The coronavirus pandemic has affected every section of Indian society – not in the least the children who developed congenital disabilitie...
The coronavirus pandemic has affected every section of Indian society – not in the least the children who developed congenital disabilities in the wake of the Bhopal gas tragedy in December 1984.
These children are members of the families who had been exposed to the highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas that leaked into the Bhopal air on the night of December 2. The official toll in the gas leak from the Union Carbide plant is 2,259 (though some estimates put the number as high as 20,000).
But long after that night, the industrial disaster has had an impact on the health of at least three generations of survivors.
The slow poisoning of the neighbourhoods around the plant had begun before the leak. Chemical waste released by Union Carbide had been seeping into the groundwater for years. Several children and grandchildren of the families who consumed this water were born with congenital disabilities, including blindness, Down Syndrome, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and learning difficulties.
Despite the challenges, these children benefitted from regular therapy and special education. And then came Covid-19, with its lockdowns, quarantine periods, and disruption of medical services.
I had first documented the children of this tragedy for a photography project in 2018. Between October and November, I returned to Bhopal...
