Gas Plant Disaster at Bhopal, India in Dec 1984, Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation, docket no. 626, Jan 28, 1985 Union Carbide memo recording that in order to achieve financial objectives 5. Council for Scientific & Industrial Research, Report on Scientific Studies on the Factors Related to Bhopal UCC and UCIL agreed to use unproven technology in the Bhopal plant. 182 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

visit with former UCIL plant operator T.R. Chouhan Bhopal, 1985 p36-39 VOICES FROM THE ABYSS 3. Medico Friends Study on women pregnant at the Testimonies from We Will Never Forget 1986-1987, 60-67 UNION CARBIDE’S SECRET DISASTER time of the gas disaster, Feb 1985 Bhopal Group for Information &Action, Dec 1987 1. Bhopal: 25 years of poison, Indra Sinha, The Guardian, 4. Study of Citizens Committee for Relief and Dec 3, 2009 Rehabilitation in Bhopal, Mar 1985 40-45 BHOPAL VICTIMS BETRAYED 2. ‘Medicine for the fields’ 5. Daya Varma. Epidemiological & Experimental Studies 1. Warren Anderson, Letter to Union Carbide 3. Testimony of Bhavesh, given at Sambhavna Clinic, on the Effects of Methyl Isocyanate on the Course of stockholders, Feb 27, 1985 Bhopal Pregnancy, Environmental Health Perspectives, 2. Melvin Belli, quoted in Enter justice, in alligator boots 4. Confidential Union Carbide India memo, obtained Vol LXXII, pp153-157, September 1985 and a polka-dot tie, The Times, December 11, 1984 via discovery in US court proceedings, exact date not 6. Observations of the ICMR, Indian Council of 3. Minutes of meeting between Carbide executive Rolf known but after mid-May 1990. Medical Research, February 1985 H. Towe and Union Carbide India Managing Director 5. Assessment of pollution damage due to Solar Evaporation 7. Health Effects of the Toxic Gas Leak from the Union Gokhale, at Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilisers, Ponds at UCIL, September 1989, cited in letter, David Carbide Methyl Isocyanate Plant in Bhopal Technical New Delhi, Feb 28, 1985, obtained via a RTI (Right to Langseth, Arthur D Little, to Norman Gaines, UCC, Report on Population Based Long Term Epidemiological Information ) request November 10, 1989, UCC 01823 Studies (1985 - 1994) 4,5. March 4, 1985. Carbide draft proposal to the 6. National Toxics Campaign Fund, 1990. Union 8. Sambhavna Trust 1999-2000 Government of India for settling the Bhopal case. Carbide in Bhopal, India: the lingering legacy. Boston: 6. The Bhopal Gas Disaster (Processing of Claims) Citizen's Environmental Laboratory 78-79 TAMING WAYWARD MOONS Act, 1985. 29 March 1985. ‘An Act to confer certain 7. Subimal Bose letter to Babu Lal Gaur , Minister Comparative efficacy of Yoga therapy in treatment of powers on the Central Government to secure that for Gas Relief and Rehabilitation, Madhya Pradesh, dysmenorrhoea of women exposed to contaminated ground claims arising out of, or connected with, the Bhopal Untitled, May 16th, 1990. water. Sambhavna Trust, 2008 gas leak disaster are dealt with speedily, effectively, 8. Re. Response to allegations of environmental contamination equitably and to the best advantage of the claimants around the Bhopal Plant site, Business Confidential, 80-81 FIRST DO NO HARM: AYURVEDA and for matters incidental thereto.’ UCC Health Safety and Environmental Affairs Dept, 1. When money is not enough – inadequate health care in 7. Attorney: Conflict Issue is Tactic to Delay Bhopal to CC Smith Jr, May 22nd 1990. UCC 02049-50 Bhopal, Maya Shaw, accessed at Litigation, Karren Mills, Associated Press, Apr 11 1985 9. Chouhan, T.R. (2000) Affidavit of Tota Ram bhopal.net/oldsite/maya.html 8. Bud Holman, UCC's legal counsel with the firm Chouhan, Index no. 99 Civ. 11329 (JFK), United States 2. 1996 Sambhavna study into mis-prescribing of Kelly, Drye and Warren, transcript of January 3, 1986 District Court Southern District of New York, 3rd drugs in government hospitals hearing before Judge Keenan, p. 22; & Carbide Plays July 2000, 6pp Hardball in Court, Steven Adler, American Lawyer, 10. Letter, Norm Gaines, UCC Health, Safety and pp86-87 COCK UP TO COVER UP Nov 1985, p.62 Environmental Affairs, Site Rehabilitation Project - Numbers here identify Union Carbide and Arthur D 9. Amnesty International, Clouds of Injustice, p.61 Meeting 30 October in Danbury, to M.D. Buckingham Little documents obtained via discovery in a US 10. Russell Mokhiber, Paying for Bhopal, Multinational et al, Nov 9, 1989. UCC 01810-01818 court. Full versions of all documents are available on Monitor, July 31, 1985 - Volume 6 - Number 10 11. Letter, Subimal Bose, Director UCIL, Internal bhopalmarathon.org 11. John D. Rose, Rescuing Capitalism From Corporatism: investigation at Bhopal Plant site, to Norm Gaines, UCC, 1. UCC 02271 Greed And The American Corporate Culture, p.40. March 30, 1992. UCC 03550 2. Assessment of pollution damage due to Solar Evaporation 12. 