The Women’s Walk and the Creation of Chingari

The Chingari Rehabilitation Centre in Bhopal is where I worked for my final three weeks the last time I visited, in 2011. When I went there I had not known about Chingari and, in fact, it was another volunteer, Melanie*, who first told me about it and my first visit there was with her one afternoon after Biju and I had finished working.

When we arrived all the children had left but most of the therapists were still there. I chatted with several, including Sanjay, the head physiotherapist, and the conversation ended with me promising to return the following Saturday to explain and demonstrate Spineworks.

 

I also met Tarun, the ever smiling big man who is the administrator. It was his suggestion that I spend some time here, rather than popping in on odd days. It would give the children time to get used to me and my being there. I should probably point out that there are few white faces in this part of Bhopal. Although there are tourist attractions in Bhopal, they are few compared with other Indian cities so few people make it part of their tour itinerary. Many will arrive there because it is a major railway junction in the centre of India and a crossing for north-south and east-west routes. Further, most of the tourist interest is in the southern part of the city, the north being the old industrial heartland and hectares of slum and semi-slum dwellings.

But let’s take a big step back to that fateful day in 1984.

Rashida Bee (left) and Champa Devi Shukla today, with
Dani one of the volunteers who were there with me in 2011.

Rashida Bee was a young (18 years old), veiled Muslim wife. She and her family were all exposed to the effects of the gas as well as the water and as a result her husband could not support the family so she came out from the veil and involved herself with other local women to find work
 
Champa Devi Shukla was born in 1952, married at 13 and in 1972 moved with her husband’s job to Bhopal. Again, the whole family was affected and none of the men could work, so, like Rashida, she too came out to find work.

Soon both women found themselves involved with the campaign for survivors as well as with many other women who now had to find work to support devastated families.

Even people who had worked previously found they could no longer do the heavy manual work that was common, especially for women. About 100 women took up an offer of training, funded by the Delhi government but even after the training there were no jobs forthcoming. Rashida and Chmapa-devi asked, ‘what was the point of the training if there were no jobs?’ Tired of being pushed around they lead pickets and demonstrations, learned about the legal minimum wage (which no-one had been paid) and petitioned the local government officers. Work came for some of the women in fits and starts but none of it worked for long.

So one day, everyone agrees, Rashida had the idea of walking to Delhi. No-one knew where it was, nor the way, let alone how far it was. (Note: it is about 750 kilometres.) Literally the next day, with no planning, in  late summer of 1989 the band of women and children, with a few men, gathered in the streets of Bhopal to start their walk north along the Berasia Road, (Note: made famous in the diary of my last visit!)

It took 33 days before they reached Delhi. Days of hardship and hunger. Days of welcome support and others when whole towns refused help and marched them on. Days when they had to tell people who thought they had received plenty of compensation and should not march of the true stories of corruption, bribes and no work. One day when a Hindu priest invited them all, Muslims too, to rest the night in his temple, despite a notice declaring, ‘No Muslims’. Long before, any difference between the walkers was forgotten as they shared everything they had. On another occasion they had to walk through a forest notorious for bandits, but news had gone before and the bandits said they would not harm them, even so, the police marched with them through the forest to make sure. The police inspector was in tears as he waved them on their way.

When they returned they continued their work, supporting women workers and campaigning for the survivors. This was the background that lead, in 2004, to the Goldman Environmental Award being presented to Rashida and Champe-devi. They used the award to create the Chingari Rehabilitation Centre which was incorporated as a charity in 2005 with an all-female Board of Trustees.

Chingari exists to support the families that have one or more disabled children as a result of the gas and water. It has created a database of children with special needs, probably the only such database in existence, over 300 children are listed with some 120 receiving treatments at the centre. Apart from running the centre, the trust also provides funding for hospital medical treatments and drugs as well as regular check-ups. As many of the parents are illiterate, the staff also help to get documents, complete forms and write letters for the families

My first day, before they got me doing all those treatments,
looking out from the physio room into the main hall
and a riot of children having fun.

My personal experience of the centre is of the daily flow of the school day, and it is a demonstration of good management. Rani, a diminutive woman, is the keystone in the arrangements. As the staff arrive, 5 mini-buses drive out into the surrounding bastis to pick up the children and parents. We all prepared for our day with a chai prepared by Rani and sometimes a samosa or similar that someone had picked up from a street stall on their way here. As each bus arrived, Rani would help unload and distribute the children to a physiotherapy or occupational therapy treatment, the special education or speech therapy rooms. She would co0rdinate the children through the morning. The buses would do a second run and more children and parents would arrive during the morning. By 12 to 1230 all the children would be in school, the drivers would have a break and registration would take place.
Registration is lead by the special education teacher who then leads a song or call-response, as you can see in this short video clip:

Since early this year there has also been a lunch provided but that wasn’t happening when I was there.

The afternoon reversed the procedure with those early arrivals being taken home first followed in slow succession by the second run later in the afternoon. While this is happening the later arrivals are being directed and sometimes carried to their various therapies and lessons by Rani. The second afternoon run took all these children home and then it was quiet and the staff made notes before going home.

On Saturday, the centre is closed for the children and some of the staff go out into the bastis to look for disabled children who are not registered. In the general society there is a stigma attached to giving birth to a disabled child and some mothers are hidden or will hide a new born themselves which increases the difficulty of making contact. Newly contacted babies and children can attend the  centre on Saturday for the registration process.

There is a wide range of disability in the childhood population. Cerebral Palsy is widespread and that, in itself, has a wide variation of effects and seriousness. Many children have club foot and many of the children with whom I worked had spastic muscle in their legs and arms. Some of the boys have Muscular Dystrophy, including two brothers with whom I worked. Then there are growth retardation, speech, hearing and sight disabilities, learning difficulties.

For my part on the physical therapy side, there was usually (including me) three of us doing treatments and one occupational therapist in the room next door. Each of us would be doing between 10 and 15 sessions every day – the sessions were short for the children, anything from 15 to 30 minutes though with one hyperactive little girl having her lying for 10 minutes was a real achievemen!

This is the physio room where you can see me working with one of the older boys and Sanjay in the rear. In between us is another young boy doing a passive exercise.

And here is the other physio, Kalpana (right) with a mother and child.

Chingari, I am sure, will continue from strength to strength, guided by its two mentors, Rashida and Chanpa-devi who attend on most days and managed by the ever present, ever smiling Tarun. The BMA also supports Chingari so any donations that you give via their website will also support the work of all the dedicated staff there.

Finally, of course, no child born after the disaster with disability caused by the gas or water has ever been offered or received compensation.

 ********

You can read more about the walk of the women at www.bhopalmarathon.org page 50 and also in the www.bhopal.net archive.

Chingari’s website is http://www.chingaritrustbhopal.com/

* Melanie now works for the BMA in the UK.