Bhopal, India - With no one to turn to in the aftermath of the gas disaster that hit Bhopal 25 years ago, the city's people started to help each other and wage a prolonged battle against all the odds. Before dawn on December 3, 1984, methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide plant run by the US company Union Carbide, resulting in the deaths of 15,000 people and exposing thousands to its toxic effects.
Born out of the trauma were a political and social consciousness that have made Bhopalis discover their strengths in sciences, arts and medicine.
The community and activists have played a key role in setting up an innovative medical clinic and self-help groups. Lately, children campaigners have been coming to the fore.
Situated near the site of the disaster, the Sambhavna Trust clinic is where many gas-victims come for treatment and relaxing ayurvedic massages.
The facility has provided free medical care to nearly 24,000 people since it was established in 1996 with help from activist Satinath Sarangi and novelists Dominique Lapierre and Indra Sinha.
Sambhavna - a Hindi word meaning possibility - combines modern allopathic medicine and traditional ayurvedic and related holistic therapies to offer long-term treatment.
The clinic, which examines up to 170 patients every day, treats locals who suffer from the long-term consequences of the gas leak and others who became sick in later years because of drinking contaminated ground water.
"Over the years, victims consumed heavy antibiotics, steroids and psychotropic drugs which gave them no relief but only increased the toxic load in their bodies. The treatment was often counterproductive and side-effects caused more suffering," says Mrityunjay Mali, a doctor at the clinic.
Mali says the emphasis at Sambhavna - which has won several international awards for its work - is on ayurveda, yoga and holistic treatments that have proved more effective than conventional medicines.
In another part of Bhopal, the Chingari Trust works for the rehabilitation of gas victims and children with congenital defects born to survivors of the disaster.
It was formed by two local women, Rashida Bee and Champadevi Shukla, who wouldn't have turned grass-roots activists had it not been for 1984.
The women now represent the victims of the tragedy at conferences and demonstrations around the world. In 2004, they received the Goldman Environmental Prize, often called the "Green Nobel Prize," for their work in Bhopal over two decades.
"We are not expendable. We are not flowers offered at the altar of profit and power. We are dancing flames committed to conquering darkness ... challenging those who threaten the survival of the planet and the magic and mystery of life," says Bee, quoting Chingari's motto.
Joining the ranks of the campaigners are the newly-formed "Children against Dow Carbide," the next generation committed to carry on the campaign for the community.
An organization of children born to survivors, they have vowed to force the company to fix the continuing environmental problems in the city.
"While we celebrate their achievements, we must remember that everything Bhopalis have achieved has been won against brutal opposition, in a context of struggle and suffering, of which there is no end in sight," Sinha said recently, calling for inreased support for the Bhopalis.
