[The following statement was issued in response to the deaths of more than 2,000 residents of Bhopal, India, due to poisonous methyl isocyanate gas that leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant there on Dec. 3. 1984. The statement was signed by 16 organizations — including the Indian section of the Fourth International — making up the Movement for Safe Environment.]
We have witnessed the worst ever industrial and environmental disaster in the history of humankind in Bhopal recently. This horrendous tragedy has forced people from all walks of life to react strongly and actively.
Industrialisation in India has taken little account of either the appropriateness of technology or work-related health issues, safety measures, or health hazards for people at large. Hazards and accidents to industries — whether in textiles, chemicals, mines, petrochemicals, railways, docks, cements, or fertilizers are either hushed up, underreported, or are totally ignored. And even when they are known, neither the management, nor the government. nor workers organisations, nor voluntary groups have paid much attention to it. The time for passive acceptance of industrial hazards is forever past.
What happened in Bhopal is not merely a tragedy — it is a crime against people. We mourn the dead. And strongly condemn those who were responsible for it.
This incident proves to us over again that we cannot depend on industrialists or governments to ensure our health and safety. We appeal to the citizens — professional bodies, civil liberties organisations, workers unions, women's groups, and individuals — to press for the following demands through demonstration, mass education, signature campaign, letters to the editor in the press, legal action, and by sending petitions to Assemblies and to the parliament.
1. Citizen's committees: Citizens' vigilance
committees which can co-opt legal, medical, and technical experts in the field should be constituted for supervision and effective implementation of the measures recommended
2. Punishment to the guilty: All persons, organisations, and agencies responsible for the tragedy — Union Carbide management, state and central government which sanctioned the plant, supervisory and monitoring agencies including factory and explosives inspectormust be severely punished.
3. Rehabilitation, compensation, and other aid to victims: Victims should be paid a compensation that is at least equivalent to that legally available in the parent country of Union Carbide, i.e., in the U.S.A. Those who have been disabled should be rehabilitated and provided employment. Union Carbide should be charged with the financing of the setting up of rehabilitation centres. A Special court must be constituted for the speedy processing of Bhopal cases. Long-term monitoring of health conditions of victims, epidemiological and environmental studies must be instituted immediately, paying special attention to the fact that women might have been more susceptible. The results of these studies should be published in the mass media. All arrangements must be made to provide health-care facilities for those who still suffer from long-term effects of the poisoning, years from now
4. Right to information: All the information with Union Carbide, especially with reference to details of manufacturing process, immediate, long-term, carcinogenic, and genetic effects of MIC [methyl isocyanate] and phosgene must be made available to the publie. The government must intervene to obtain this information immediately. All hospital records of victims and post-mortem reports of the dead must be made public. All information-process details and toxicological data of products — of all hazardous plants in neighbouring areas [must be made available] in a payment of compensation a strict liability of the company, must be brought into existence.
6. Environmental and health studies around existing & proposed industries: The government should finance citizens' committees or other independent authority to undertake environmental and health studies around existing hazardous plants and industrial areas. These should be accessible to the public and periodic surveys carried out to assess ill effects. It should be made mandatory to issue public notice adequately in advance of the setting up of any new potentially hazardous plant. Health and environmental studies must be undertaken around the sites and made public.
7. Rights to workers, unions, and citizens" committees: Independent committees of workers and their representatives should be given the right to investigate work conditions and to make direct complaint to the court where necessary. All workers in such plants should be provided with relevant safety equipment. All workers - whether temporary, permanent, badli [casual], or contract - should have the right to stop working with full payment until hazardous conditions are remedied.
People unite now!
No more Bhopals!
People's Science Movement, India: Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights; Inquilabi Communist Sangathan [Revolutionary Communist Organization]. Indian section of the Fourth International; Nanjavan Bharat Sabha; Lok Vigyan Sangathan, Maharashtra; Medico Friend Circle, India; Doctors for Peace and Life; Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors, KEM. Bombay; Mazdoor Mukti Committee, Calcutta; Shramik Mukti Dal, Maharashtra; Kashtakari Sangathana, Thane; Yukrand,
Maharashtra; Krantiba Phule Sanskritik Manch; Khad Kamgar Sangh; Forum for Science, Technology, and Society; Indian Federation of Trade Unions.