Sitara Bee, a 72-year-old beedi roller in Old Bhopal’s Teelajamalpura locality, lost a daughter and her husband to illnesses caused by the Bhopal gas leak of 1984.

On December 2-3 night that year, leaked methyl isocyanate gas from a pesticide factory of the multinational Union Carbide directly killed around 2,500 people in Bhopal.

Thousands — like Sitara’s daughter and husband — have since suffered painful deaths from illnesses triggered by the industrial disaster, while the survivors’ legal battle for higher compensation continues four decades on. The company itself has changed hands and is now owned by another US-based chemicals giant, Dow Incorporated.

The Indian Council of Medical Research had calculated the toll of people killed by poisoning at 15,342, until 1997. An RTI reply has revealed that 10,797 people died in the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) for disaster victims between 2000 and 2024.

Sitara and six of her children who survived the leak continued to suffer severe aches and visibility problems. They received compensations of ₹25,000 each in 1991-92, an insignificant fraction of what they have spent on treatment and the income opportunities they have lost.

“For a year after the disaster, we ran from pillar to post to save our 10-year-old daughter, who had severe aches. Finally, she had an operation in Hamidia (a Madhya Pradesh government hospital) where a 2.5kg tumour was taken out of her intestine,” Sitara told The Telegraph.

“The stitches did not heal. A tube was put in her stomach to pass stool. We moved her to a private hospital. She suffered for two-and-a-half months and died.”

Later, Sitara’s husband Mohammad Anwar, a vegetable seller, developed breathing problems and was eventually confined to their home, unable to work. He died in 2007. The children became daily wage earners; one son died an alcoholic.

Their only succour came from Abdul Jabbar — a gas victim who set up a vocational training centre and strove to better the lot of the survivors until he died, almost penniless, in 2019. Sitara is supported by her daughter Tanzeera — born after the disaster — who did a computer course at Jabbar’s centre.

Bhopal gas tragedy victim Abdul Jabbar Sourced by The Telegraph

“No government fulfilled its promises to us. We deserve more compensation and better medical facilities,” Sitara said.

A few activists are continuing the lonely battle in the Bhopal district court, Madhya Pradesh High Court, and the Supreme Court, with a fresh plea filed as late as last week.

N.D. Jayaprakash, co-convener of the Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti, represents the victims in two cases each in the district court and the high court.

“We hope that someday there will be a judge who is concerned about the victims and responds positively to them,” he told this newspaper.

Jayaprakash got involved in the struggle as part of a Delhi Science Forum team that visited Bhopal three days after the disaster.

He said that in 1989, a settlement was reached in the Supreme Court under which the company had to pay $470 million (around ₹715 crore at the time) as compensation, and all pending criminal cases would be quashed.

The compensation amount was determined on the presumption that around 3,000 people had died and 1.02 lakh were injured. The victims went to court and said the amount was arbitrary as none of the then 5.5-lakh-odd claims had yet been adjudicated.

In 1991, the apex court reinstated the criminal proceedings but did not increase the compensation.

This was paid from 1992 to 2004 as claims were gradually settled for more than 5.74 lakh people. After several rounds of litigation, and additional support from the Centre in 2010, ₹10 lakh each was paid to the families of the dead and an average ₹50,000 to the injured.

This after many of the injured — like those in Sitara’s family — had only been paid an average of ₹25,000. Sitara’s family never received the remaining ₹25,000 despite an apex court order in 2004 to double the compensation for those already paid.

As the number of victims was more than five times the figure estimated in 1989, the survivors moved court to have the compensation increased proportionately. A curative petition by the Centre with a similar plea was dismissed, after 13 years of hearing, by the apex court last year.

Bhopal Gas Tragedy: The Union Carbide building. File picture

“How did the court decide that these were only temporary injuries that needed only ₹25,000? How can temporary injuries exist for 40 years? Some 6,000 victims visit hospitals for treatment every day. They can’t brush us away,” Jayaprakash said.

Four groups of victims moved the Supreme Court last week, asking for higher compensation including ₹5 lakh for the Bhopal survivors diagnosed with cancers and fatal kidney diseases.

One of the petitioners, Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action is also organising events to mark the anniversary in Bhopal.

“It is incredible that even after 40 years, some 200 people came to hear (former Orissa High Court chief justice) Justice S. Muralidhar (whose pro bono work as a lawyer) in 2004 won the pro rata (doubling of) compensation,” she told this newspaper.

“Since November 22, we have had a poster exhibition in front of the factory on how many people died or were injured, on the compensation, the lessons learnt, and other industrial disasters. We are also honouring those who fought for justice, the first responders, the survivors, and we also remember the rogues responsible.”

Among those who participated in these events were the first responders, a doctor who did the autopsies, and the gravediggers and truck drivers who disposed of the corpses. There is also a campaign to send postcards to the Prime Minister seeking justice.

“We have a rally planned on December 2, and an effigy burning on December 3…. This is an ongoing disaster for so many. There is still hope of better medical care with the petition in the high court. Last year, Dow appeared for the first time in the Bhopal district court,” Dhingra said.

In 1994, the Supreme Court ordered the sale of the company’s shares to pay for a 500-bed hospital to be established for the victims. Eventually, the 350-bed BMHRC came up in 2000. There was ₹435 crore left of the fund which, with the interest accrued, Jayaprakash estimates to have risen to ₹1,200 crore.

“The BMHRC was the best hospital in central India when it was started…. Doctors there have left for the private sector. This leftover money can be used to pay better salaries,” Jayaprakash said.

Pending since 2012 is a case for better medical care and computerisation of medical records that would finally reveal the magnitude of the disaster and make it easier for the patients to receive treatment wherever they have migrated to.

Jayaprakash has been assisting the CBI in a case of appeal and counter-appeal filed against the conviction of eight Union Carbide officials by Bhopal’s chief judicial magistrate in 2010. Five of them are dead.

“Whenever a judge finishes hearing, the judge is transferred and the proceedings start all over again,” he said. The eighth judge started hearing the case last month.