Students for Bhopal is supported by chapters of the Association for India's Development, Amnesty International, Sierra Student Coalition, SEAC, and the Campus Greens.
Shana Blustein Ortman
Aquene Freechild When she's not breeding prizewinning oysters or cooking '30 Minute Brownies' in 20 minutes, Aquene helps coordinate the Boston Coalition for Justice in Bhopal, which includes members of the Association for India's Development, Amnesty International, the Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia, and Boston-area student groups. Among other initiatives, the Boston Coalition helped organize a 1500-student protest outside the Indian consulate in New York, demanding justice for Bhopal. Aquene is a graduate of University of Wisconsin-Madison. There she organized multicultural events for two years with Wisconsin Union Directorate, and also co-founded and coordinated WISPIRG's Big Red, Go Green campus energy campaign. [Email Aquene] Why do you believe in justice for Bhopal? Pragya Bhagat
Pragya Bhagat is a volunteer of the AID Austin chapter, and the coordinator of the Bhopal campaign in Austin. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin (hook 'em!) with a degree in Biology. After graduation, Pragya spent 6 months volunteering at the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, where her interest in the campaign grew. She currently teaches science to hormonal sixth graders at KIPP: Austin College Prep. Why do you believe in justice for Bhopal? "Ladenge! Jeetenge! We will fight! We will win!" It is not just a slogan, it is a fact of life for the hundreds of thousands of individuals who have been affected by what happened in Bhopal twenty-two years ago. People in Bhopal, in India, in the world- we all believe that the murder of so many men, women, and children is inexcusable. I believe in justice for Bhopal because it provides me with hope. A vision of victory for the Bhopalis is the only thing that keeps the fight alive. Justice can never come if one does not believe that it is possible. I do. Tony Millard
Having volunteered at the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal for most of a year spanning parts of 2006 and 2007, he hasa firm, first-hand perspective of the situation on the ground in Bhopal. From Sambhavna to the dilapidated factory, to Oriya Basti and Hamidia Hospital, to the oft-protested home of the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh in Shamla Hills, his knowledge of Bhopal is a benefit to our strategizing and planning actions here in the United States. This applies particularly from the standpoint of communicating to others the extent of the devastation across Bhopal, but more importantly, the spirit of the Bhopalis who continue to fight for Justice. Diana Katgara
Yogesh Simmhan
Ellen Shifrin
Why do you believe in justice for Bhopal? "Bhopal serves not only as a situation in itself, but also as a model for people in other places fighting the same type of violations. There are so many levels on which to work for justice in Bhopal - human and environmental rights, politics, economics, and the human spirit. So because Bhopal will always be with us in one way or another, because the fight of the gas and water-affected people is wholly non-violent, because the spirit of the survivors is so strong--all these are reasons why I want to be part of the Advisory Board, why I want to be more involved, and why I feel it's such an important cause to be whole-heartedly committed to."
International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
Satinath Sarangi
About Sathyu: Rachna Dhingra
About Rachna: Nityanand Jayaraman
About Nity: Madhumita Dutta
About Madhu: Gary Cohen
About Gary: Ward Morehouse
Morehouse has written or edited some 20 books, including The Bhopal Tragedy; Abuse of Power: The Social Performance of Multinational Corporations; Worker Empowerment in a Changing Economy; and The Underbelly of the U.S. Economy. He is co-founder of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal and Communities Concerned About Corporations, a network of workers, community activists, victims of industrial disasters, and socially concerned investors fighting corporate power. He is also a member of the regular panel of jurists for the Permanent People’s Tribunal headquartered in Rome. A former academic, Morehouse taught Political Science at New York University and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Lund in Sweden and the Administrative Staff College of India in Hyderabad. He has also been a consultant to various United Nations agencies, including UNESCO, UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization), UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), and the Center on Transnational Corporations. [Email Ward] About Ward:
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Our
Mission Statement
Shana is a very excited new member of the Advisory Board. She has worked on social and environmental justice for the past 10 years, and she is extremely moved and inspired by the struggle for Justice in Bhopal. Before becoming the US Coordinator for ICJB in April 2008, she spent nearly four years at ForestEthics, where she was the Lead Organizer on the Paper Campaign. Her work focused on leadership development and creating grassroots organizing for a campaign that is transforming the catalog industry and protecting Endangered Forests; most notably, in 2006, they won the Victoria's Dirty Secret campaign, a three year campaign that included over 750 grassroots actions across North America. Shana got her B.A. in Humanities, with a focus on Children's Literature and Social Change from New College of California in 2005. She also spent two years studying Anthropology at Grinnell College, where she was very involved with student activism for environmental justice and human rights. She is so excited to work on the campaign for justice in Bhopal and to learn from all of you wonderful people who fight for this movement. 
