Ruby Sul and Sanjay, Bhopali activists in Pune during the Raghu Rai exhibition
Ruby Sul is a striking and passionate young woman. She remembers
the night of the gas leak vividly from the many times she has heard
it recounted and from fragments that have been etched in her
memory. She remembers wearing her favourite blue frill frock that
night. She remembers holding on tightly to her mother´s kurta, "if
I had not held on I might not been here today", she says with
equanimity. "My mother, herself was in a bad way at the time, and
she was cradling my brother in her arms, fearing he was not going
to survive the night." She remembers a badam tree in her garden
that lost all its leaves and that the fallen leaves turned
purple
With her mother joining the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal and in
meeting Satinath Sarangi, an activist and chemical engineer
himself, she came to understand the layers of deceit and lies that
led to the disaster. Union Carbide´s double standards, the
government´s sell out to the company, the deadly after effects of
MIC and the manner in which the disaster changed the lives of
thousands of people forever more.
Ruby realised that the only way the survivors were ever going to
get justice was if they fought for their rights. She also joined in
the dharnas and actions that survivor groups organised to push the
government and apathetic corporation to act.
"When
we want to see young people as heroes in our cinemas, we want young
sportsmen, we say that young people should join politics - only
then things will change; why don´t we also realise that we need
young people to become activists?"
She strongly believes that young people will bring a spirit of
honesty, urgency, professionalism and verve to the struggle that
will add a new impetus and hasten the achievement of their goals!
Her conviction and optimism is infectious. Ruby wants to pursue a
career in chemistry. She wants to understand how the disaster could
have been prevented. Her dream is to replace poisonous chemical
pesticides with organic alternatives!
Sanjay Verma, who was but 6 months when the disaster occurred,
comes across as an extremely committed, sensitive and thoughtful
person. He lost seven members of his family in the immediate
aftermath of the gas leak. But as he says, "I was too young to
mourn then, but I know the emptiness that I have often felt and
have drawn comfort from my siblings´ memory of my parents."
He was saved that night because his sister, Mamta (who also
survived), bundled him up in a blanket and ran as fast she could.
The other member of his family who survived is Sunil, his elder
brother. However, he has been severely affected by the cocktail of
poisons inhaled that night. His brother suffers from breathlessness
and has acute bouts of depression. Sanjay now takes care of his
brother and doesn´t leave him alone for longer than necessary.
Sanjay lives with his brother in the widows´ colony in Bhopal.
He has seen the lives of these women fall apart completely, with
many of them having to sell their houses and move to shanties to
eke out a living. He has been to hospital often enough with his
brother, and seen the long queues of people waiting to be treated
for gas related ailments.
Sanjay also knows that he is lucky to have gotten away with just
eye problems, while a number of people of his age group have far
more serious illnesses. "I have seen children in the bastis really
short and also with really bad skin problems. The first thing that
needs to be done is a clean up of the site. Till we take away the
poisons from there more and more people will continue to be
affected. The gas leak claimed more than 20000 people, but the
pollution continuing to leach into the ground and contaminate the
air, is going to continue to slowly kill people. We need to change
this and quickly."
One is left feeling that if people like Ruby and Sanjay are part
of the campaign, Bhopal will see changes soon enough.
Ruby and Sanjay are in Pune to participate in the Raghu Rai
photo exhibition of pictures of the Bhopal gas disaster and after
titled 'Exposure - Portrait of a Corporate Crime´. Greenpeace has
taken this exhibition to Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, China,
Czech Republic, Argentina, USA and France amongst other countries.
In India it has been displayed at Mumbai, Chennai, New Delhi,
Cochin, Bhopal and Bangalore. Greenpeace will continue to take the
exhibition across India and the world to bring Bhopal back in the
consciousness of people. To shock and to ignite people to demand a
world where another Bhopal doesn´t happen.
For more information on the exhibition in Pune, please contact:
Sukanto Sengupta, Greenpeace India: Ph: 020-2565327
For more information on the Bhopal campaign, please contact:
Vinuta Gopal, Bhopal campaigner, Greenpeace India: +919845535418
