Community | November 29, 2009 | 4 comments

Bhopal's women still bear scars of gas hell

source: http://www.scotsman.com/latestnews/Bhopal39s-women-still-bear-scars.5867387.jp

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Vierotchka
HAZRA Bee is sitting cross-legged on a rug, a gold stud in her nose, greying black hair swept back. She switches on an electric fan, which ripples her peach sari in the stifling heat. She then begins her story:

"I know it was a Sunday, as my husband had been off that day. We'd had dinner and went to bed. He woke me around 2.30am and I remember him saying: 'I can smell chilli. Someone is burning chilli.' I started laughing and said: 'Why would anyone be burning chilli at this hour.'"

Inside, she witnessed a "scene from hell". "There were people foaming at the mouth and bodies everywhere. And people were coughing, crying and dying. I looked for my boy but could not see him. I found him later lying near a hand cart outside my home, unconscious," Hazra says.

Hazra recalls panic in the dark and people shouting, and then running frantically with three of her children. It was winter and very cold, yet her face was burning. She splashed water on it while taking refuge inside a nearby college and then sprinted back to search for her four-year-old son.

In her mind, she says, she can still see the emergency services at the factory near her home. People were being moved away but she entered to look for her child.

Inside, she witnessed a "scene from hell". "There were people foaming at the mouth and bodies everywhere. And people were coughing, crying and dying. I looked for my boy but could not see him. I found him later lying near a hand cart outside my home, unconscious," Hazra says.

(more at link)
  1. groups:
    Community,   Current Tonight,   Max and Jason: Still Up,   Human Rights
  2. tags:
    Environment,  India,  Corporations,  Disaster,  6 more
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4 comments // Bhopal's women still bear scars of gas hell

  • MotherForTruth
    • 0
      MotherForTruth  

    • Very, very sad how so many lives where effected in Bhopal. These tragedies are preventable.

      I read this article twice and fail to see how it relates to “A society that scorns the rights of women, has done a greater injustice to itself than it can ever imagine.”
      Instead I read “Hundreds of such women live in an area of Bhopal known as the "widow's colony"… Men where greatly effected as well… they are dead and can not show their scars.

    • 2 years ago
  • csmonut
    • 0
      csmonut  

    • A society that scorns the rights of women, has done a greater injustice to itself than it can ever imagine.
      As for Union Carbide, it is typical they fight what is just. Just as Exxon has fought the cleanup from the Valdez for many years.
      It all comes down to the bottom line, not the people.

    • 2 years ago
  • jubal
  • Progresshiv
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