On Friday, 12 November, survivors of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy asked their 18th question to the central and state governments over their actions regarding the horrific incident, which continues to have a major impact on the lives of thousands.
"What has been done to improve upon the 2017 NIREH (National Institute for Research in Environmental Health) study that showed almost 9 times more congenital malformations in children born to gas exposed parents?"Question No. 18 by Bhopal Gas Tragedy Victims
All the questions have gone unanswered by both the Modi government and Shivraj Singh Chouhan's administration in Madhya Pradesh.
"It has been 18 days and 18 questions, but we are yet to receive a reply to even one question from the governments," says Rashida Bi, from the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, one of the survivors' organisations behind the campaign.
On 26 October, four organisations which represent and work for survivors of the tragedy launched the 37 Years, 37 Questions campaign, which is meant to highlight their apprehensions over the response of the central and state governments during this time.
These include urgent concerns regarding compensation, criminal justice, medical, economic and social rehabilitation, as well as environmental remedying of polluted lands, which need to be addressed to put a halt to the continuing fallout of the 1984 disaster.
The four organisations – the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Group for Information and Action and Children Against Dow Carbide – have been organising a daily dharna 500 metres away from the site of the Union Carbide factory that was responsible for the disaster.
To comply with COVID restrictions, they have ensured that there are no more than 20 people at a time present at the site.
Rashida Bi at the protest site.
What Has Happened to ICMR Study on Congenital Malformities?
Question No. 18 is an excellent example of the kind of serious issues being raised in the campaign, and how they are highlighting glaring flaws in the approach of the authorities that have been swept under the carpet for a long time.
In 2012, a study was commissioned by the NIREH (a body set up by the Indian Council for Medical Research to look into the effects of the tragedy) to effects on children born to women who were exposed to the gas leak in 1984. After three stages of methodology and design review, the study took place from January 2016 to June 2017.
NIREH scientist Ruma Galgalekar examined 1,048 babies born to women who'd been exposed to the gas when they were children, and compared the results with a study of 1,247 newborns not exposed to the gas.
According to the study's findings, "Congenital malformities in the progeny of the exposed were 9% and those in the unexposed group was 1.3%."
Basically, the children of those who had been exposed to the gas were seven times as likely to suffer from congenital health problems as the children of those who had had no exposure.
The results of the study were never made public, and only came to light in 2019 because of RTI queries by the organisations which are now conducting the 37 Years 37 Questions campaign.
An expert committee of scientists from the NIREH, ICMR and AIIMS barred the publication of the study, citing alleged methodological flaws, poor design and inconclusive findings – despite the multiple stages of review that the study went through. Even this decision was buried, and only became known because of the RTI queries.
While barring the release of the study's findings, the expert committee had recommended in April 2018 that since the research subject was important, a new study should be formulated to look into this issue.
No such study has been commissioned by the NIREH or any other governmental agency, despite how serious this issue could be.
Questions Over Number of Victims, Allocation of Funds & Legal Process
Several questions raised in the campaign deal with the way in which the authorities keep shifting the number of victims who died and are considered to suffer from permanent illnesses – which impact compensation and treatment measures.
In different affidavits to the Supreme Court in different cases, the Madhya Pradesh government has provided different figures for the number of deaths that resulted from the tragedy – and the discrepancy is not negligible, as Question No. 15 points out.
In the civil curative petition (which deals with the quantum of compensation that will need to be paid), the state government says the number of people who died as a result of the tragedy is 5,295, a figure strongly contested by families and survivors' organisations, who argue that the death toll is greater than 25,000.
However, in its own affidavit to the apex court in the criminal curative petition (which deals with responsibility for the tragedy), the state government puts the death toll at 15,242. A 2008 action plan for rehabilitation of victims by the state government also estimated the deaths to be around 16,000.
That the 5,295 figure is questionable can also be seen from the fact that the state government has identified 5,000 widows to pay compensation to. As Question No. 1 points out, this would mean the government is saying that the victims of the tragedy who died were overwhelmingly married men, with only 295 women and children being killed by the gas, which is absurd.
