BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT AND THE

CORPORATES
“One death is a tragedy. A million deaths’ is a statistic.”

This photograph by Pablo Bartholomew from the Bhopal Gas

tragedy site won the World Press Photo of the Year in 1984.

This photo accurately depicts the state of affairs at the site and
how the tragedy has affected several peoples’ lives all over these
years.

This could be seen with devastating effect in the Bhopal Gas

tragedy, one of India’s most heavily criticized disasters. The
casualties and the trauma caused are immeasurable in monetary
terms and one, therefore, should not do it.

ROLE OF CORPORATES
There were some serious ethical issues which need to be looked into. The company
UCIL chose to produce MIC (methyl isocyanite) at a place where at least 120000
people lived and worked in the factory. The storage facility of the plant was not up
to the industry stipulated standards and therefore the gas ultimately leaked out and
killed and rendered thousands of people handicapped with serious ailments in their
sleep.

MIC in the tank was filled to 87% of its capacity while the maximum permissible was
50%. MIC was not stored at zero degrees centigrade as prescribed and the
refrigeration and cooling systems had been shut down five months before the
disaster, as part of UCC's global economy drive. Vital gauges and indicators in the
MIC tank were defective. The flare tower meant to burn off MIC emissions was under
repair at the time of the disaster and the scrubber contained no caustic soda. It also
reported leaks of phosgene, MIC and chloroform, ruptures in pipework and sealed
joints, absence of any earth wire on one of the three MIC tanks and poor adjustment
of certain devises where excessive pressure could lead to water entering the
circuits.

From the above view, it seems very clear that it is the company’s fault and it should
have sprung into immediate action. Which, of course, it did not.
All it did was it prolonged the misery of the inflicted by not accepting their fault and
therefore actually causing immense difficulties to them. They withheld the actual
description of the gas leaked and its adequate medical repercussions and
subsequent treatment.

The issues I believe that were flouted by the company were-

- Settling of a toxic chemical plant in a densely populated area

- Absolute ignorance of maintenance and infrastructural faults

- Ignorance and no action taken against leaks and ruptures reported

- The lack of empathy on part of the company for the employees of its own
plant as they were harmed ultimately in the aftermath

- The company prioritized on cost cutting rather than the basic necessity of its
employees’ lives

- The shutting down of employee safety systems for even more exploitation of
manpower

- Gross negligence and indifference shown post-leak to save the company

image

- Avoidance of timely compensation and treatment of those afflicted

- Blaming the fault onto a fictional Sikh terrorist and pinning it on one of their
Sikh workers

- No functioning sewage system, untreated human waste was dumped into two
nearby lakes, one a source of drinking water

- The city had four major hospitals but there was a shortage of physicians and
hospital beds

- No mass casualty emergency response system in place

- Management of industrial development requires that appropriate resources

be devoted to advance planning before any disaster occurs

- Communities that do not possess infrastructure and technical expertise to

respond adequately to such industrial accidents should not be chosen as sites
for hazardous industries

- Finally, the company’s decision of going offensive overall in the courts post
the tragedy even with the cogency of the fact that they had caused so many
premature deaths and the entire fault was theirs
Finally, in the February of 1989 the Supreme Court of India ruled against the
company and asked them to pay $ 470 million as damages to the victims of the
disaster.

This when we work it out according to numbers, comes down to just 10000 rupees
per affected person if divided equally.

This fact throws light on the fact that how our own courts and our government let
the company off so easily when there were not just deaths to contend with but also
people who had not died but alive with serious physical defects that rendered their
life unlivable.

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
It’s almost 26 years since the tragedy it seems apparent that the government has
not drawn any important leanings from it.

Instead of ensuring and implementing strategies that would stop another Bhopal
from happening our government has chosen to create many such potential Bhopals
all over the country.

This has just emboldened the multinationals which already think of India as a cheap
labor hub. They are now aware of the fact that they can play with the employees’
health and can easily get away with it by twisting the arm of the law and the
government.

These statements may seem cynical but even after 25 years many actions are still
left to be executed.

- The memorial to be erected for the dead has still not even started

- The cleaning has not been carried out properly and the toxicities have
permeated into the water and the ground

- Under the so-called rehabilitation program of the government the people

have not been provided with basic amenities of clean toilets or even pure
drinking water
 - No provision of pension to the widows, the senior affected citizens or the
handicapped

- People still dying due to lack of proper treatment and medical care

- Over 600 people are in-line to seek immediate medical care and fast
treatment due to their deteriorating condition

- Even after the Supreme Court’s ruling the victims have not been awarded
their decided compensation

- Finally, the culprits, namely Union Carbide Limited are yet to be justly
punished considering the amount of loss they have perpetrated on the public

The 1989 Bhopal Settlement between the Union of India and Union Carbide was
based on assumption that only 3000 gas-victims had died in the tragedy and
another 102000 had suffered injuries in varying degree. However, the Claims Courts
established by the Welfare Commissioner, Bhopal, has determined that there were
in all 574,367 gas-victims including dead, which effectively meant that the
magnitude of the dead and injured was at least FIVE times more than what was
assumed at the time of the Settlement.

The cases against the company are still moving dreadfully slowly at the Court of
The Chief Judicial Magistrate in Bhopal. The relief actions and the initiatives taken
by the State and the Central government have by and far, proved insufficient and
ineffective.

Sagar Pai

Roll no.: 43/2009

Section: C (Finance)