Bhopal gas leak victims await justice even after 37 years

The victims of the toxic gas leak in Bhopal are still waiting for proper medical care and compensation, 37 years after the accident that claimed over 2000 lives.

The survivors of the poisoning by methylisocyanate (MIC) are still suffering from the effect of the gas and are awaiting proper medical care. The survivors have complained of various health issues, but are said to be given merely symptomatic treatment.

The gas leaked from the Bhopal plant of Union Carbide India Limited on the night of December 2 and 3, 1984, with an official death toll of 2,259 that night. Nearly six lakh people over a vast area of Bhopal were affected by the gas. Now the Madhya Pradesh government has claimed in the court that only 529 people have died due to the gas leak, though records show that the government has given pension to nearly 5,000 women, who lost their husbands in the gas leak.

The gas victims have been fighting for their rights all these years. Most of them have joined the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha. The Morcha and the the Bhopal Group for Information and Action have been following up the matter at different levels.

The Union and the State Governments had agreed in 2010 that the American corporations (now Union Carbide has been taken over by Dow Chemicals) had to pay additional compensation to the victims and their families, but there is no progress in that direction.