Thaindian News

By Sanjay Sharma
Bhopal, Dec 2 (IANS) Lachho Bai, a resident of JP Nagar locality here, sits at the door of her house, cradling a garment. She speaks, but no one can make out the words. She sings, laughs and then starts crying.

“She’s been so for years, sitting in the doorway all day, holding that piece of cloth,” says a neighbour.

Laccho turns and looks with empty eyes and then gives an unexpected smile.

“She is just guessing that someone has arrived and is smiling as she used to when she was normal. Now she has lost her eyesight,” says Pradeep, who resides in the same neighbourhood.

She is a victim of the world’s worst industrial disaster that occurred 25 years ago at a Union Carbide pesticide plant on the night of Dec 2-3, 1984 when tonnes of lethal gas leaked out instantly killing over 3,500 people and maiming thousands for life.

A 1985 study by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences found that at least half of those exposed to Union Carbide’s gases suffered from mental health problems. Since then, there have been no more government studies.

Mental illness is not recognised as a consequence of gas exposure in Bhopal, sufferers get no compensation or treatment from the authorities. The government hospitals between them employ not a single psychiatrist.

But then there is Lachho.

It seems as if she is in her 80s, but she is not. Born in 1958 in Bhopal, Laccho married a waiter, Laxmi Narayan, at the age of 16. She never had much money but would earn a few extra rupees making bidis, or leaf rolled cigarettes. But the couple was happy.

Not having enough money to buy a house, or even rent one, they built a shack near the Union Carbide factory.

“On that ill fated night (of Dec 2, 1984), there were four of us,” says her husband. “My wife, myself, our two-year-old daughter and fate.

“We fled. Laccho was pregnant and could not run fast. She fell unconscious. We somehow came back home after two days. A few months later she gave birth to a daughter. By this time, we were both too weak to work and fell into wretched poverty,” says Narayan.

In 1995, she lost her mind and has been living the most pitiful life since then.

“Our daughters needed a mother’s care, but had to look after her instead. Now they too are married and I do my best to take care of her though I can’t hear well. My sight blurs, my limbs are numb. I take up any work I can get but we go hungry most of the time.

“She can no longer see,” says Narayan. “It’s the final cruelty. In June last year, she was betrayed by her sight.”