Bhopal: 30 Years of Struggle and Survival | Mickey Z.

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Photo credit: Mickey Z.

Interview with Reena Shadaan

Mickey Z. -- World News Trust

“If you believe in corporate accountability, environmental health and justice, social justice, reproductive justice, human rights and a toxic-free future for all, the Bhopal gas disaster is an issue that should matter to you.”

- Reena Shadaan

What does the name “Bhopal” mean to you?

Considered to be the world’s worst industrial disaster, here’s a brief description of the events of Dec. 2-3, 1984, from the Bhopal Medical Appeal: “On the night of Dec. 2nd, 1984, a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, began leaking 40 tons of the deadly gas methyl isocyanate. None of the six safety systems designed to contain such a leak were operational, allowing the gas to spread throughout the city of Bhopal. Half a million people were exposed to the gas and 25,000 have died to date as a result of their exposure. More than 150,000 people still suffer from ailments caused by the accident and the subsequent pollution at the plant site. These ailments include blindness, extreme difficulty in breathing and gynecological disorders.”

“In addition to the dead, hundreds of thousands were injured, and thousands more deal with lingering maladies,” writes Kyeann Sayer at TreeHugger.com. “Children born years later face reproductive problems and physical malformations. The original settlement between Union Carbide and India did not quantify these effects, and current definitions of corporate liability do not include them. Victims continue to struggle for redress from the Indian government and Dow Chemical (who bought Union Carbide).”

How has Union Carbide/Dow gotten away with this atrocity and why aren’t more global activists talking about Bhopal? What’s being done on the ground right now as the 30th anniversary of this disaster approaches? What can we do to help?

To help answer these and other questions, I reached out to my friend Reena Shadaan, a member of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal-North America's (ICJB-NA) Coordinating Committee, a group that focuses on bringing the Bhopalis struggle for justice and a toxic-free future to North America.

Reena is also completing her MA in Gender Studies and Feminist Research at McMaster University, and has degrees in Social Work and Development Studies from York University (Toronto, Canada) where she carried out research on Bhopali women’s activism and empowerment in the aftermath of the Bhopal gas disaster.

“Learning about the struggle from the perspective of women-activists, who have been the sustaining force in this 30-year struggle, taught me a great deal about activism and solidified my commitment to environmental justice,” Shadaan explains.

Besides her work with ICJB-NA, Reena intends to continue research work on women's environmental justice activism. In the midst of all this, she took a break to do an interview with me. Our conversation went a little something like this…

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http://worldnewstrust.com/bhopal-30-years-of-struggle-and-survival-mickey-z