Sunil Verma

Sunil Verma (1972 − 16 August 2006), himself a victim, was a campaigner for the rights of victims affected by the Bhopal disaster, the deadliest industrial disaster as of 2007. He testified in a case against the company when it came up for hearing in New York City in 1986. He formed the Children Against Carbide organization in 1987, when he was fifteen.

Born in Bhopal in 1972, the son of a carpenter, Verma lived in JP Nagar, near the plant run by Union Carbide, now a subsidiary of Dow Chemicals, when the gas leak occurred on 3 December 1984. He and his family tried to escape, as the poisonous cloud of methyl isocyanate gas descended on the slum settlement in Madhya Pradesh's state capital. The family members got separated, and Sunil Verma, with eyes burning and chest in pain, managed to board a bus that took him to Hoshangabad, about 70km (44 miles) away. He lost consciousness and was taken to the district hospital.

He returned to Bhopal a week later to find both his parents, three sisters and two brothers dead. His two younger siblings, a sister aged 10 and a brother of two-and-half, were the only other survivors. Relatives took the children to Lucknow, but the children returned to Bhopal, surviving on the generosity of neighbours, both Hindu and Muslim. Sunil's sister and brother moved to the SOS village - a shelter set up by a charity to house orphans of the gas tragedy - while Sunil managed to study into his teenage years.

He was chosen to lay the foundation stone for the first People's Clinic in Bhopal for the gas victims in June 1985. Children Against Carbide mobilized orphans and other victims to demand justice for survivors of the disaster. The issues involved were those of compensation and health.

Verma was also a member of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, and participated in every anniversary rally to mark the disaster, as his health deteriorated.

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