As 4 decades on, children carry pain and suffering of Bhopal gas disaster

TOXIC LEGACY

BHOPAL: Bhopal resident Sharda Yadav's life is confined to one room where she looks after her two sons, in their mid and late 20s, who are congenitally disabled, a disorder linked to exposure of their father to a deadly gas that leaked from Union Carbide's plant here 40 years ago.

Like Sharda Yadav, Abdul Saeed Khan, an ex-Union Carbide employee, is also living with his twin sons born with congenital disability, which a senior doctor attributed to "genetic mutation" among victims of the world's biggest industrial disaster which occurred when methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the US firm's pesticide plant.

According to the WHO, congenital disorders can be defined as structural or functional anomalies that occur during intrauterine life. Also called birth defects, congenital anomalies or malformations, these conditions develop prenatally and may be identified before or at birth, or later in life.