Bhopal Survivors Tour Visits Houston
by Charles Stillman, July 2009

A group of victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster organized a 33 city tour of the U.S. and Canada to mark the 25th anniversary of the event and raise awareness about the ongoing industrial contamination which has claimed more than 22,000 lives.

CLEAN and the Association for India’s Development (AID) Houston Chapter sponsored the tour’s visit to Houston on May 20th at the University of Houston. Sarita Malvia and Safreen Khan, both teenagers and victims of the disaster, spoke about its lasting effects, including the fact that hundreds of Bhopalis are suffering from chronic diseases and congenital disorders.

Sarita and Safreen have played a prominent role in the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB), an international organization comprised of the victims and their supporters. In addition to passionate grassroots activism, they have traveled widely to bring awareness to the campaign.

The two young women were accompanied by Rachna Dhingra, a long time activist of the campaign. Rachna migrated to the US to pursue her education and career, but was soon affected by the plight of the victims. She moved to Bhopal after quitting her job and has since been working fulltime on the campaign.

The campaign and tour are committed to ‘No More Bhopals’ - exposing the great need for more effective regulation to protect marginalized communities from chemical harm. The Bhopal campaign has successfully acquired support from a number of key North American NGOs and even government leaders in their call to hold Union Carbide’s parent, Dow Chemical, responsible for the ongoing toxic disaster in Bhopal and its clean up. Houston area Congressional representative, Sheila Jackson-Lee is among those in support of the group’s efforts.

The aim of the tour was also to connect with other communities fighting similar environmental justice (EJ) battles. Juan Parras, CLEAN’s director of community outreach, took the delegation on a Toxic Tour of the Ship Channel communities to give them a feel for Houston’s EJ issues. Later that night at University of Houston, Sarita commented that, “People said that what happened in Bhopal happened because it was India, so how come it’s happening here (in the U.S.A) as well?”

For more information on the campaign and the tour, please visit: Bhopal Survivors Tour 2009.