Author:
No Place To Run - 30 Years Later!
On the fateful night of 2-3 December in 1984, the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal manufacturing MIC gas spewed such strong fumes inside and outside the factory that it killed thousands and maimed hundreds of thousands in a matter of days. Known as the Bhopal Gas Disaster, the worst industrial disaster in history, it shocked the whole world.
PRIA had begun a programme on 'workers' education and occupational health' to promote safe and healthy work environment in early 1983. The PRIA team needed to respond to this disaster, but no one knew which gas was being manufactured in the Bhopal plant, what were its characteristics, and how its impacts could be neutralised. The newly established partnership of PRIA with the Highlander Research & Education Centre in Tennessee(USA), under the leadership of Juliet Merrifield and John Gaventa, came to our help; they found out that the mother plant of Union Carbide producing MIC gas was in Institute, West Virginia, and the Highlander Centre had good connections with the union there.
Within a short period, the Highlander Centre, PRIA and CSE published a Report enpost_titled 'No Place To Run'. It analysed how the multinational company had invested less in safety in Bhopal and kept the standards lower in comparison with the mother plant in USA. It also demonstrated how the factory management in Bhopal had ignored several calls by workers about various smaller leaks previously. Most critically, it showed how the Labour Department responsible for monitoring compliance with health and safety standards had been indifferent and inattentive.
Over the next period, several strange things happened. Hordes of international law firms came to chase victims to file law suits against the company; the local medical establishment invoked the Official Secrets Act to disallow the PRIA team and journalists from accessing post-mortem reports of the dead; the Indian scientific establishment 's prayed water from helicopters' days after the gas leak was over; Bhopal became a ghost city when helicopters arrived; samples of vegetation, water and soil brought by PRIA and CSE teams could not be tested in any labs in Delhi as the lab authorities were afraid of political fall-out; calls seeking compensation from Union Carbide grew.
The new government of late Shri Rajiv Gandhi brought in legislation to remove all future liability of the company after it had negotiated a compensation amount with the company, to be distributed by the government. Teams of students and faculty from Institute of Social Sciences were brought to Bhopal to undertake a survey of households to count the dead and the disabled, under security cover. As usual, the entire exercise in distribution of compensation was mired in corruption, inefficiency and controversies. Nobody knew how many died, how many lost their eyesight and how many had become severely disabled.
Over the last thirty years, the epilogue of the Bhopal saga continues to haunt us. Legislation, procedures and mechanisms for locating hazardous industry remain inadequate; the machinery for compliance is woefully weak and politically muted. The Labour Department lacks capacity - both staffing and competencies - to monitor compliance and take action; corruption and political pressure diffuse even the smallest efforts. No one really knows how many people live in the informal settlements of Bhopal today (or Delhi or Kanpur or Madurai for that matter); municipalities lack capacity - human and institutional - to even count their citizens. Most trade unions have not paid adequate attention to health and safety issues at the workplace; environmentalists have focused on effluents. Critical questions around choice of technology, products and locations remain undefined in any coherent policy framework, thereby giving unaccountable discretion to officials and ministers.
Over these years, civil society actions have largely remained focused on holding Union Carbide (or its new owner) to account, both in India and in America. As a result, the focus of agitation and advocacy on holding the central and state governments in the country itself accountable remained blurred. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, the new government in Delhi has to demonstrate how the lessons from that disaster have been utilised to create policies, legislation, institutions and procedures of reporting and compliance that will ensure that such occurrences are prevented.
This is all the more urgent as Prime Minister Modi's call for 'Make in India' may actually see a spur in manufacturing activities all over the country. Otherwise, there will literally be no place to run for 1.25 billion Indians
Rajesh Tandon
December 2, 2014
Founder-President, PRIA
PRIA’s MobiliseHER team traveled to Bangalore during the week of June, 10 – 14, 2024. The aim of the visit was to gain relevant insights into the civil society ecosystem in Bangalore and meet different organisations to understand the city through a lens of gender and inclusive mobility.
Working at PRIA, often leads us to various cities across the country. Each trip is an opportunity to witness firsthand the challenges and triumphs of different communities.
Mr. Yedukrishnan V has recently joined PRIA after gaining valuable experience in the development sector. Drawing from his journey in the social sector and personal encounters in Kerala, he emphasises the importance of participatory governance and research in empowering marginalised communities.'