50,000 rupees spread over more than 27 years 12. Talk with Rehana’s parents, Chingari Trust 2006 Ponds at Union Carbide factory, Bhopal, NEERI Report, 13. In Re Union Carbide Corporation Gas Plant 13. US Engineers at South Charleston, West Virginia 1990. The NEERI report shows that it left as many as Disaster at Bhopal, India in December, 1984, 634 F Supp misgivings about Solar Evaporation Ponds. Record nine peaks unidentified in a [chromatography] of soil 842 (SNDY 1986) Memorandum, GR Hattiangadi, Sevin Project, UCIL, and water samples, NEERI 1990, pp.73-4. 14. ‘Union Carbide will not appear because, as a Disposal of By-product HCl, May 7, 1972. UCC 04516 3. ibid . United States corporation, it is not subject to India's 14. ibid. 4. UCC 02268 jurisdiction’, said Robert Berzok, Carbide's director 15. T.S. Shah, Humphreys and Glasgow Consultants 5. Norm Gaines, UCC 02050 of communications' from India Acts in Carbide Case Private Limited, Bombay, Minutes of meeting No. 172 6. UCC 02400 and 02401. (Full Carbide discussion: Reuters, May 17, 1988 held between UCIL, M/s. K Datye and H&GC on 19-1-77 UCC 02398 / 02399 / 02400 / 02401 and 02402.) 14b. Poison Gas, Up Two Bucks, Editorial, in H &GC Offices. 20th January 1977. UCC 04922-24 7. Madhya Pradesh Public Health Engineering The Nation, March 6, 1989 16. Telex 1. William Correa, Bombay, to H. Ayers, Department’s State Research Laboratory tested water 15. A full discussion of the compensation process in UCE Hong Kong, 03/25/82. UCC 01737 from 11 community tubewells, finding large amounts Amnesty International, Clouds of Injustice, pp. 63-71 Telex 2. William Correa, Bombay, to H. Ayers, UCE of chemicals dissolved in the water. ‘It is established 16. Union Carbide Corporation v. Union of India Hong Kong, 04/10/82. UCC 01736 that this pollution is due to chemicals used in the (1991) 4 SCC 584. Union Carbide factory that have proven to be 68-9 HEALTH DISASTER ROARED ON extremely harmful for health. Therefore the use of this 47 A MAN DESTINED TO BURN 1. Thousands of our children weren’t so lucky. They survived. water for drinking must be stopped immediately.’ Radha Kumar. Adapted from article of the same name Fundraising appeal in The Guardian Dec 3, 1994. Confidential report of the Chief Chemist, State Research first published in the Hindu, Mar 26 1990 Placed by International Medical Appeal for Bhopal, Laboratory, Madhya Pradesh Public Health Engineering later the Bhopal Medical Appeal Department, Nov 26, 1996 48 A LETTER TO UNION CARBIDE 2. Findings and Judgement of the Permanent People's 8. UCC 01099 Letter dictated by Sajida Bano to Suketu Mehta, Tribunal on Bhopal, Oct1992 9. Assessment of Contaminated Areas Due to Past Waste published in Bhopal Lives, The Village Voice, 1991 3. Statement of the International Medical Commission for Disposal Practices at EIIL, NEERI Report1997 Bhopal, Jan 24, 1994 10. UCC 01100 / 01101 49 NEGATIVE POSITIVE 4. Final Report of the International Medical Commission for 11. Arthur D. Little critique of NEERI draft report, Based on interview with Harishankar Magician by Bhopal, March 11, 1996 UCC 03043, p.13 Suketu Mehta, published in Bhopal Lives, The 12. ibid Village Voice, 1991 70-71 THOUSANDS OF OUR CHILDREN 13. UCC 03042- 03043 Facsmile of Thousands of our children weren’t so lucky. 14. NEERI report 1997 op. cit. 50-53 LONG WALK OF THE WOMEN They survived. Fundraising appeal in The Guardian 15. Krohley Declaration, Para 6, Ex. A Story compiled from interviews with Rashida Bee and Dec 3, 1994. Placed by International Medical Appeal other women, by several interviewers for Bhopal, later the Bhopal Medical Appeal 88-89 THE GREENPEACE REPORT Facts and figures drawn from The Bhopal Legacy, 54-57 THE COMPENSATION NIGHTMARE 72-73 GOOD PEOPLE WILL HEAR Greenpeace, Nov 1999. Analysis of chemicals by Article sourced from Compensation Disbursement: 1. Second report of the Monitoring Committee On Medical Greenpeace Laboratory 1999 & 2009 Problems and Possibilities, a report of a survey Rehabilitation of Bhopal Gas Victims, See also related Greenpeace reports available from: conducted in three gas affected bastis in Bhopal - June 8th, 2005 http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/ Bhopal Group for Information & Action, Jan 1992 toxics/toxic-hotspots/ 74-75 3,000 YEAR OLD SCIENCE Chemical Stockpiles at Union Carbide in Bhopal. 58 SATHYU AND SUNIL GO TO PRISON 1. Observations of the ICMR, Indian Council of Executive Summary Personal account by Satinath Sarangi of a 1989 visit Medical Research, February 1985 Technical guidelines for cleanup at the Union Carbide India to the US with survivor Sunil Kumar and a 1991 2. Citizens’ Committee for Relief & Rehabilitation in Ltd (UCIL) site in Bhopal, Madya Pradesh, India, 2002 WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 183

