OFFICIAL PRESS STATEMENT

Chingari Trust is a non-profit, non-political charitable organisation with an all-women Board of Trustees. Registered in New Delhi and working mainly in Bhopal, Chingari was established in March 2005 to promote activities that uphold the rights of the survivors of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy and the subsequent chemical contamination. The Trust also aims to recognise and support ongoing struggles in all parts of India against corporate crimes, especially campaigns led by women, so that more ‘Bhopals’ do not happen elsewhere.

On the night of 2-3rd December 1984, a lethal gas leak from inside the premises of the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) factory in Bhopal, now owned by another US multinational The Dow Chemical Company, killed at least 8,000 people and caused grievous injuries to more 150,000 others. Two decades later, the fight for justice in Bhopal still continues, with women at the forefront of the struggle.

In 2004, Rashida Bee and Champadevi Shukla, President and Secretary of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karamchari Sangh (BGPMSKS) were awarded the Goldman Environment Award in recognition of their leadership and ability throughout the course of the Bhopal survivors' struggle. Although both women are their families' sole bread winners and are plagued by ill health, they chose to donate the whole of the prize money awarded to them, to set up the Chingari Trust. The very name of the Trust is suggestive of the fire that keeps the embers of hope and faith in human resistance alive.

Chingari Trust has set up a livelihood programme for women survivors. It also works with families whose children have been born damaged, inviting senior doctors to specially-organised camps so that adequate medical support can be assured for the children. The Trust has also instituted a unique annual award, to be given to women who work at the grassroots level in remote parts of India to fight corporate crime. In these ways the Trust hopes to set the rare precedent of women survivors using their own resources to reach out to other people who are paying the price for development carried out in the name of progress.

The two Goldman Award-winning women represent their co-survivors and activists in Bhopal and their joint effort is a symbol of what the movement in Bhopal stands for – solidarity, collective action and vision for change.

Please join Chingari Trust in its work of supporting struggles against corporate crimes and in reaching out to the survivors of the Bhopal disaster.

You could:

– volunteer with the Chingari Trust to further its activities in the bastis of Bhopal
– donate to Chingari Trust in cash or in kind
– spread the word about Chingari Trust with your friends and others

For more information, contact:
Chingari Trust
44 Sant Kanwar Ram Nagar
Berasia Road
Bhopal 462018
Madhya Pradesh
India

Telephone: +91 (0)755 274 7500
Email: chingaritrust@gmail.com