Image 1 of 1
148_Bhopal_Second_Disaster.JPG
Bano Bi Ali, 70, is feeding her grandson Rahil Ali, 7, a boy suffering from a severe neurological disorder, in their home in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, near the abandoned Union Carbide (now DOW Chemical) industrial complex. Rahil lives with his father, Rashid Ali, 35, and his mute and deaf grandmother, in a small, single room his father rents inside a larger house. Rahil's mother left the family three years ago, his father says, because of the hardship and stigma associated to birth defects in India. She took with her Rahil's two siblings, a sister now aged 6 and a brother aged 3, and remarried. In the past, Rashid and his now ex-wife had no choice but to feed the family on contaminated water for a period about six years, in which all three children were born. But while his siblings appear to be healthy to this day, Rahil was diagnosed with torch infection and Lissencephaly after a CT scan was made of his brain soon after his birth. The latter disorder is incurable, and children in similar conditions to Rahil's have a average life expectancy of less than ten years.
