Over 25,000 people are estimated to have died in the Bhopal gas disaster that occurred 40 years ago on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984. Close to 550,000 suffered injuries of varying degrees. The toxic effects are visible in the city’s population even today. And there is no telling how long its impact will linger — over one million tonnes of soil in and around the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) controlled pesticide plant, the epicentre of the disaster, lie contaminated while the extent of contamination of groundwater and aquifers is yet to be properly estimated.
What compounds the suffering of the affected is that the core issues they face remain unaddressed to this day. The current status of health care, compensation, rehabilitation, prosecution of the accused, and remediation of the environment, read against the continuing demands, is briefly recounted below.
Gaps in medical care: There are over 450,000 registered victims seeking medical treatment at the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC). Regrettably, they and those registered with other hospitals and clinics under the gas relief department of the state government are denied the best available treatment, despite ₹1,200 crore earmarked for this lying unutilised with the Union health ministry for the last 12 years.
BMHRC still awaits upgradation to autonomous institution status, which can facilitate the recruitment of specialists and consultants with appropriate emoluments. Forty years after the disaster, and in this digital age, the digitisation of the victims’ medical records remains poor, due to which the magnitude and gravity of the impact are underplayed and distorted.
The National Institute for Research in Environmental Health has stopped all Bhopal-disaster-related medical research since 2018, barring one, which began as a six-monthly epidemiological survey in 1986 with a cohort of 95,000. The size of the cohort had shrunk to 8,759 individuals at the start of 2024, and no explanation of the current fate of the rest or reasons behind their exclusion has been made clear.
Inadequate compensation: As per the settlement terms between UCC and the Centre, finalised on February 14-15, 1989, under the aegis of the Supreme Court, a sum of ₹715 crore (at then exchange rates) compensation assumed just 3,000 dead from the gas leak and 102,000 injured. However, the processing of one-million-plus claims for compensation over a 12-year period (1992-2004) by the claims courts under the Office of the Welfare Commissioner, Bhopal, pegged the total human casualty, including the dead, at close to 573,000.
This led to the disbursal of the compensation amount meant for 105,000 among a victim pool that was more than five times larger. While each gas victim, based on the underestimated number, was supposed to receive a mere ₹68,095 under the unjust compensation negotiations, each State-acknowledged victim received a paltry ₹12,478 (both amounts at February 1989 dollar-rupee exchange rates). A Special Leave Petition was filed before the Supreme Court on March 17, 2010, by eight members of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan (BGPMUS) and Bhopal Gas Peedit Sangharsh Sahyog Samiti (BGPSSS). This has been pending for the last 14 years.
State of criminal case: Although Union Carbide India Limited and seven officials were convicted by the Bhopal chief judicial magistrate in 2010, all convicts were released on bail, and they filed appeals that have been pending for the last 14 years. As of today, four of the seven are dead. The only positive sign is that, due to the tireless efforts of victim and activist groups, the Dow Chemical Company, which now fully owns UCC, was forced to appear from October 3, 2023 onwards in the criminal case before the Bhopal district court.
No remediation: Even after 40 years, the Centre and the state government have yet to fully assess the contamination of soil and groundwater and initiate remediation measures, despite the Supreme Court issuing specific directions in this regard on August 9, 2012. No action has been initiated on the proposal to hold a joint meeting of affected and concerned parties to draw out a road map and fix responsibility as well as suggest ways to adopt the best scientific options for remediation. Meanwhile, the Centre plans to incinerate about 337 tonnes of toxic waste stored in sheds within the plant at a cost of ₹126 crore. In other words, ₹37 lakh will be spent for disposing of each tonne of toxic waste.
Poor rehabilitation: The state government has yet to implement a comprehensive plan to rehabilitate the most vulnerable sections of the gas-affected, especially the orphaned, the widowed, the elderly, and the differently abled. These vulnerable sections need far more support from the State than the low quantum of relief offered.
ND Jayaprakash is co-convener, Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti.The views expressed are personal