Corporate Crimes: The need for an international instrument on corporate accountability and liability (2002 Greenpeace report) 1. Greenpeace declares Bhopal site a ‘global toxic hotspot’ Dec 2, 1999 2. Confidential report of the Chief Chemist, State Research Laboratory, Madhya Pradesh Public Health Engineering Department, November 1996 3 & 5. ‘A report issued by the India's National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) in 1997 found … no evidence of ground- water contamination outside the plant and concluded that local water-wells were not affected by plant disposal activities. http://www.bhopal.com/faq#faq15 4 &5. ‘ In a report to the State of Madhya Pradesh dated June 2010, India's National Environmental Engineering Research Institute concluded that the ‘groundwater in general is not contaminated due to seepage of contaminants from the UCIL’ plant site. This conclusion is consistent with NEERI's earlier findings that all groundwater samples tested were within drinking water standards.’ Dow Chemical Company, Q & A, with respect to the Government of India’s request for a Curative Petition related to the 1989 Bhopal Settlement, Feb 28, 2011, accessed at http://www.dow.com/sustainability/debates/ pdfs/QA_Issuance_Notice_with_respect_Curative.pdf

90-91 A-Z OF DISEASES & CHEMICALS Sources: Bhopal Group for Information & Action Children seen by Sambhavna and Chingari clinics

92-93 SAMBHAVNA WATER CAMPAIGN 1. Letter of Subimal Bose to Norm Gaines March 30, 1992 revealing that people of Atal Ayub Nagar, whom he described as ‘squatters’, were drinking from wells contaminated by factory chemicals 2. The Bhopal Legacy, Greenpeace, 1999 3. Factfinding Mission on Bhopal, 2002

