‘HE WAS VOMITTING BLOOD, HIS KIDNEYS HAVE BEEN DAMAGED’
Noor Jahan, 50, remembers the night of December 2, 1984, like it was yesterday. “I was only 20 years old then, but I had already been married and had three children. That night I was visiting my parents, who also lived in the same area. I had gone to bed, but woke up with a burning sensation in my eyes. I couldn’t breathe,” she recalls. With a child in each arm, Noor Jahan ran out. Her brother carried her youngest child, Afroz. Though, all their lives were spared, the next day, Afroz and his sister had to be taken to the doctor. “My daughter’s eyes were swollen. She couldn’t see. Afroz had inhaled so much of the toxic fumes, that his stomach had swollen. Though, he was released after preliminary medication, little did Afroz and his family knew that his travails were far from over.
“He would keep falling ill. He had frequent stomach aches and vomiting. We took him to the government hospitals, but the doctors kept sending us back with medicines, that would dull the pain for a while. Then he started vomiting blood. It was then that the doctors told us that his kidney was damaged,” says Noor Jahan. By then, Afroz was married and had three children. “I used to work in the welding industry. But now, after frequent dialysis and surgery, I have been told not to do any heavy physical labour. I have three daughters. How will I look after them,” frets Afroz.
Strangely, the government doesn’t even recognized him as a gas victim. His treatment at the BMHRC is being done on his mother’s victim card. “The compensation court asked for his age proof. We are poor, illiterate people. When we were putting Afroz in school, the teacher said, he had crossed the admission age. He suggested we reduce his age in the form . We agreed. We had no idea that later this document will be used to prove that he had been born after the tragedy,” says Noor Jahan.
Afroz is not the only member of the family with health problems. “My eldest son has been married for ten years, but has no children. People say he has become impotent because of his exposure to the toxic fumes. My youngest son Iqbal, born a year after the tragedy, developed a tumour on his choulder a child. We feared it might be cancer, but thankfully there were no problems after it was removed. However, he too has been complaining of stomach aches and vomiting,” says Noor Jahan. The 50-year-old herself has trouble waking. She and her husband both suffer from difficulty in breathing.
With Afroz unable to work, and his father and brothers earning a meager salary as labourers, the family hopes the Supreme Court and government will do a review of the compensation package that is more favourable for the victims and also make available better healthcare for them.