One of the world's worst industrial catastrophes, the Bhopal gas disaster, hit the city of Bhopal in central India, on the night of 2-3 December 1984. A deadly mix of toxic heavier-than-air gases vented into the air from the Union Carbide pesticide plant, spreading across 40 sq.km around the plant and covering 36 of 56 municipal wards of the city. More than 20,000 people were killed that night and over the coming years, and injuries of varying degree were caused to around 550,000 others. The trail of death, deformity, disability, genetic disorders, pollution of soil and groundwater, and harm to flora and fauna continues even today. The Disaster was to go down in history as one of those transformational industrial calamities, like the Minamata mercury poisoning case in Japan, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant core melt-down in the US, and the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear plant disasters that were to happen later.These mishaps together contributed to a huge change in public perception of Science and Technology (S&T), and led to people's movements all over the world calling not only for greater regulation and public scrutiny of S&T-based projects, but also for a new social contract for S&T. Such movements have generated considerable momentum, in some countries more than others, and are now increasingly intervening in policy making and implementation, whether as part of institutionalized mechanisms or as advocacy groups. The Bhopal gas disaster too played such a catalytic role in India and triggered a slew of environmental and industrial regulatory policies and legislation, as discussed below.Yet, from the perspective of the authors, and that of the Delhi Science Forum (DSF) and the broader Peoples Science Movement (PSM) network in which they work, this heightened engagement with S&T policy has also brought some worries with it. The large number of NGOs, civil-society organizations and movements involved have a diverse perspectives, goals, strategies, theatres of operations, and domain knowledge and disciplinary backgrounds. One crucial aspect of particular concern to the PSM has been how S&T is viewed as a knowledge system, as a dimension of public policy, as institutionalized practice, as an instrument of state power and corporate influence, and importantly as system informing the perspectives and actions of popular movements such as the PSM.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.