Join us in Pittsburgh on December 8 for our 28th annual Write-a-thon and Humn Rights Festival. Event page: http://amnestypgh.org/?p=34969

Rampyari Bai & Safreen Khanr

JUSTICE FOR SURVIVORS OF BHOPAL GAS LEAK

December 3, 2014 marks the 30th anniversary of one the world’s most devastating industrial disasters – the 1984 gas leak in Bhopal, India. Between 7,000 and 10,000 people died within three days after toxic gas containing deadly chemicals leaked from a pesticide plant owned and operated by Union Carbide India Limited.

Activists Rampyari Bai and Safreen Khan know the full horror of the disaster. Rampyari’s daughter-in-law was seven months pregnant on the night of the Bhopal gas leak. When the gas hit the community, she suddenly went into labor. She and her baby died in the hospital soon afterwards. In the wake of this tragedy, Rampyari herself has struggled with cancer.

Safreen Khan’s father has had serious heart problems, and her mother has difficulties with her eyesight. Safreen told us that many children in her community are born with disabilities and deformities. Local residents believe that the widespread health problems have been made worse because people have to drink contaminated water.

Survivors of the gas leak have never received adequate compensation to cover the full extent of their injuries. Many have been driven deeper into poverty, yet the companies involved have never been held fully accountable. This includes U.S. company Dow Chemical, which has repeatedly ignored calls to answer charges of “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” for its wholly-owned subsidiary, Union Carbide Corporation.