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Turhar Hasan, 16, struggles with toys at Chingari Rehabilitation Center in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. He belongs to the third generation of the victims’ family. 40 years ago, his grandparents were exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC), used in the production of the insecticide Sevin, at a Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) factory in Bhopal.
Turhar suffers from developmental delay (DD), which refers to the child’s inability to acquire expected developmental skills compared to other children of the same age. There may be delays in motor function, speech and language, cognitive and sporting functions, and social skills.
In the same center is seven and a half year old Advait Bansal, who is suffering from Down syndrome. Like Turhar, Advait’s mother, father and grandparents were also hit by the gas leak from the UCIL plant on the intervening night of 2 and 3 December 1984.
An organization of survivors alleged that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) “suppressed” data on birth defects in infants of mothers exposed to the gas.
Rachana Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information and Action told The Quint RTI documents obtained from the National Institute for Research on Environmental Health (NIREH) in 2019 show that its parent organization, ICMR, decided not to publish the results of a study that looked at the risk of death in infants of mothers exposed to the gas. Several birth defects were found. Several times higher than non-exposed mothers.
“The study was conducted from January 2016 to June 2017 after being approved by three consecutive meetings of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) from December 2014 to January 2017. But it was never made public,” Dhingra said.
