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Bhopal: Justice for women workers
Another victory this year, this time for the Bhopal tragedy women survivors.

December 2002 - On December 18, women from the Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh celebrated one more victory in the long struggle for a life of dignity for the survivors of the December '84 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal. The Bhopal Labour Court directed the State Government to appoint women survivors employed at the Stationery Production Centre to permanent posts of Junior Binder with effect from April 29, 1998. They are also to be paid the difference of wages due to them retroactively. According to the court, the directives are to be implemented within one month of this decision.

The women, survivors from the worst affected communities, were employed by the State Government as part of an "economic rehabilitation" programme. For the last 16 years they have been producing office stationery as temporary unskilled workers without the benefits of equal wages, medical leave or maternity leave. They are all members of an unusual trade union that has combined their struggle for workers' rights with the broader struggle for the rights of all survivors of the disaster. Twelve years ago they initiated legal action to have their jobs regularized.

After having the case dismissed twice from two courts for being in the "improper" judicial forum, the women have finally won their long battle at the Bhopal District Labour Court. In November 1990, legal action initiated was by the women against the Government Press and other agencies of the State Government in the Administrative Tribunal, Jabalpur. In 1997, their petition was dismissed by Administrative Tribunal on the grounds that it was not the proper forum. The petitioners were directed to go to the State High Court or the District Labour Court. The State High Court dismissed their petition on grounds that it was not the proper forum, as well. The petitioners were directed to go to the Labour Court. In March 2002, the women filed their petition for justice in the District Labour Court, Bhopal.

The larger eighteen-year struggle for justice in Bhopal in on the upswing this with several other victories. The campaign has successfully pressured the government to drop plans to distribute balance of compensation funds among residents of unaffected neighbourhoods. The High Court of the state has pressured the government to resume efforts to extradite Warren Anderson, the former CEO of Union Carbide; brooms have been delivered to officials of Dow Chemicals in five different countries with the message to clean up Bhopal; samples of contaminated soil and water have been delivered to Dow headquarters in India.

Currently, 73 women work at the Stationery Production Centre producing file covers, writing pads, registers, note books and other stationery used in government offices. Fifty women are from severely affected communities, and all of them suffer from a range of exposure induced chronic illnesses. Sixty women are the sole bread winners in the family. Three women have died (one due to TB, one from cancer, and one from paralysis). Seven women have lost their husbands to the disaster. Three women could not get married because of exposure related ill health. Three women suffered miscarriages because they were made to carry heavy loads at the centre. Ten women from the original 100 left right after training; 14 left due to marriage and other reasons.

The women at the centre have been at the receiving end of several injustices. For the last sixteen years, they have been and continue to be treated as unskilled temporary workers. Regular workers in the Government Printing Press get about Rs. 5000 per month, whereas women survivors employed at the center are paid Rs. 1965 per month. They are not able to avail of leave and other benefits like regular workers at the Government Printing Press. Women at the center get no medical leave, no maternity leave, no earned leave, and no promotions. They are paid for 26 days a month.

As per the Court's orders, the women are to be regularised and treated at par with other Government workers and paid arrears from April 1998. Also, their monthly salary -- currently less than Rs. 2000 ($40) -- would be increased to Rs. 5000 ($100). The ball, literally now, is in the Court of the state government's Ministry of Labour.

India Together
December 2002