94-95 A FRIGHTENED MAN Account of meeting and interview with N. Ganesh by Tim Edwards Charge Sheet in the criminal proceedings against Warren Anderson, Union 1. Indian Council of Medical Research study 1980s 2. Bhopal's health disaster continues to unfold, Dinesh C. Carbide Corporation, Union Carbide Eastern et al. November 30, 1987 Sharma, The Lancet, Vol. CCCLX No. 9336 p. 859, Sept 14, 2002 for fraudulent transfers to UCC shareholders of assets tion et al, United States District Court for the District that might otherwise have been subject to a potential of Connecticut 96-99 THE VANISHINGS & REAPPEARANCES Bhopal legal judgement…’ Letter, Rob Hager, 11. Letter of Agreement, R Natarajan, Vice President, OF UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION Multinational Monitor Vol 12, No 9, Sept 1991 Union Carbide Eastern, to Visa Petrochemicals PVT 1. Chemical & Engineering News, Vol 79, No 25, 6. In Re Union Carbide Corporation Gas Plant Ltd, November 14, 1987. Document no. D00619 in pp. 21-25, June 18, 2001 Disaster at Bhopal, India in December, 1984, 634 F Civil No. 3:02 CV 1107 (AVC) 2. UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION, FORM 8-K, SEC Supp 842 (SNDY 1986). 12. India Acts in Carbide Case, Reuters, May 17, 1988 filing, August 3, 1999 7. UCC tendered acceptance to the court on June 12, 13. The Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court, Bhopal, 3. London 2012: Dow Chemical deal is fine by me, says 1986. Inconvenient Forum and Convenient Catastrophe, issued summons to Peter J Whitley, named David Cameron, Owen Gibson, The Guardian, March Upendra Baxi, the Indian Law Institute, 1986 p. 326 representative of Union Carbide Eastern, on Sept 24, 12, 2012. 8. ‘Towe letter’ (reproduced on p.41) by Dr V. Krishna, 1988. The Division of Corporations, State of 3a. The FIR (First Information Report) was filed at Adv (C), Secretary, Ministry of Chemicals & Delaware, records Entity file no. 2174914, Union the city’s Hanumanganj police station on the evening Fertilizers, circulated to Mrs Sarla Grewal, Secretary, Carbide Asia Pacific, Inc., registered Oct 11, 1988 of Dec 3 1984 by Inspector Surinder Singh Thakur. Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, and Dr. S. 14. ‘In 1983, I joined Union Carbide Eastern Inc., and The names of Warren Anderson, Keshub Mahindra, Varendra, Secretary & Director General, Council of worked for that company in Hong Kong. In 1988, Chairman of Union Carbide India Limited, and Vijay Scientific & Industrial Research. File: 21(13)/85-chI Union Carbide Eastern, Inc. was wound up. I then Gokahle, Managing Director (the latter two convicted 9. Charge Sheet in respect of Crime No. 1104/84, joined UCAP in January 1989 and moved from Hong by Mohan P Tiwari, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bhopal, registered on 6th December 1984at Hanumanganj Kong to Singapore.’ AFFIDAVIT OF LAWRENCE on 7 June 2010) do not figure in the FIR. The CBI police station, Bhopal, under Section 304A of Indian CHEUNG, Sales Director of polyolefins and elastomers took over the case on Dec 6 1984, the eve of Warren Penal Code by Inspector Surinder Singh Thakur ‘who for Dow Chemical Pacific (Singapore) Pte. Ltd, in Anderson’s arrival in Bhopal. Thakur wrote out a observed people dying around the factory of Union Civil No. 3:02 CV 1107 (AVC). In addition, Letters of charge sheet under section 304A of the Indian Penal Carbide (India) Limited, due to escape of some gas agreement between Visa Petrochemicals and Union Code, naming eleven accused including Warren from the factory.’ (Above: Charge sheet as produced at Carbide Eastern were subsequently managed by R. Anderson, UCC and UCE as accused nos. 1, 10 & 11 commencement of criminal proceedings in Nov 1987) Natarajan in his new capacity as President of Union respectively. (See note 9 and above: charge sheet, as pro- 10. Meeting with MegaVisa Marketing & Solutions ltd on Carbide Asia Pacific (Document D00618) duced at commencement of proceedings in Nov 1987) Tuesday 13 Feb 2001. Ravi Muthukrishnan, Dow 15. $1000 bailable arrest warrants against UCC Chief, 4. Unfolding the Betrayal of Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Moti Chemical Country Manager, India, attachment to Others, Times of India, Nov 16, 1988 Singh, B.R. Publishing Corporation, 2008 email RE: UCC Agent/Distributor - India/MEGAVISA dated 16. Settlement, 14 Feb 1989. ‘To enable the effectuation 5. Rob Hager, lawyer for the Christic Institute, February 13th, 2001. Doc. no. D14000903 in Civil of the settlement, all civil proceedings related to and characterised the GAF takeover attempt as No. 3:02 CV 1107 (AVC), MM Global Services Inc et al v. arising out of the Bhopal gas disaster shall hereby stand ‘a sweetheart operation and intentional smokescreen the Dow Chemical Company & Union Carbide Corpora- transferred to this Court and shall stand concluded in 184 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

