AID volunteers recently spoke with two prominent Bhopal gas disaster survivor-activists, Ms. Rashida Bee and Mr. Shahid Noor. A Goldman Environmental Award winner, Rashida Bee is the founder of Chingari Trust, an organization devoted to the cause of Bhopal survivors. Shahid Noor, president of Bhopal ki Aawaaz, was himself only eight years old when he was orphaned on that fateful night. The activists addressed several aspects of the current campaign for justice in Bhopal. To this day, there are no precise statistics available on the exact number of children born with congenital abnormalities in the area. Rashida Bee raised concern about the lack of doctors in the affected areas. The trust, which has helped in the surgical treatment of three children, also sponsors a small livelihood project for marginalized women survivors.

Rashida Bee spoke of the plan by four Bhopal justice organizations for a "Right to Live" dharna scheduled to start on February 20. The campaign is aimed at protesting the apathy of the state government and to push for the resolution of their long pending demands for rehabilitation. At press time, this dharna was into its nineteenth day and six survivors were on their sixth day of indefinite fasting. Responding to questions on the Tata offer of a Bhopal cleanup, she pointed to the lax environmental record of the Tatas, and how their initiative is little more than corporate collusion with Dow. She emphasized the importance of upholding the "polluter pays" principle, which the Supreme Court of India endorsed in August 2003. She encourages the boycott of Tata products to protest this collusion.
Both speakers underscored the role of email and fax campaigns in backing up the movement, and in exerting pressure on the government. Rashida Bee asserted that the target of the campaign is two-fold - to hasten the clean-up this year and to achieve some amount of rehabilitation. She urged all supporters of the movement to pay close attention to the dharna. She and other activitists certainly draw inspiration from supporters of the campaign worldwide and she requests that we continue our campaigns.

Victory in Bhopal!
On March 19, the fast by survivors ended with the State government agreeing to implement key demands of rehabilitation and reduce ongoing water contamination. AID thanks everyone who contributed to this hard-earned victory.


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Compiled by Students for Bhopal