Rama Lakshmi, Indian
A Survivor’s Meeting In Progress in Bhopal, 2011
A banner on the tree marks their meeting spot. Brilliant colors of women’s saris fill the scene. Many of the people at this meeting are survivors of Union Carbide’s 1984 chemical leak in Bhopal that killed thousands and made at least 100,000 more chronically ill. After losing family members or becoming sick themselves, survivors like those pictured here became warriors, organizing to name Union Carbide as the perpetrator of this disaster, calling out the government’s complicity and challenging legislators to do more for survivors, and putting together remembrances of those lost. Gathering on this occasion to discuss a shutdown that would create pressure to increase compensation, some children have joined them and many in the group smile. They are witnesses to the joy not only of being together but of taking collective action. Label by Morgan Brittain