Saving The Sambhavna Clinic And Its Endless Possibilities

The first time I visited the Sambhavna Trust Clinic was in 2009, when I was working with a national newspaper. I had gone to the Union Carbide factory site on the same day, before reaching the clinic with my Dad and a cousin. I had hoped that a detailed write-up on the clinic and its activities would follow my visit, but it was not meant to be, since my proposal was shot down by the seniors at my paper, saying there was a ‘glut’ (their words) of information on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy already.

Yes, the Sambhavna Trust Clinic works with survivors of the Bhopal Gas Leak disaster of December 3, 1984. It opened its doors in September 1996. It provides free of cost medical care and support to gas victims, survivors and their families. These include children, who display symptoms of and suffer from various ailments related to gas leak poisoning.

Survivors of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy queue for treatment at the Sambhavna Clinic

The second time I visited Sambhavna Clinic was in early July this year. This time, I was working freelance and had a better chance of writing about the institution and its contribution to the amelioration of the lives of Bhopal Gas Tragedy survivors. I distinctly remember being struck by the calm and tranquility exuding from its red-brick structure, with the sound of flowing water adding to the peaceful effect of the environs.

Located 400 metres south of the Union Carbide plant, the clinic is situated right in the middle of the communities severely affected by one of the worst industrial disasters in the world. It is run by a group of professionals (doctors, writers, social workers, scientists) who strive to provide an innovative blend of traditional and modern therapies free of cost to Bhopal Gas victims. It is concerned with the long-term welfare of gas victims and is an independent, community-based, non-governmental initiative.

However, nearly 38 years after the Bhopal gas tragedy and 25 years since it opened its doors, the Sambhava Clinic finds itself in a quandary. The Sambhavna Trust currently needs to raise funds to run the clinic. Their registration under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) has been cancelled, bank accounts have been frozen, and efforts made so far to re-register have been denied.

It effectively makes it impossible for the Sambhavna Trust to access foreign funds that have already been raised. As a result, it has become challenging to continue to provide treatment to the 36,000 registered survivors and pay salaries to doctors and staff. The staff, half of whom are survivors of the disaster themselves, have taken deep voluntary cuts to their salaries to continue to serve at the clinic.

In order to be functional for the next six months, the Sambhavna Trust needs to raise Rs. 1.25 crore.

According to Satinath Sarangi, Managing Trustee, “The Sambhavna Trust was set up in June 1995 with the sole objective of improving the health and health care of the survivors of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal through medical care, research and community health work. The Trust started running the Clinic exclusively for the survivors of the Union Carbide disaster of December 2-3, 1984 on September 2, 1996. The funds for the Clinic were raised through an appeal published in The Guardian, London. Thousands of readers donated small amounts to raise sufficient funds to buy a small building and start running the Clinic. The newspaper appeal was published by the Bhopal Medical Appeal (BMA), UK and donations were collected and sent to us by the BMA.”

Sarangi informs further, “Till October 2019, the Clinic was run with small donations from over 30,000 individuals that were routed to Sambhavna Trust through the Bhopal Medical Appeal. In October 2019, our FCRA registration was cancelled and our bank account frozen on grounds of violation — non-submission of Annual Report (AR) of 2017-18. The submission had to be done online by March 31, 2019. We have presented evidence (screenshots of different dates) before the concerned officials to demonstrate that we were unable to upload the AR because of i. malfunctioning of the portal and ii. wrong information entered with regard to our online page. Yet we were asked to pay a penalty of close to Rs 18 lakhs for non-submission of AR for 2017-2018.”

He adds, “The cancellation of FCRA registration is a big blow for the Sambhavna Trust because right from the beginning we were depending on donations from abroad. We have had to cut down the number of doctors from five to just two which means we are seeing less patients now. Because of shortage of funds we are unable to produce some of the medicines and pay salaries to our staff in time. We are now raising funds through GiveIndia crowdfunding platform but the amount raised so far is far from adequate.”

Over the years, the Sambhavna Clinic has developed safe and effective treatment by integrating modern medicine with ayurveda and yoga. It also carries out community health work and researches the long-term health impact of toxic exposure. Over 100 kinds of medicinal plants are grown organically in the clinic’s garden and used to manufacture over 80 types of ayurvedic medicines for use in the clinic. Almost 40% of the survivors receiving care at the clinic have a per capita income of less than Rs. 1000 per month and 65% of those registered for care are women.

Provision of continued medical facilities to survivors and the long-term existence of the clinic is now at risk of being jeopardized, seemingly because of a technicality. It will adversely affect the lives of over 36,000 registered survivors, who will have nowhere to go to get similar, adequate and personalized treatment.

The clinic’s employees, half of whom are disaster survivors themselves, also face an uncertain future and one where despite taking deep voluntary cuts to their salaries, no permanent financial succour seems available.

How can we rescue this situation? Well, contributing anything, however seemingly inconsequential, on the GiveIndia crowdfunding platform would be a good start. Apart from that, spreading the message and speaking about the work of the Sambhavna Trust and Clinic could also go a long way in making a difference to the status quo.

In the end, the work done by Sambhavna is evident in its commitment to providing free, ethical and sustainable healthcare to survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster and ongoing water poisoning.

For further motivation, there is always the information available online about Sambhavna, which says, “Sambhavna does not accept money from corporations, governments or large funding agencies. All funds required to run the Sambhavna Trust Clinic come from individual donations and from the royalties of the book “Five Past Midnight in Bhopal”, by Dominique Lapierre and Javier Moro. A large portion of Sambhavna’s funds comes from over 15,000 individuals in the UK who respond to advertisements placed by the Bhopal Medical Appeal in British newspapers. Contributions are from a variety of people from different backgrounds and socio-economic levels. For example, the herbal medicine making facility was built with funds donated by litter pickers at a music festival in the UK. Accounts of the Sambhavna Trust are audited annually and are open to public scrutiny.”