Dow
and the Indian Government know her variously as "The Terminator
" and "The Nemesis." Her next door neighbors know
her as "The Aquene next door." We know her not as a flower,
but as a flame: a brilliant beacon, driving away the darkness, infusing
herself and her spirit into the campaign and inspiring all of us.
Tony graduated from the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism in 2006, and he is currently working as a producer, writer and editor for an XM satellite medical radio station called ReachMD. In his first year on the AB, he helped to coordinate our extensive media campaign throughout the entire 2008 Padyatra, which included frequent press releases and outreach to news and information outlets across a variety of mediums throughout the United States. 
Diana had the chance to spend some time in Bhopal and get to know a number of people there. These people who are strong, brillliant, loving, creative, inspirational, funny, musical, articulate, insightful, caring, full of hope and who will never ever give up fighting for justice for themselves and fighting to ensure that what has happened to Bhopalis doesn't happen to others have become an important part of her life. 
Yogesh brings his passion for justice to the Advisory Board--he hopes to improve the lives of Bhopalis, and fight corporate greed and government apathy. Co-founder of AID at the University of Illinois, Bloomington, Yogesh organized all Bhopal-related events at his university from 2003-2007 including vigils, protests, panel discussions with Ryan Bodyani and Rajan Sharma, and a Bhopal photo exhibit. Additionally, he has worked with Amnesty International in picketing a talk by Dow CEO Andrew Liveris in Indianapolis. In 2006 he helped host the Students for Bhopal conference in Bloomington. Yogesh has experience in letter writing, media management, and event organizing. He sees the approaching 25 th anniversary of the gas tragedy as an important opportunity: "The looming 25 th anniversary is a crucial juncture for our campaign and SfB needs all the support possible to mobilize across the US. This is the time for everyone associated with the campaign to stand up and be counted, and I'm answering this call." 
A former professor and administer, Ellen has strong communication and organizational skills. Her involvement with the campaign for justice in Bhopal began in 2008, but she was involved with Amnesty International for many years. She has been invited to table at the UN Association of Canada, Toronto event on Water and the AI Business & Human Rights conference, The Case for Water as a Human Right. Having traveled to the subcontinent eight times, Ellen is looking forward to combining her deep-rooted passions for human rights and India. 
The
Satinath,
aka Sathyu, is a metallurgical engineer turned activist who arrived
in Bhopal a day-after the disaster and stayed on to become a key
figure in the struggle for justice in Bhopal. He is a founding trustee
of the 
Rachna
Dhingra, originally from Delhi, was just six years old when the
world’s worst industrial disaster struck Bhopal in 1984. She
was 18 when she moved to the US with her mother to attend the University
of Michigan; it was there that she first became active in the 
Nityanand
has a degree in electronics engineering, but works as ‘a traveling
journalist’. His work brought him to Bhopal for the first
time 10 years back in 1995. "I did an article on groundwater
contamination and got hooked to the issue." He lives in Chennai
and has since been writing research-based reports on environmental
and human rights issues. "Companies like the UCC and Dow Chemical
are being courted by the country. It means that we, as people, will
have to target Dow through legal and direct actions to hold them
accountable for their crimes. There is no other way that justice
can be delivered to survivors of Bhopal," says Nityanand, or
Nity, as his fellow activists call him. "I don’t travel
much any more, but the Bhopal issue takes me out of Chennai for
a few weeks in a year. Otherwise, I travel to other pollution-impacted
communities in Tamil Nadu and nearby areas." [
Madhu,
with a degree in environmental science, lobbies for the cause with
government officials concerned and provides research-based support
work. She has been involved with issues related to asbestos mining
in Jharkhand and safety of workers ever since she left her job as
a reporter with the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) magazine
Down to Earth. "I wanted to work freely, pick up a
bag and travel. So I left everything and did just that," she
says. What angers her the most is when the government expresses
its helplessness to resolve issues. [
Gary
Cohen is Executive Director of the Environmental Health Fund in
Boston, and a founder and co-Executive Director of 
Ward
Morehouse, author and human rights activist, is President of the
The international student campaign to hold Dow
accountable for Bhopal, and its other toxic legacies around the world.
For more information about the campaign, or for problems regarding this
website, contact Shana Ortman, the US Coordinator for the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal.
Last updated:
July 8, 2009
WE
ALL LIVE 
IN
BHOPAL
"The year 2003 was a special year in the history of the campaign for justice in Bhopal. It was the year when student and youth supporters from at least 30 campuses in the US and India took action against Dow Chemical or in support of the demands of the Bhopal survivors. As we enter the 20th year of the unfolding Bhopal disaster, we can, with your support, convey to Dow Chemical that the fight for justice in Bhopal is getting stronger and will continue till justice is done. We look forward to your continued support and good wishes, and hope that our joint struggle will pave the way for a just world free of the abuse of corporate power."
Signed/ Rasheeda Bi, Champa Devi Shukla
Bhopal Gas Affected Women Stationery Employees Union
International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
