This page will be changing in the next few days as I add the option for a Kindle, an Audio and just a donation. If you would like either of these, please bear with me and recheck the site in a week or so.

1984 - 30 tonnes of toxic gas killed and poisoned thousands of people

in northern Bhopal.

2013 - CHILDREN are being born today with congenital disability, such

as cerebral palsy, at a rate about 7 times* the rest of India. The

polluting toxins that affected their parents or grandparents 28 years

ago are causing these innocent little victims to suffer for the whole of

their lives.

* according to doctors from Bhopal in a press conference in Calcutta on 3 March 2013

"an entertaining read"

"strangely addictive"

"a totally compelling read"

see more comments below

3 Months in Bhopal Please make a donation Money raised will be used directly in support of the affected people - not for campaigning.
An e-book, a pdf, will be sent to you by e-mail	Please watch this short video of some children who went to Delhi to campaign.

there is also a print version available at £10 plus postage costs. Send me a request via the Contact page.

Read about the Chingari Rehabilitation Centre where
children with congenital disability are given
support, education and treatment.

You are invited to make a donation and receive this e-book free in order to raise funds for the Bhopal Medical Appeal, a UK charity, and to support my return to the Sambhavna Trust Clinic and the Chingari Rehabilitation Centre, both located in the slum areas of northern Bhopal. If we raise enough I would like to help build a path. lab. for research and offer Chingari physiotherapists some training in the work of the Petto Institute, working with children with cerebral palsy or in the Ponseti method for club foot.

Read about the Sambhavna Trust Clinic – the only place offering
free treatment for victims of both gas and water.

Learn some of the facts you do not know about this incident

• You don’t know that many pregnant women spontaneously aborted that day and in the following days?
  
• You don’t know the compensation works out to 3p if spread to all the people who should have received it?
  
• You don’t know about the water pollution because toxic chemicals dumped on and around the site have been washed into the ground water source?
• You don’t know that these poisonous chemicals and heavy metals are still being washed into the soil and spreading the water pollution by 200 metres every year?

Comments and Reviews

Robert Bullard (a writer) - I really like the mix of content (work & everyday life); plus you have a clear/entertaining voice, and present some humorous and original insights... well done... it will make an entertaning read.

Nagendra Chaturvedi (a staff member at Sambhavna) - Hats off to Ian Jarvis, done wonderful work at sambhavna, and I am proud of myself that I have spend time with him and he helped me a lot to improve my writing skills and grammar ... thanks Ian. Congratulations for completion of your Bhopal Book.....

Bryan Deal - Dear Ian,  I can only stand in admiration of the work you are doing. 

Sally Pickard - Ian made a real difference when he was out there, - - - I had the pleasure of proofing it; I found it funny, full of fascinating insights and descriptions about the country and its culture - and I felt humbled learning how just one person can make a difference. It is a totally compelling read.

Patsy Yardley - At last I have got round to making a start on reading your book, and it is indeed fascinating. - - - I will certainly continue to read your very interesting book even if it is only done in middling-sized snatches. I am full of admiration for what you have been doing.

Julia Doherty - yep. I have read your book... brilliant!!

Adam Petford - Any one wanting a real life and honest perspective of a tragedy that has been in most cases covered up by Western Commerce should get and read his book today. People like Ian make the world a better place to live in.

Mark Northall - Strangely addictive.

Buyers of the print book can see all the pictures in full colour here:

and also the poster to expand and read

Contents Page		Acknowledgements
Looking down over the inner courtyard at the Sambhavna Clinic. The corner balcony to the right is the rear of my room.		Simply a view from my balcony one evening.

Preface
The inner courtyard at Sambhavna.	Sathyu Sarangi - who, as a final year PhD student, went to Bhopal a couple of days after the incident and stayed. Still helping and campaigning.

Preliminaries
My boat, my home taken on the Grand Union Canal in Warwick.	This picture was taken on the Kennet & Avon canal, near Devizes just after its new coat of paint.
My early view of Delhi Nazruddin railway station.	'Health and Safety' hold little sway in India.

Week 1 -Saturday is Bhopal
This is the first view of Sambhavna I saw, the main entrance, at about 07:30 in the morning. It is a calming welcome , to anyone, in the middle of the northern Bhopal slums.	The 'new' market in the posh side of Bhopal south of the two main lakes.
And this is my first view of the Panchkarma therapy room where I would spend many of my days for the next two months. It is very different from a typical therapy room in the UK.	The reception area before the morning rush starts. In the morning there are many people waiting for registration or to see a doctor or therapist. Later, people wait for prescriptions of Ayurveda or allopathic medicines.

The Poster  (if you enlarge this in your browser you will be able to read the text)

Week 2 -  A Welcome Rest
Kite flying is very popular in India and there was a shop on the main road selling kites and string. That really is a kite up there approaching the moon!	The roof of a neighbouring house, ready for expansion when materials and funds are available. Boys will always climb as high as they can and there were often several playing on the roof and steps. They will probably be young men (at least) when they can sit in a room up there.
The 'business' side of the treatment room. Keeping good records is essential in any medical facility and the network of computers is fundamental to the work and research.	I felt that the wooden table, designed to cope with the flow of oil, was too hard for the flesh and bone of mere humans. Maybe I am a soft westerner but I used a thin mattress to aid the comfort of my clients.
Ha ha! Our washing machine about which, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, I extolled its environmental virtues.	Dow employed a spying agency which found my blog and passed on details of it to their spy-masters, revealed Wikileaks. Missing the irony, but that's Americans for you!

Week 3 - Sunday, Another Rest Day
This is the view looking out of the main gate. The earlier picture of the main entrance is behind my back. To the left is just one of the heaps of rubbish with rats etc.	Further along the road, and looking from another gate is this dwelling where several people and goats live.

