The gas leak in Bhopal ranks as one of the world’s worst industrial accidents. 40 metric tonnes of lethal Methyl Iso-Cynate (MIC) gas escaped from the Dow Chemical subsidiary Union Carbide factory in 1984, exposing over 500,000 people, instantly killing some 8,000, and causing 25,000 deaths in the past 26 years. Today, some 120,000 to 150,000 people are chronically ill from exposure to MIC, approximately 10% of Bhopal’s population. The list of medical conditions is long, from respiratory problems, nerve disorders, blindness, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, brain damage, paralysis and gastric issues, to reproductive problems and stunted growth in children and of women pregnant at the time of exposure, 43.86% lost their child. Data suggest delayed growth of the male until puberty and some slowing of growth of the female after attaining puberty. Gas exposure also weakened immune systems, which has resulted in survivors more prone to die of disease, whether malaria, tuberculosis (TB), typhoid or dengue fever. TB is four times higher here than elsewhere in the country.
Compensation has been woefully inadequate. Union Carbide/Dow Chemical paid out just $470 million in compensation, which the Indian government then sat on for years earning interest before reluctantly doling out the money in 2004. Survivors got just 25,000 Rupees ($555) each, of which many had already spent significant amounts on doctors, lawyers, transportation and bribery to get their cases to court. Compare that to the amount the US government forced BP earlier this year to stump up for the Gulf oil spill – $20 billion.
Shamshad Begum lives in a one-room house down a small alleyway off Union Carbide Road, which flanks the MIC factory. When the gas escaped from the factory at five past midnight on December 2, 1984, Begum ran with her husband and two daughters, leaving her mother in law and young son behind as they weren’t able to move. “Bodies filled the roads. The gas was a blue colour, my throat felt bitter and we were all choking. I felt like I wasn’t going to survive, I was going to die, and I thought it better to die than breathe. My daughter’s eyes turned red, like a flame,” she said. Her mother-in-law died that night, her son the next day. In the following years, she lost three children during pregnancy. A second son died in 1988, her eldest, married daughter is sick all the time, and her 15 year old daughter suffers from lung problems while her husband died three years ago from gas related side effects. “I’ve lost half of my family due to the disaster,” she said. Without a husband or son to earn money, Begum struggles to survive on a widow’s pension of 150 Rps ($3.33) a month and renting out the next door room to migrant labourers for 400 Rps ($8.88) a month. Nearly 26 years after the disaster, there is still no justice and no environmental clean up, while victims continue to die from exposure and children continue to suffer. It is as crystal clear a case as you can get of profit before people.
“What has happened here in Bhopal is a guidebook for how to escape corporate liability,” said Satinath Sarangi, managing trustee of the Sambhavna Trust Clinic.
Barack Obama arrives in India to-day. While issues of terrorism, strengthening bilateral ties and the usual mumbo-jumbo will be on the table during the Obama visit, business will of course get a top billing.
"The primary purpose is to take a bunch of US companies and open up markets so that we can sell in Asia, in some of the fastest-growing markets in the world, and we can create jobs here in the United States of America," Obama said yesterday.
His entourage is crammed with top officials from departments of commerce and agriculture, and contains 250 prospective investors. In Mumbai the president will meet leading businessmen.
“Obama is coming with the largest ever entourage of business representatives to get deals in India, but there has not been a single step to ensure that companies should abide by the law of the land or listen to the courts,” said Sarangi. He added that the United States-India Business Council will do what it can to prevent such laws being applied to US companies. The CEO at the time, Warren Anderson, has not been extradited from the US to India to face charges brought against him. Getting Anderson into an Indian dock seems unlikely. It would set a bad precedent if the US handed him over. It would mean that could happen again, opening a Pandora’s Box for corporations and management wanted for breaking laws around the world. Moreover, it would discourage US and foreign investment in India.
The system is still operating to the mantra “business as usual”
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