Speaking at the release of Question No. 15, Shezadi Bee of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, summed up this issue, saying:
“It is indeed time that the governments at state and centre get their act together and ensure that the correct figures of death and injury based on ICMR research and data of hospitals meant for gas victims are presented in the Supreme Court at the earliest so that appropriate compensation can be sought from Union Carbide & Dow Chemical.”
In 2010, the state government's Group of Ministers on Bhopal sanctioned Rs 104 crore to provide gainful employment to the survivors or their children by giving them subsidised loans. In 2011, this was changed to a plan to provide vocational training.
Over the next three years, Rs 18 crore was paid to training agencies which offered courses to 12,355 survivors and their children. However, none of them were able to secure any jobs as a result of the courses, which was a big blow as 70 percent of the survivors were manual workers who were unable to perform their old jobs after exposure to the gas.
Instead of releasing the rest of the funds for loans or training programmes, the state government planned to divert Rs 84 crore for infrastructure projects, a plan which was scrapped after survivor organisations wrote to the cabinet secretary. However, the funds have not yet been allocated to measures to assist the survivors.
While the Madhya Pradesh government has not responded to the campaign, when this question was raised with it by the newspaper Dainik Bhaskar, it said that jobs have been provided to survivors by the government, a claim strenuously denied by Rashida Bi and Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action.
Other questions which are of particular importance are about why the central and state governments have not asked for hearings of the matters in the Supreme Court regarding the tragedy, including a crucial case brought by the state government itself for increasing the level of compensation for the victims from the levels in the 1989 settlement approved by the apex court.
The case was last listed on 11 February 2020, and neither the state nor central government have mentioned it before the court or asked for urgent hearings.
While the state government has thus far ignored the campaign, opposition politicians finally visited the site of the dharna on 12 November. Congress MLAs Arif Masood and PC Sharma, who both represent gas-affected areas, visited the dharna and promised to take up the issues raised by the survivors at the next state assembly session.
The 18 Questions So Far
Out of the official total of 5,295 gas-related deaths, are 5,000 widows because the gas only killed married men?
Why hasn’t the owner of the land contaminated by Union Carbide/Dow Chemical, the MP government, ever sought compensation for environmental damage?
Why in the last 11 years has the MP government not filed a single application for urgent hearing of the curative petition?
Why are there still no treatment protocols for the proper treatment of gas victims, who as a result get only symptomatic treatments that often harm them?
In hospitals run by the government for gas victims why, for last 10 years, are 40% of Doctors’ posts and 56% of Specialists’ post left vacant?
Why has the PM not found time to meet the gas victims or talk about the victims of the world’s worst industrial disaster in any of his 5 visits to Bhopal?
Why has the MP government failed to provide employment to any gas victims or their children while it was sitting on 85 crore ($11.6 million) amount of money for last 10 years?
Doctors and Medical Researchers of BMHRC responsible for carrying out drug trials for multinationals without informed consent, resulting in at least 13 deaths in 13 trials, are not being prosecuted. Why?
Why are reports by official scientific agencies concerning soil and groundwater contamination by Union Carbide/Dow Chemical in Bhopal being ignored by the MP government?
Why has the MP government not made any efforts to monitor the spread of groundwater contamination , a scientific fact verified by IITR, Lucknow?
Why has the prosecution, CBI, not made any attempt so far to extradite the legal representative of Union Carbide and make him appear in the criminal case on the disaster?
Why doesn’t the Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research Centre (BMHRC) have a Gynaecology, Paediatrics, General Medicine departments till today ?
Why does the Gas Relief Minister plan to pour concrete over land poisoned with chemicals which persist in toxicity for 100 years, that the concrete will not stop from spreading, and that Dow Chemical is legally obliged to clean up?
Why has the Chief Minister not fulfilled any of its promises made on 03/12/2011 till today?
Why is the MP government presenting two different figures of death – 5295 and 15242 caused by the disaster to the Supreme Court?
Why is the MP government lying in the curative petition before the Supreme Court of India that 93% of gas survivors are only temporarily injured by gas exposure?
Why are 7 yoga centres built at the cost of 4 crores lying vacant and unused for last 9 years?
What has been done to improve upon the 2017 NIREH (National Institute for Research in Environmental Health) study that showed almost 9 times more congenital malformations in children born to gas exposed parents?
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