terms of the settlement, and all criminal proceedings finding of the CJM, Bhopal in that order that the related to and arising out of the disaster shall stand creation of the Trust was malafide and with a view to quashed wherever these may be pending.’ Union Carbide defeat the attachment order.’ S. Muralidhar, Corporation v. Union of India (1989) 3 SCC Unsettling Truths, Untold Tales, p.33 17. Attorney General Soli Sorabjee alleged that the 39. UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION, FORM 8−K, filed inspection was due to be conducted during the middle with the SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, of February, 1989 and that the settlement ‘was August 3, 1999 intended to circumvent that inspection…’ UNION 40. Martin F Statfeld on behalf of himself and all CARBIDE CORPORATION VS RESPONDENT: UNION OF others similarly situated, v. Frank Popoff et al, 00CIV. INDIA, 03/10/1991 3364 filed May 3rd, 2000 in United States District 18. This old story finds its latest airing in journalist Court, Southern District of New York Anjali Deshpande’s 2012 novel Impeachment, about the 41. Shadow of Bhopal heading for Dow, Beth Medley aftermath of the 1989 Union Carbide settlement Bellor, Midland Daily News, May 12, 2000 19. Oct 3, 1991, Indian Supreme Court modifies 42. Dow completes Carbide deal, Chemical & 1989 Settlement, revives criminal charges against Engineering News, Feb 12, 2001, Vol 79, No 7, p.7 UCC, UCE & Warren Anderson and offers UCC its 43. Michael McCoy, Chemical & Engineering News, money back: Union Carbide Corporation v. Union of Vol 79, No 25, pp. 21-25, June 18, 2001 India (1991) 4 SCC 584 44. Email, Re. Reference to Dow/Union Carbide, 20. ibid. Catherine Maxey, Business Public Affairs Director, 21. Court threatens attachment, Order of Feb 1, 1992, Performance Chemicals, Dow Chemical Company, CJM, Bhopal in M.J.C. No.91/1992 March 14, 2001. 22. The proclamation ( left) appears in the Washington 45. ‘Dow conducts its worldwide operations through Post Classifieds under an ad offering ‘Trash Removal’ global businesses, and the Corporation's business 23. ‘At the next hearing on March 27, 1992, the activities comprise components of Dow's global prosecution (CBI) moved an application for businesses rather than stand-alone operations. attachment of the property of the absconding foreign Because there are no separable reportable business accused but at the request of the counsel for the segments for UCC and no detailed business Indian co-accused the case was adjourned to April 30, information is provided to a chief operating decision 1992.’ S. Muralidhar, Unsettling Truths, Untold Tales maker regarding the Corporation's stand-alone International Environmental Law Research Centre operations, the Corporation's results are reported as Working Paper, 2004/5, 3.2.1, http://www.ielrc.org/ a single operating segment. In addition, in order to content/w0405.pdf simplify the customer interface process, the 24. ‘The request for issue of non-bailable arrest Corporation sells substantially all its products to warrants against Warren Anderson for the purposes of Dow.’ Union Carbide Corporation, ANNUAL REPORT extradition was to be considered on May 22, 1992. In ON FORM 10-K/A Year Ended Dec 31, 2011, Part 1. this interregnum, UCC managed to create the Bhopal 46. Dow Chemical defends Olympic Stadium sponsorship Hospital Trust and endow its entire shareholding in deal, Owen Gibson in The Guardian, March 8, 2012 UCIL to the BHT.’ ibid. 25. ‘...the accused wants to evade prosecution by any 100-101 A DANCE OF SEVERAL VEILS means. Then there is no option but to attach its 1. Michael McCoy, Chemical & Engineering News, properties situated in India.’ Order April 30, 1992 Vol 79, No 25, pp. 21-25, June 18, 2001 passed by the CJM, Bhopal in M.J.C. No.91 of 1992. 2. Survivors organisations oppose the proposed merger of 26. Order, dated December 10, 1993, Supreme Court Dow and UCC Aug 8, 1999, Press Statement by Abdul in I.A.Nos.24-25 in C.A.Nos.3187-88 of 1988 Jabbar, Convenor, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog 27. ibid. Sangathan; Balkrishna Namdeo, Convenor, Bhopal 28. ibid. p.7 Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha; 29. Ahmadi bench overrules Bhopal court: Order Rashida Bee, President, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila dated February 14, 1994 of the Supreme Court in Stationery Karmachari Sangh; and Satinath Sarangi of C.A.Nos.3187-88 of 1988 the Bhopal Group for Information & Action: 30. ‘The victim groups on getting to know of this http://legacy.bhopal.net/oldsite/oldwebsite/press8899.html order, filed review petitions on April 13, 1994 for See also: Killer Carbide is now Dow Chemical, recall of the order dated February 14, 1994. These http://legacy.bhopal.net//oldsite/oldwebsite/mergerinfo.html applications were adjourned on five occasions and both retrieved Aug 12, 2012 were ultimately heard on October 20, 1994 by which 3. Reverse triangular merger: UNION CARBIDE time, the sale of the shares had already taken place.’ CORPORATION, FORM 8-K, filed with SECURITIES & S. Muralidhar, Unsettling Truths, Untold Tales, p.33 EXCHANGE COMMISSION, Aug 3, 1999 - results in 31. ibid separate businesses: ‘The Dow Chemical Company's 32. See the orders dated October 20, 1994 passed by response to the curative petition filed by the Union of India’, the Supreme Court reported in Union Carbide November 18, 2011, accessed at http://www.dow.com/ Corporation v. Union of India (1994) sustainability/debates/pdfs/TDCC-Response-CP-111811.pdf 33. I.A.Nos.30-31 of 1995 in C.A.Nos.3187-88 of 1988, 4. Letter of Agreement, R Natarajan, Vice President, prayer (a). Union Carbide Eastern, to Visa Petrochemicals PVT 34. Union Carbide Corporation v. Union of India Ltd, November 14, 1987. (1996) 3 SCALE (SP) 64 5. ibid. 35. Preparing for Growth, ICIS News, June 19th, 1995, 6. $1000 bailable arrest warrants against UCC Chief, Others, accessed at http://www.icis.com/Articles/1995/06/19/ Times of India, November 16, 1988 2380/preparing-for-growth.html 7. The Division of Corporations, State of Delaware, 36. UCC MEGAVISA RELATIONSHIP IN INDIA, Ravi records Entity file no. 2174914, Union Carbide Asia Muthukrishnan, Document no. D14000904 in Civil Pacific, Inc., registered October 11th, 1988 No. 3:02 CV 1107 (AVC 8. Letter of 90 day notice to terminate former 37. Defendants’ Brief in support of their motion for summary agreement, R Natarajan, to Visa Petrochemicals PVT., judgment, Dow Chemical et al, January 23rd, 2006, p. April 5th 1993. Document no. D00618 in Civil No. 1. In Civil No. 3:02 CV 1107 (AVC) 3:02 CV 1107 (AVC) 38. ‘In a well orchestrated move, UCIL on August 24, 9. Private remark of CBI official to Satinath Sarangi Proclamation of Bhopal court in 1995 withdrew its revision petitions in the Madhya of the BGIA, 1992 Pradesh High Court challenging the attachment order 10. Order dated April 30, 1992 passed by the CJM, Washington Post requiring passed by the CJM, Bhopal on April 30, 1992. Thus, Bhopal in M.J.C. No.91 of 1992. attendance of Warren Anderson the attachment order attained finality and so did the 11. ‘In a bid to further insulate UCC from liabilities WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 185

