Health and Toxics:Clean Environment is a basic Human Right

What do we do when the water you are drinking is contaminated? What do we do for instance, for villagers of Simariya in the Bhojpur district of Bihar who are suffering from the consumption of Arsenic contaminated water? How does one deal with cases of Mercury and Lead contamination?
For instance, what is our stance on the Mercury contamination due to Atul Chemicals Limited in the Par river of Valsad district in Gujarat. Do we have any idea about the health consequences of the villagers living
in the river's vicinity.

North America - South Asia Conversation on Environmental Justice" to be held at Sariska from the 2nd to the 5th of December 2002 is considering diverse aspects of environment and human rights violations. The central idea behind this conversation is to share experiences so as to develop strategies for bringing about environmental justice.

Environmental Justice Initiative needs local level liason alongwith its focus on litigation to ensure greater public participation in environmental decision making. That will go a long way in evolving concrete strategies for environmental justice.

What is missing is a movement against toxics. A well-defined anti-toxics philosophy woven with killer instinct is also missing? Also there is lack of negotiating space for environmental groups. Our current work does not add up to a “movement”. There is an anti-toxics activity in the country in the sense that there are different
organizations and individuals who are campaigning against industrial pollution, occupational hazards and toxic products. However, there is little communication among different organizations on toxic issues. Groups and
networks focused on toxics have very little information on and contact with the anti-toxics activity in various parts of the country.

What is happening and is very powerful is pockets of resistance and struggles around the country by communities and grassroots groups fighting toxics, maybe directly or indirectly, for instance, fighting for the loss of their right to natural resources and livelihoods which has been
taken over by companies, mines, thermal power plants etc. Some of these places have very strong local leadership and potential to form grassroots movement against toxics. But very clearly, the mainstream movement is not in the picture. Though there are examples of city based
organisations and people doing good work to raise awareness or taking up issues—incinerator, wastes, pesticides etc., but its really not caught the national attention or is on the minds of people. Its too adhoc and fragmented.

Networking of diverse groups and organizations linked through toxics issues: farmers, fisherfolks, doctors, agricultural and industrial workers, victim communities, scientists etc, collection and dissemination of
information relevant and useful for individuals and organizations moving on toxic issues and lobbying with elected representatives of different political parties, policy makers, institutions ought to be initiated
for a movement to come into picture.

We need to get doctors to speak up about the connection between toxics and cancer, immune deficiencies, overall health. We also need to activate groups to take this message to children and through them to mothers.

Wherever there is movement, wherever anything is carried into effect in the actual world, there dialectic is at work. It is of the highest importance to ascertain and understand rightly the nature of dialectics. It is the method of reasoning which aims to understand things concretely in all their movement, change and interconnection, with their opposite and contradictory sides in unity. Our dialectics needs a long- term vision and a goal. It is a vital principle in conduct that we should be subjectively free, that is to say,
that we should have an insight into what we are doing where we are going, and a conviction that it is right and also that our work is not just another profession but a cause larger than the mundane imponderables. A common web address for toxics movement in India where all the outreach
reports are posted with names, addresses and other details of the activists is required.

Indifference of the corporate controlled media, public schooled city centric perception, unimaginative and visionless industrial model of development in an agriculture driven country, unavailability of the bridge
between science laced toxicity literature and communication in English language and the limitations of regional and local understanding.

Blending new and alarming toxicity information with the curriculum in ours education system since there is always a gulf between what happens today and what we study in textbooks. For instance, the Kerela pesticide tragedy will get reflected in our books years after similar such
disasters have occurred and may it will be too late by that time.

Zeroing in on all the schools, colleges, teachers, professors, bureaucrats, media persons, politicians, policymakers who have been associated with environmental issues and if not then by informing them. This along
with a drive to bring all the collectors in our loop will be like catching them young and converting them. Investigations on all the small scale industries in particular and extending that expertise to big
corporate houses can expose alarming situations and can make the case for stricter environmental norms. There is a role for International allies whose implicit and explicit support can be of great help.