30 years later, Bhopal today

New Delhi, November 10: "kal ka bharosa nahi, hum to 30 saal intezaar kar chuke; bahut hote hai 30 saal," mourned Zarina Bi with teary eyes as she reached Delhi this morning with her husband, protesting against Dow Chemicals and heedless government, 30 years after the tragedy at Bhopal.

Even before she started talking, her eyes were watery, a consequence of the gas leak and the contaminated environment, toxic land, water and air, she has been living in, for past 35 years in Shahjahanabad in old Bhopal. She suffers serious health problems today-- diabetes, blood pressure, kidney problems, but is that it? She lost her father-in-law, two months after the deadly night of 2-3 December and her son ten years ago. After the heinous corporate crime in 1984, she gave birth to a daughter, who suffers similar health issues.

The survivors were given health cards for treatment in the Bhopal Memorial Hospital, where the treatment provided had been satisfactory. The progeny of these surviving mothers are not entitled to any such medical aid. The private doctors charge much, the government hospitals are in a deplorable state and the financial conditions of these poor people doesn't allow them to reach proper medical support.

 The only ray of hope was the compensation promised by the company responsible for the disaster-- Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, but to the utter dismay of the victims, they only got 25,000 rupees as compensation, not all of them were fortunate enough though.

" '84 seems just like yesterday, 30 years later, the coming generations were ruined, the situation went from worse to worst, not one day but annihilation of generations," remarked Rasheeda Bi, the leader of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationary Karmchari Sangh, a trade union of those illiterate women who stood against the atrocities they were facing, when they had no other way out.

Naazma, another survivor narrated a similar story and belonged to a family which was a victim of this inter-generational disaster. "Our whole family has come under the grips of the toxicity of the effluents from carbide plant. The air we breathe, the water we drink and the land we live on is still poisoned." It has already reached the third generation where her nephew was born with damaged kidneys, just like his father.

Every person present there was a story that was made invisible-- are they or are they not?, today they are raging a war of identity as the victims of this catastrophe struggle to prove they are victims, they had a colony to their names for such a long time but to avail compensations and the like of it, the widows undergo a grueling process.

25,000 dead and counting...

half a million poisoned

150,000 battling chronic illness

10s of 1000s of second generation children

marked by carbide's poisons

30 years later, Bhopal today.