By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: The internationally acclaimed writer Dominique Lapierre has expressed hope that the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will soon set up the Empowered Commission on Bhopal to stop the ongoing human tragedy in Bhopal.
“I hope that the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will stop his opposition to this Commission and will provide all help to ushering in a sustained and positive change for the people who have been suffering for last 25 years”, said Lapierre who was awarded the Padma Bhushan last year.
Addressing a Press conference, organized here by the Sambhavna Trust on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Union Carbide Disaster in Bhopal, Lapierre stated that he was pleased to know that the proposal for the Empowered Commission has been approved by several ministries of the Union cabinet.
“I think that as an autonomous and publicly accountable body with adequate funds and authority, the Commission on Bhopal will to do the very urgent work of rebuilding the lives of the poisoned people of Bhopal”, Lapierre opined.
Replying to a question he said he was sure that the international community will support such a Commission with funds and expertise and he himself volunteered to raise international assistance for the work of the Commission.
In reply to a question Lapierre spoke on his long association with the Sambhavna Trust of which he is a regular supporter. He said that while Sambhavna takes care of a fraction of the affected population he was sure that many of the therapies and techniques developed at Sambhavna could be used to provide effective medical care to the entire poison affected population.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mohammed Ali Qaisar, a physician working at the Sambhavna Trust Clinic, stated that over 23,000 people exposed to Union Carbide’s toxic gases and contaminated ground water are registered for long term medical care at the clinic. Of these 17,805 are persons who were exposed to toxic gases from Union Carbide in December 1984 and their children, 4311 have been exposed to ground water contaminated by Union Carbide’s chemical wastes and 911 persons who have been exposed to both toxic gases and contaminated ground water.
Dr. Qaisar said that the integrative therapy that the clinic has been following for the last 13 years has demonstrated that it is possible to provide safe, simple and effective treatment to the people who are suffering chronic illnesses due to exposure to chemical toxins.
He said that among the over 150 persons who visit the clinic every day the most common complaints among the gas victims are breathlessness, joint pains, menstrual irregularities, recurrent infections, loss of sensation and power in the limbs, anxiety, insomnia, depression, abdominal disorders, skin conditions, anemia, weakness, allergies, panic attacks and irritability. He said he was particularly concerned about the health problems among the next generation of Bhopal victims including children born with congenital disabilities because of the toxic exposure of their parents.
Dr. Qaisar said that the treatment protocols developed at the clinic integrate medical care through modern medicine, Ayurveda, Panchakarma and Yoga and have been very successful in providing sustained relief. He was confident that the information generated at Sambhavna could contribute significantly to the treatment of all poison victims in Bhopal.
He said that for last two years two yoga therapists trained by Sambhavna were offering Yoga therapy to patients in two government hospitals. However, this year in June the government stopped this therapy after several staff members wrote to the Chief Minister requesting that Yoga care be extended to rest of the government hospitals.
Dr. Qaisar said that the Sambhavna Trust has received several national and international awards and this year it has received the “International Regenerative Health Care Award” on May 19, 2009 at Chicago.
“We find that unusually large number of children born to gas exposed children suffer from growth disorders and many other problems. Preliminary findings of our ongoing house-to-house surveys suggest that the incidence of birth defects in the contamination exposed population is at least 10 times more than national figures”, Dr. Qaisar revealed..
Replying to a question Dr. Qaisar said: “Our research on long term impact of gas exposure has been published in national and international journals and currently we are carrying out a study on the long term health effects of exposure to toxic gases and contaminated ground water”.
He said that gynaecology clinic and informal school and community centre in Oriya basti are funded from the proceeds of the book “It was five past midnight in Bhopal” by Dominique Lapierre and Javier Moro. Rest of our funds comes from individual donations by over 15,000 persons in India, UK and other countries. We have received several national and international awards and this year we have received the “International Regenerative Health Care Award” on May 19 this year at Chicago. ([email protected])
[Photo by www.telegraphindia.com]