17-year-old orphan walks on all fours after devastating gas explosion
More than 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas leaked, at least 3,800 dead, and over thousands affected by significant morbidity and premature death
On the 30th anniversary of the world’s worst industrial disaster, protesters in the city of Bhopal took part in a torch-lit procession, burned effigies representing Dow Chemical, and displayed placards demanding justice. Many, of whom were survivors, are in desperate need of change. The Bhopal gas tragedy occurred in December 1984 when the Union Carbide pesticide plant released highly toxic gases, such as methyl isocyanate, that filled the neighboring towns and affected over half a million people. At the time, only around 3,800 deaths were reported. However, in more recent years, government figures refer to an approximation of 15,000 killed since then. The deadly gas had caused immediate damages and long-term damage which include burning eyes and throat, nausea, collapse of the nervous system, physical deformities, etc.
To this day, survivors are still fighting to have the site cleaned of the toxic remains since the area had been neglected during the time Dow Chemical took over Union Carbide. There are high levels of contamination being found in the soil and groundwater, which have killed people who are too poor to move to areas with safer living conditions. This goes to show that disasters can have such tremendous effects on current and future generations. As a result, those who were exposed to the gas in 1984 now have, or have given birth to children with, physical and mental disabilities.
Among the thousands of survivors, Bharti Upadhyaya, 45, claims that he still suffers from chronic health problems nearly three decades after the explosion. “My lungs continue to bother me even after so many years. I feel breathless even after walking a little. Despite expensive treatment, doctors say my lungs will never recover fully and I may die in the next few years.”
Bharti Upadhyaya reminds me of the narrator and main character from Indra Sinha’s book Animal’s People. Focusing on the 1984 gas tragedy, the 17-year-old orphan tells his story on how his life changed after “that night.” Born a few days prior to the incident, he suffered physical deformities during the early stages of development that caused his spine to twist beyond repair and forced him to walk on all fours. This young man was tormented and given the nickname “Animal,” which stuck with him for the rest of his life. People dehumanized him, and it reached the point where he began to deny his humanity and identify himself as an animal.
I used to be human once. So I’m told. I don’t remember it myself but people who knew me when I was small say I walked on two feet just like a human being.
He could not identify as a human since he had lived this way for the past seventeen years; this was all he knew. He only knew how to walk on both hands and feet. He only knew what it was like to be looked at with disgust or pity. He only knew the aftermath of the Bhopal disaster.
The incident still affects India today. Similar to Bharti Upadhyaya and Animal, many children are being born with twisted limbs and other physical and mental deformities as a result of their parents’ exposure to the gas. Victims are neglected and deprived of the resources they need to get back on their own two feet. Decades have elapsed, and they continue to live in the same poor, overcrowded, disease-ridden conditions they did when the gas leak broke out. These people deserve to be helped. Instead of overspending on luxuries and things we do not need, we should be helping people in poverty-stricken countries to better their living conditions and promote homogeneity. With millions of families that live below the poverty lines and are unable to move to environmentally safer places, we can do our part and help victims through charitable contributions, trainings, and medical assistance. We need to stop dehumanizing the victims in order for them to accept the idea that everyone has the right to live in their truest form.
