As Madhya Pradesh has moved towards unlocking in a phased manner seeing the second wave of Covid-19 ebbing, the hapless survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide tragedy continue to suffer.
Since last year the survivors’ organisations are claiming that 1984 victims account for more than half of the Covid-19 casualties in Bhopal and it seems the situation remains the same.
Dr Ravi Shankar Verma, the Chief Medical Officer of Gas Relief recently told the media that out of 933 Covid-19 related deaths, 218 were 1984 victims which account for 23% of the Covid-19 deaths.
However, survivors’ organisations are flagging the issue for a long and also wrote to various authorities for urgent measures since last year. These organisations are also accusing the administration of under-reporting the figures among the 1984 victims.
By December 3 last year when the victims observe the 1984 anniversary, the State had reported deaths of 102 gas tragedy victims among 518 deaths due to the Covid-19. However, the volunteers working for the victims had alleged that the figure by then would be at least 254. “We have compiled the data by visiting homes of the victims,” they had claimed.
The Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA) volunteers then had claimed that they had visited 450 of the 518 households of the victims.
Before the Covid-19 second wave struck the State, BGIA had kept compiling data. Rachna Dhingra, one of the founders speaking to News18, said they found out that of 650 casualties reported in the city by then, 321 were 1984 victims.
“We could not compile data post-March due to other assignments but it’s a known fact that casualties in the second wave were far more than the first wave of the pandemic,” said Dhingra, adding the administration continues to under-report mortalities both among 1984 victims and others as well.
As special care was sought by 1984 victims for fighting the virus, many alleged they could not avail the basic ones.
Anwar Ahmed, a 1984 survivor who died at the Hamidia Hospital on May 5, went through an ordeal of making rounds between three hospitals. He was finally taken into the Hamidia Hospital on May 4 night but none was taking care of him and when he demanded food from inside the ward, none was eager to offer him, said Almas, the teenage son of Ahmed who now has left studies and works as a tailor to help his family.
Aman Yadav, whose father too had tested positive for the virus last year, went through a similar ordeal. “My father was coughing and we took him to gas relief hospital in Jehangirabad, which asked us to take him to the Hamidia Hospital,” Aman recounted.
He added that his father was taken to Hamidia who tested him asked them to bring him the next day and he died almost half an hour after being allowed admission the next day, said Aman.
Besides a dedicated hospital for victims, the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) are also making things no better for them. The facility which saw a mass exodus of staffers in 2019 is still in bad shape, claim survivors.
Last year after a court’s intervention, the hospital’s status of the Covid-19 dedicated centre was reversed but it remains an ill-equipped unit for lakhs of victims and other commoners in Old city areas.
Ritesh Purohit, the spokesperson of the facility refuted the allegations that the hospital wasn’t offering proper treatment to the patients. “We have a 50-bed covid care centre where beds are now gradually empty as cases have diminished.”
By June 1, Bhopal has lost 934 people due to the Covid as over 1.21 lakh have contracted the virus since March 2020.
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