in India resulting from the repercussions of the 110 WE’LL DO IT OURSELVES Jayaraman, Tehelka, July 18, 2011 Bhopal tragedy, UCC issued in 1993 a corporate legal Frames from videotaken on Nov 25, 2002at the Union 9.Letter of NEERI Director Chakrabarti to Madhya directive that no UCC employee would be allowed to Carbide factory. The violent police officer is Reserve Pradesh government, dated Nov 4, 2009 travel to India and that UCC could not ship its Inspector Chouhan. Video at bhopalmarathon.org. ‘I concur with the decision that the Union Carbide Products directly to India.’ Affidavit of Sanjiv Pranlal factory will be opened for general public for a period Sanghvi, Director, Megavisa Solutions (Singapore) 114 ‘THE DAY THEY GOT SADDAM’ of 15 days in connection with the 25th anniversary of PTE LTD, in SUIT NO. 1035/2002/C in the High Court Comment on a news piece Drill at Dow plant prepares the Bhopal gas tragedy. The reason for concurring of the Republic of Singapore, September 23, 2002 for terrorism that appeared in the New Jersey Star- with the above mentioned idea lies in the fact that I, See also next item: Ledger on Monday Dec 13, 2003. The article as shown along with several government officials, have visited 12. The Change in the India Channel of Marketing/ here is not the original, which we were unable to the site umpteen number of times without Distribution, Document no. M588, in Civil No. 3:02 obtain, but a reconstruction. It is accompanied by an experiencing any health problem.The experts from the CV 1107 (AVC) excerpt from Animal’s People by Indra Sinha, Simon & Supreme Court Monitoring Committee, Central 13. Affidavit of Sanjiv Pranlal Sanghvi, op. cit. Schuster 2007, shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Pollution Control Board officials, officials from the 14. MEETING WITH MEGAVISA MARKETING & Prize for Fiction and Winner, Commonwealth Prize Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and officials SOLUTIONS LTD on Tues, Feb 13, 2001, Ravi for Europe & South Asia, 2008 from the MP Pollution Control Board, who were with Muthukrishnan, Dow Chemical Country Manager, me on different occasions, did not experience any India, attachment to email RE:UCC Agent/Distributor 116-117 THE BUNGLED RESURRECTION health problem as I still continue with them even India/megavisa dated February 13th, 2001. Document 1. Bhopal gas victims stage rally in Bombay, Times of India today. Therefore, I am concurring with the idea of no. D14000903 in Civil No. 3:02 CV 1107 (AVC) News Service, March 2, 2001 BGTR&R decision of allowing general public to visit 15. ‘Q. How long have you been retired? A. June 1, 2. Gas victims launch campaign for justice, Hindustan the plant site from the distance of twenty feet as 2001... Q. Now, you say you left everything in your Times, March 13, 2001 proposed in your (government’s) letter.’ office in Singapore. What do you mean by that, Sir? 3. William Stavropoulos at 2003 Dow AGM A. I turned it over to the Union Car--I mean, the Dow 4. Quoted in Bhopal Survivors Confront Dow: They Say 160-161 DEAR MRS. BANO Asia Pacific people who were responsible for the Dow Execs Lied to Shareholders, Helene Vosters, Special 1. Judgement of Mohan P. Tiwari, Chief Judicial region, who assumed my responsibilities after the to Corpwatch, May 15, 2003 Magistrate, Bhopal, June 7, 2010 given against eight merger.’ Deposition of Ron Neri, former President of 5. Criminal case charge sheet Indian officials of Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL). Union Carbide Asia Pacific, on August 23, 2005 in 6. Bhopal Court summons Dow in place of UCC 2. ‘Mr Warren Anderson, UCC USA and UCC Civil No. 3:02 CV 1107 (AVC) Kowloon Hongkong are still absconding and 16. Various emails between managers of Dow India, 118-125 PORTRAITS IN PAIN therefore, every part of this case (Criminal File) is Dow Europe, Dow Asia Pacific and Dow Singapore p.121 Part III ‘A day with Sunil’ kept intact along with the exhibited and unexhibited and manager of Megavisa India, discovered in Civil 1. Bhopal Gas Tragedy (1984), National Institute of documents and the property related to this case, in No. 3:02 CV 1107 (AVC) Mental Health & Neurosciences, 1985 safe custody, till their appearance.’ Paragraph 266, 17. Emails between Ako Serizawa, Dow Asia Pacific 2. Factfinding Mission on Bhopal, 2000 Judgement of Mohan P. Tiwari, Chief Judicial Customer Interface, and Edward RJ. Neunuebel, Dow 3. Bhopal Express, written by Piyush and Prasoon Magistrate, Bhopal, June 7, 2010 Pacific Legal - Hong Kong, on July 6, 2001. Pandey, directed by Mahesh Matthai, starring K.K., 3. Bhopal verdict an example of ‘justice buried’: Law Minis- Doc. no. M5313 in Civil No. 3:02 CV 1107 (AVC) Nethra Raghuraman, and Zeenat ter, Hindustan Times, June 7, 2010 18. ibid. Aman, Highlight Films, 1999 4. MEA got Anderson off the hook, India Today, June 8, 19. Olympic sponsorship row fuelled by Bhopal revelations, 2010 Nina Lakhani, The Independent, February 13, 2012 126-133 WE ARE FLAMES NOT FLOWERS 5. U.S. won't reopen Bhopal gas leak probe, says Robert 20. The humble application on behalf of Dow Chemical 1. Goldman Prize 1994, awarded jointly to Rashida Blake, The Hindu, June 9, 2010 International Pvt Ltd Before the C of the Hhon’ble Chief Bee and Champadevi Shukla.The citation reads: 6. The reconstituted GoM had its first meeting on Judicial Mmagistrate, Bhopal, In the matter of Criminal 18th June, 2010, under the chairmanship of Shri P. Complaint MJC 91/92, Order Dated 15/16th June, 134-135 RASHIDA & CHAMPADEVI Chidambaram, Minister of Home Affairs. The 2004. Argued September 3rd, 2004 1. An Ongoing Disaster, V. Venkatesan, Frontline, meeting was attended by Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Vol. 21, Issue 15, July 17-30, 2004 Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Shri M. 104 ‘$500 IS PLENTY GOOD FOR AN INDIAN’ 2. Supreme Court of India order of May 7, 2004 Veerappa Moily, Minister of Law and Justice, 1. Dow Seadrift Public Affairs Manager Kathy Hunt Shri S. Jaipal Reddy, Minister of Urban Development, to Diane Wilson, reported by Wilson 136-137 OUR FIGHT FOR CLEAN WATER Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Road Transport and 2. Dow CEO Michael Parker to Bhopal survivors at 1. ibid Highways, Kumari Selja, Minister of Housing and Dow 2002 AGM, May 9, 2002 2. Bhopal: 25 years of poison, Indra Sinha, The Urban Poverty Alleviation and Minister of Tourism, 3. Dan Feldman of the CalTech Environmental Task Guardian, Dec 3, 2009 Shri M. K. Alagiri, Minister of Chemicals and Force interview with Dow board member Prof. 3. Beauty lies in the eyes of chief minister, Santosh Singh, Fertilizers, Shri Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State Jacquie Barton. Full transcript on bhopalmarathon.org The Statesman, June 16, 2005 (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Science and 4. ibid 4. Andrew Liveris speech at the UN, 25 July 2006 Technology, Minister of State (Independent Charge) 5. Technical guidelines for cleanup at the Union Carbide 5. Andrew Liveris in answer to University of of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Minister of State in India Ltd (UCIL) site in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, Michigan and Michigan State University student the Prime Minister’s Office, Minister of State in the Greenpeace, 2002 protesters at Dow AGM, May 11, 2006 Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and 6. Dow CEO Andrew Liveris, March 3, 2007 Pensions and Minister of State in the Ministry of 138-139 LIFE & DEATH OF A MAD CHILD Parliamentary Affairs and Shri Jairam Ramesh, 105 ONE OF THESE A DAY Several people have contributed their memories and Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the 50,000 rupees spread over more than 27 years. words to this remembrance of Sunil Ministry of Environment and Forests. Shri Babu Lal Gaur, Minister-in-charge of the Department of 106 CARBIDE SITE 18-20 YEARS AFTER 156-157 WHY DO THESE PEOPLE? Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Relief and Rehabilitation, 1. T.R. Chouhan, former UCIL plant engineer, author 1. Bhopal: 25 years of poison, Indra Sinha, The Guardian, Government of Madhya Pradesh attended the meeting of Bhopal: The Inside Story - Carbide Workers Speak Out Dec 3, 2009 as a permanent invitee. on the World's Worst Industrial Disaster, Apex Press 2. Bhopal Gas Tragedy Lives On 20 Years Later, Scott May 1995. Baldauf, Christian Science Monitor, May 4, 2004 162-163 STOP THE TRAINS 2. Carbaryl, chemical name of Sevin insecticide, made 3. Source: Bhopal Group for Information & Action 1. Minutes of the meeting of the Group of Ministers from reacting methyl-isocyanate with phosgene (BGIA) (GOM) on Bhopal gas disaster, held from 18th to 21st 3. Lindane, Sevin, Union Carbide brand names for 4. The toxic truth about a terrible tragedy, Subodh Varma, June, 2010 in Room No. 103, North Block, New Delhi tri-methylbenzene and carbaryl insecticides Times of India, Dec 4, 2009 2. Letters of survivors’ organisations to GoM 4. The 70 antiquated gauges in the control room were 5. Bhopal gas victims burn Jairam's effigy, Suchandana monitored by one operator after the cost cutting, the Gupta, Times of India, Sept 15, 2009 174-175 DEAR MR LORD COE pressure valve for fatal tank E-610 was pointed out to 6. 25 yrs on, a walk through the Carbide plant, 1. The unplanned meeting of Lord Coe and Sanjay visitors, still jammed on overload Akshai Jain, Wall St Journal, Nov 21, 2009 ‘Kunkun’ Verma took place in the Pitfield Cafe, 7. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan in interview Hoxton on May 2, 2012. Sanjay was in the company of 108 TAKE THE BROOM TO DOW with BBC’s Allan Little, broadcast Dec 2009 Colin Toogood of the Bhopal Medical Appeal. The Jhadoo Maro Dow Ko!: ‘Hit Dow with a broom’. 8. India’s most secret incinerator is here, Nityanand conversation is given as they recall it.

186 THE BHOPAL MARATHON WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP 187

Thank you from the children 188 THE BHOPAL MARATHON

A rabid optimist

Yes I'm a rabid optimist For me every tree that continues to stand Every stream that continues to flow Every child that runs away from home Is an indication that the battle is not only on It is being won You may tell me about the nuclear arms race And all I can tell you is that an unknown child held my hand with love You will try to draw me Into the plato of practical life Tell me that not only god But all the religious and irreligious leaders are dead And I will tell you that across the forest lives a young man who calls the earth his mother You will give me the boring details Of the rise of state power after every revolution And I all I can tell you is that In our tribe we still share our bread. You will reason with me and I will talk nonsense like this And because the difference between breathing and living life Is the difference between reason and poetry I'll recite poems to you Poems full of dreams Poems full of optimism And maybe a poem better than this

SATHYU SARANGI

With your help the Bhopal survivors have achieved miracles. Please continue to help, because many more miracles are needed. THE BHOPAL MARATHON WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP

Celebrating Holi, the festival of colours, on the second [2006] padyatra to Delhi A cry for Bhopal

We will never give up

Bhopal Medical Appeal, Brighton. England, May 2012