A tragedy perpetuated by official depravity

Even after 23 years a large number of the the Bhopal gas tradegy victims are still suffering due to the apathy of the state government. Also the victims who were not born at the time of the disaster but suffer congenital defects because of the gas are being completely ignored.

By N.D.Sharma

Babulal Gaur is the minister of commercial taxes in the government of Madhya Pradesh. A former chief minister, Gaur was a cabinet minister in the previous BJP government of Sunderlal Patwa (1990-1992) too. He has been an MLA since 1974. He is also eligible for receiving compensation for the Bhopal gas tragedy as his residence fell in one of the 36 wards declared affected by the gas leak. The compensation cheque has been delivered to Gaur at his residence by the officials concerned .

Nusrat Jehan was two-years-old when the tragedy struck Bhopal. It killed her childhood and adolescence. Afflicted with a host of ailments, she has been in and out of hospitals for the past 20 years. On April 4, 2004, she underwent an operation and could not present herself before the authorities on April 5 to claim compensation. When she appeared before the authorities after her discharge from hospital, she was told that the rules did not permit reopening a case dismissed in the absence of the claimant.

The two instances tell the story of depravity which has characterised the attitude of politicians and bureaucracy in dealing with the aftermath of the world's biggest industrial disaster. Twenty-three years after the tragedy, nearly three lakh people are still in need of continuous medical help - one-third of them are critically ill.. The major ailments caused by the gas leak include brain tumour, cancer, kidney failure - and, of course, the impairment of lungs and eyes. Women had disturbed menstruation cycles and many had found themselves incapable of reproduction. Proper medical help is still their primary need even though the incident took place more than two decades ago.
The compensation amount, too, is meagre: 50,000 rupees for injuries -and the last instalment was paid nearly 20 years after the tragedy. Rs one lakh has been given for death. In hindsight, it appears that the central government adopted a non-serious attitude at the time of accepting the 1989 settlement for $470 million with Union Carbide. It did not care to assess the growing and continued damage of the gas on the victims. This settlement was specifically for around 3,000 deaths and 120,000 injured. Until now, 15,274 people have been officially accepted as having succumbed to the gas leak due to the diseases it triggered, and the number of those still suffering from the after effects is around 5.72 lakh.

Even disbursement of this meagre compensation was tortuous for the victims. A section of the society - the politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen - never concealed their resentment over the "easy money" these "parasites" were getting. Babulal Gaur, then minister of Bhopal Gas Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation, said in the state Assembly in 1992 that the gas victims were quite well off and were no more in need of assistance.

Several projects for medical and economic rehabilitation of the gas victims were started in the late Eighties by the state government then headed by Motilal Vora. These were discontinued, one by one, by Patwa. The greater shock came when Digvijay Singh's Congress government started following in Patwa's footsteps. As Congress MP and Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president, Digvijay Singh, had been vehemently attacking the BJP government for its antipathy towards the Bhopal gas victims and on many occasions joined dharnas and agitations organised by voluntary organisations in support of the gas victims. The Congress manifesto for the 1993 Assembly elections (prepared under Digvijay Singh's directions) had promised all steps for quick disbursal of compensation to the victims and resumption of projects which were closed down by Patwa. His attitude towards the gas victims changed soon after he became chief minister in 1993. The Bhopal gas victims became anathema to him. His party's manifesto for the 1998 Assembly elections did not even mention the Bhopal gas victims.

The centre had provided around Rs 300 crore for economic rehabilitation of these hapless people but the gas victims are almost where they were left. Where has the money gone? Medicines worth hundreds of crores of rupees were purchased for gas victims and sold in bulk in the black market. Voluntary agencies intercepted trucks stealthily taking away the medicines meant for gas victims and reported the matter to the authorities. Not once, but several times over. But nothing happened.
Whatever little succour the victims have received has been through judicial orders. But unfortunately, the judiciary did not show the same zeal in helping these people as it did in coming to the aid of high-profile convicts like Navjot Singh Sidhu or Sanjay Dutt. It has never even bothered to ensure compliance of its own orders. An example will show how the "executive" has been virtually making a mockery of the Supreme Court's orders.

The apex court had expressed concern about an estimated one lakh people born around or immediately after the disaster. Disposing of a string of writ petitions on October 3, 1991, a division bench observed: "We are of the view that such contingencies shall be taken care of by obtaining an appropriate group insurance cover from the General Insurance Corporation of India or the Life Insurance Corporation of India for compensation to this contingent class of possible prospective victims."

The judgement added: "The period of insurance cover should be a period of eight years in the future. The number of persons to be covered by this Group Insurance Scheme should be about and not less than one lakh of persons … as this figure broadly accords with the percentage of population of the affected wards … and the number of persons found to be affected by medical categorisation … The possible claimants fall into two categories: those who were in existence at the time of exposure; and those who were yet unborn and whose congenital defects are traceable to MiC toxicity inherited or derived congenitally."

Neither the central government nor the successive state governments bothered about this section of people in spite of directive of the Supreme Court. As if to show its contempt for the apex court, the present BJP government issued a notification denying medical help to dependents of the gas victims - which means those who were not in existence on the day of the disaster but were born later would not be given medical or other assistance available to gas victims.