Bhopal Twenty Five Years On From Union Carbide Disaster

BHOPAL, INDIA - NOVEMBER 30: Fifteen year old Sachin Kumar watches television in his home located in a slum near the site of the deserted Union Carbide factory on November 30, 2009 in Bhopal, India. Twenty-five years after an explosion causing a mass gas leak, in the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, killed at least eight thousand people, toxic material from the 'biggest industrial disaster in history' continues to affect Bhopalis. A new generation is growing up sick, disabled and struggling for justice. The effects of the disaster on the health of generations to come, both through genetics, transferred from gas victims to their children and through the ongoing severe contamination, caused by the Union Carbide factory, has only started to develop visible forms recently. Sachin Kumar lives with his parents Suresh and Sangita, his 3 sisters, Jyoti, Arti and Punam and his brother Ravi, in a slum where a number of people affected by either water contamination or poison contamination have been relocated to. Sachin was born with a birth defect rendering his legs practically useless. Sachin had been receiving physical therapy treatment and education from the Chingari Trust rehabilitation Centre for victims of the 1984 gas tragedy, for which he has been registered for. However Sachin's health has turned for the worse and his legs, now covered with open sores, restrict him from travelling to the major road where the Chingari Trust bus can pick him up for daily treatment. The oldest of four, Sachin spends his days playing board games with his friends and a rare game of cricket, which he sees as the fulfilment of his dreams of becoming a professional cricket player. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)