Bhopal gas disaster: Delhi Science Forum and People’s Science Movement in India - In memory of Dr. Amit Sengupta

Abstract

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.

Postcolonial pandemic publics: examining social media health promotion in India during the COVID-19 crisis

“…In the Indian context, the rise of the people’s science movement ( Jaffry et al , 1983 ; Kannan, 1990 ) especially after specific incidents like the Bhopal gas tragedy ( Raghunandan and Jayaprakash, 2020 ) has served as the first of several precedents where the use of mass-media channels like Television and Radio, participatory media platforms like community radio ( Pavarala & Malik, 2007 ; Malik & Pavarala, 2020 ) and IVRS platforms ( Marathe et al , 2015 ; Moitra et al , 2018 ) have been successful in achieving both the dissemination of messages and fostering required engagement with their communities on key issues. However, despite numerous such instances where mass-media and alternate media channels have helped disseminate crucial information successfully, governments and designers of health promotion initiatives have failed to tap into the benefits of either the mass media or grassroot level networks.…”

“…A key reason for this failure is the percolation of the colonial imaginary for S&T into the postcolonial space: one that saw scientific (colonial) experts as privileged bodies thriving in exceptionalism and an active shunning of discussion with supposedly inexpert (colonized) subjects. In postcolonial India such an ideology translates into policy stakeholders perceiving themselves ‘as privileged holders of knowledge beyond the reach of popular movements, who therefore ought to accept the experts’ superior knowledge’ ( Raghunandan and Jayaprakash, 2020 ). This privileged perception when perpetuated over time leads to the collapse of any possibility for a critical public sphere, as it systematically silences all those deemed unfit to be part of the discussion ( Jansen, 1983 ).…”

‘Science for social revolution’: People’s Science Movements and democratizing science in India

“…105-108]. Intervening in the ecological debates surrounding the 'Silent Valley' dam [Zachariah, 1993], and articulating the immediate, long-term health and rehabilitation issues following the Bhopal gas disaster [Raghunandan and Jayaprakash, 2020] during the mid-1980s catapulted PSMs into the area of science-society interactions. Combining the expertise of scientists with lived experience of 'lay' science activists, PSMs shape their critical understanding of developmental policies to create a people-oriented science-society linkage.…”