While India’s new Right to Education Act seeks to bring free and compulsory education for all children, it seems to short-change them through an unrealistic vision of the private sector’s involvement. In August 2009, the Right to Education Act was passed in the Indian Parliament with no debate, by the fewer than 60 members who happened to be attending the session that day. Not that the Act was an open-and-shut...
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Rs.982 crore ‘sanctioned' for gas victims by Sujay Mehdudia
Hours before the Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram met on Friday, the Planning Commission is understood to have released Rs.982 crore to the Madhya Pradesh government for rehabilitation of the Bhopal gas tragedy victims. There was no official word on the reported approval of funds. The funds released for sustainable economic and medical rehabilitation of the victims would need the approval of the GoM, official...
More »UPA-I opposed increase in Bhopal payout by Dhananjay Mahapatra
The alacrity shown by the government in setting up a Group of Ministers (GoM) to look into all issues of the Bhopal gas tragedy - including adequacy of compensation - was clearly missing just three years ago when the UPA government opposed tooth and nail any enhancement of payment to the sufferers. Two applications by NGOs - Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan (BGPMUS) and Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayog...
More »Games big corporations play by P Sainath
Bhopal marked the horrific beginning of a new era. One that signalled the collapse of restraint on corporate power. Over 20,000 killed. Over half a million victims maimed, disabled or otherwise affected. Compensation of around Rs.12,414 per victim on average on the 1989 value of the rupee. ($470 million or Rs.713 crore. And that divided among 574,367 victims.) Over a quarter-of-a-century's wait. To see seven former officials of Union Carbide...
More »Mystery surrounds TISS survey findings on Bhopal gas tragedy by Mahim Pratap Singh
Whether it was bureaucratic callousness or political cover-up, the fact that the only comprehensive survey of Bhopal gas victims ever to be undertaken has yet to see the light of day 25 years later is likely to add to the controversy surrounding the disaster. The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) study was significant since it was the only comprehensive survey of the extent of damage wrought by the gas leak....
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