Week 4 - A Week of Calm?
	This is me in the yoga room with two of the clients who were both having problems with their necks. Shruti had asked me to teach them to do a set of isometric muscle exercises to help. Later I made a video of the exercises and loaded it on to her computer so she can use it in the future to show other clients. (If you have a neck problem and want to see them, they are now on my youtube channel "SpineworksBodywork".)
The children's play area, with the solar panels in the background. I could see this from the rear window of the Panchkarma room in which I worked with Biju. In fact the plant to the left covers the wall of that room.	On this Sunday morning, with the clinic closed of course, all our excitement was created by these men cleaning out the pond. It is home to several terrapins and fish which had to be caught. Melanie and I were looking over our balcony when I took this picture. The reception area is just visible on the right, behind the greenery.

Week 5 - A Month of Sundays!	(and the staff picnic)
Here we all are, only an hour later than planned, waiting with one of the two the buses that took us to the reservoir park for our picnic.	Inside a typical Indian bus - ready to depart.
Just a view as we journeyed the 50 kilometres south on our journey from industrial Bhopal.	The stream where, later, many were to get thoroughly soaked. Beena, the Panchkarma therapist for women is the one in the middle. Shabnam, a nurse, is to the right and Mahendra, the chief pathologist in the white T-shirt.
Boys play in the stream while the girls are forced to watch.	The land around the dam is a natural park which is visited by many people.
Although this was only a few weeks after the main monsoon season, the rain had not been as much as hoped so the dam was not full. This is a view looking away from the dam past the run-off slope.
	No clues for guessing who this is. Kamal, the pharmacist, was quite concerned as I prepared to dive in, cautioning me of the dangers and not knowing that swimming was my main sport as a youth. In India there are very few swimming pools, and not a lot of water anyway so few can actually swim.
What it was all for, the picnic! Not a pack of sandwiches and crisps but a full Indian meal with rice, curry, dahl and bread that was new to me, bafla. Cooked over open fires.	The tallest man, one of the gardeners, was chosen to serve.
And before we left for home again, there was the compulsory dancing, mainly for the young. Nagendra, my student for English is on the far right.	And this little girl was the star of course.
	Back at Sambhavna,this is the generator that does much good work during the many power cuts that Bhopal suffers.

Week 6 - October, A New Month
	I was wondering why religion plays such a large part in the society here and got to thinking about Maslow's hierachy of needs and where religion fits into it.

Week 7 - The Bhopal Strike
The garden at Sambhavna is a peaceful haven in the midst of the bustle of the city.	Here they grow most of the herbs for use in the clinic and from which they make pills, powders and oils used in Ayurveda.

Week 8 - The Haircut Week
	This is the rather unpreposessing front of the Chingari Rehabilitation Centre, the only place in Bhopal that gives free treatment and support to children born with disability as a result of the gas leak and water pollution. Children are still being born with all manner of disability including cerebral palsy, growth problems, learning difficulties and many more. The breast milk of many mothers is toxic.
Assembly, taken at about 12:30 is the only time when all the children are present. Each day, mini-buses collect children and mothers and bring them to the centre. This takes all morning. The early arrivers receive their treatments and education and after lunch are returned home. The later arrivals have their sessions during the afternoon after which they too are taken home. It is a major organisational feat and it works every day.
	Dannielle (centre) and Fabien arrived this week as volunteers. They were nearing the end of a year of world travel and had come on spec to see what they could do. Later on in their trip they assisted in a Mother Theresa centre in Calcutta.

Week 10 - An Hour Away	(the week the clocks changed in UK)
Looking across the inner courtyard of Taj-ul-Masjid the largest mosque in India (probably). The contender is in Delhi and I gather that it depends on how you measure them.	The population of Bhopal is about 40% Moslem, one of the highest ratios in India. On this Sunday these young boys are being taught their religious instruction.
The inside is similarly impressive with high ceilings and carved stone.
	And here we are in Dhai Seedi Ki Masjid, the smallest mosque in India and, according to Lonely Planet, probably the world. It is within less than 100 metres of the largest and set in the old city walls where it was built so the duty soldiers could still pray. Nearby is the Ghandi nurse training college. I just wonder if the builder of the large one nearby deliberately wanted to have both the largest and the smallest in Bhopal. You can just see Fabien and myself at the top - Dani took the picture.
On the day I started my work at Chingari, Dani and Fabien visited bringing some modelling balloons with them. This is Dani surrounded by eager children - - -	And here is Fabien with one particular young lady waiting patiently. Later she was seen sitting quietly playing with it.
Many families have both children with disabilities and children with none. This young mother brings her disabled daughter each day and cannot leave the young boy at home of course.	Although mostly it is mothers who accompany their children we do get the occasional father and this caring dad came along several times when I was there.
	This was on my first day at Chingari. I had been talking with Kalpana, one of the physiotherapists, when this lad came for his session and wanted me to do it. He is one of the hyper-active children and afterwards he grabbed my hand and showed me around the centre. Here we are sitting in the registration area and he has his arm firmly clasped around me!
Dani with the two founders of Chingari, Rashida Bee (left) and Champa Devi Shuckla. Despite being poor and both victims of the gas when children, they used the money from the Goldman Award (the alternative Nobel) to create this centre and found a trust.

Week 11 - The Eid Week

This is the meeting room at Sambhavna where most of the meetings take place. It makes a big difference energetically to have an open-air place and be sitting around without a table between attendees.

Week 12 - My Penultimate Week
Because many people are illiterate, instructions for taking pills have to be pictorial. On the left one pill had to be taken in the morning, and on the right, one at night.	This is Sidesh, one of the most severely affected children on the cerebral palsy spectrum. He cannot even sit up and has little communication of any sort. I gave him a treatment most of my days there.

THE END