When charity is a bribe to forget

Thirty years ago, a Union Carbide chemical factory began leaked 27 tons of the deadly gas methyl isocyanate, engulfing a large part of Bhopal in India, immediately killing more than 3,000 people, thousands more died in the following days and thousands more since due to gas related diseases. More than 150,000 people still suffer from cancer, tuberculosis and other serious diseases due to contaminated water and soil, according to NGOs that work with the gas-leak victims, while children continue to be born with mental disabilities and epilepsy. A 19-year study released in 2011 by the Indian Council of Medical Research found that the incidence of cancer among men living in gas-affected areas of Bhopal increased 115 percent for women between 1988 and 2007, and for men, 72 percent, compared with those living in areas not affected by the gas.

Union Carbide Corp., now a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co., says it has provided sufficient compensation and relief to the victims and survivors of the gas leak. In 1985, a year after the disaster, Union Carbide identified 94 percent of the approximately 500,000 victims as “being temporarily injured” and gave them roughly $415 each. In another attempt to wash their hands of the disaster, four years later, as part of a settlement, the company agreed to pay $470 million to the Indian government. Union Carbide has said that, under the terms of the settlement, the government assumed responsibility for distributing the money and providing medical coverage to Bhopal residents in the event of future illnesses. Protesters, meanwhile, say that money was insufficient — just 15 percent of what the government initially sought — and only half of what the Indian Council for Medical Research, a public-health organization, said is necessary to rehabilitate survivors.

Dow, which bought Union Carbide in 2001, has said that it is a separate company and bears no responsibility to clean up the waste it did not create. Dow has spent millions on corporate philanthropy in India.

“Instead of cleaning up after themselves in Bhopal, Dow is trying to up its public image by some deliberate charity initiatives in other parts of the country,” says Safreen Khan, 19, a member of the group Children Against Dow Carbide. “This is like cutting a forest in one place and planting a few trees in another.”

The toxic waste continues to seep from the factory and pond remains a big point of contention. Samples of water tested in 2009 by the Bhopal Medical Appeal, a nonprofit that works with the survivors, showed high levels of contamination. Dow says that, since the 1989 settlement, any responsibility for cleaning up the site has belonged to the government. “If Dow Chemicals clean up in Bhopal, it would be an admission of their guilt,” says Rasheeda Bee, who helps run Chingari Trust. “They would rather provide safe drinking water elsewhere,” says Bee, referring to Dow’s corporate social-responsibility activities in other parts of the country that involve water purification.

“It is a dangerous precedent that Dow is setting through its corporate social-responsibility initiatives. It is sending out a message to other such companies that their negligence can cause disabilities in some children and maim them for life if they shell out some change to provide prosthetics to others,” Shezadi Bee says. “Looks like several future generations will have to carry the fight forward.”