Bhopal gas disaster victims used to getting rough deal

Victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy have, it seems, become used to injustice. On Monday, seven influential officers of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) were convicted by a court with a mere two-year sentence for causing the world’s worst industrial disaster in 1984.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court had turned down an ailing man’s plea who wanted compensation for diseases contracted from exposure to methyl isocyanate (MIC). Forty metric tonnes of the poisonous gas were accidentally released into the atmosphere from a pesticide factory owned by UCIL. The wind carried the gas to surrounding areas, mainly densely populated slums, exposing around half a million people. People woke up coughing and vomiting and many reported a severe burning sensation in their eyes and chest.

Abhishek Verma was one of those exposed to the gas. But, the court rejected his claim of Rs10 lakh, even though he had been exposed to MIC in his mother’s womb on the night of December 2-3, 1984. Verma was born in 1985.

His mother suffered grave internal injuries as a result of exposure to MIC and the little boy soon came in the grip of chronic chest and lung ailments, which led to heart disease. His father had no choice but to pay the medical bills as authorities refused to entertain their claims. They said Abhishek wasn’t directly affected by the toxic gas.

A bench of justices RV Raveendran and P Sathasivam observed that Abhishek “was unable to demonstrate how he was entitled to be placed in a higher category under the scheme [compensation] so as to become entitled for higher compensation.”

“Abhishek produced some documents to show that he has been undergoing treatment for bronchitis and other problems...Even on merit, we find no reason to interfere with the categorisation of Abhishek for the purpose of compensation,” the judges added.

What’s more, even the Madhya Pradesh government told the apex court that children conceived in the gas-affected environment or born after the tragedy were not entitled to free treatment after age of 18. The government’s confession came after some victims said that children of gas victims above the age of 18 are not being given free treatment in specialised hospitals.

The Indian Council of Medical Research, which was asked to study the effects of MIC on people, said that the gas had caused grave damage to human beings.

Experts are unanimous that had the gas victims been given “correct medication”, the long-term effects of the exposure could have been contained.

According to Chandra Bhushan, the associate director of Centre for Science and Environment, “The gas has and will continue to impact the people of Bhopal. In several cases, the gas might have mutated the genes of victims.’’

Ritesh Pal, a researcher with Bhopal’s Sambhavna clinic, said, “We are surveying areas where the gas spread to trace birth defects attributable to the leak. Since January 2009, we have surveyed 2,987 families and found blindness, poor eyesight, cerebral palsy, cleft lips, cleft palates, fused fingers and other disfigurements in 141 children below 12 years and 89 above that age.”

But the government, which claimed the compensation of $470 million in 1989 from the parent firm Union Carbide Corporation on behalf of the victims, has been found to be uncaring about the well-being of victims.