The price of human pains

British Petroleum accepting to pay a whopping $ 4.5 billion in damages, largest ever criminal fine in the US history after pleading guilty on 14 counts including the manslaughter charges upon two of its supervisors over an offshore explosion on one of its rigs in the Gulf of Mexico in April, 2010, is indeed an eye opener. The company had already agreed to pay over $ 7.8 billion to the direct and indirect victims of the oil spill. It has even provisioned over $ 38 billion to meet different compensation and damages settlements under process. Although, the spill had caused enormous damages to the environment and marine life, the explosion had killed some 11 persons in total.

Now, move the needle of the watch back to some 28 years towards Bhopal in India where the poisonous gas leaks from the American multinational, Union Carbide had killed several thousand people besides crippling and injuring thousands of others. In fact, the effect of that catastrophe was felt and borne by the infants born months after the leak and they are carrying with those handicaps. After a procrastinated legal battle, the company had agreed to pay a total of $ 470 million as compensation to the victims and on an average it worked out to be around $ 2,200 for each dead person, a meager amount from all angles. Those who sustained injuries or were affected might have got a few bucks.

It took over 16 years for the Indian courts to pronounce judgments against the officers and employees including the then chairman of the company for their negligence or rather gross criminal negligence. Although the sentence was a mere two-year imprisonment and a meager fine of $ 2,000, none of them might have actually faced the sentence as they were either dead or out of the reach.

One may still like to know about the extent of fairness, equity and justice as well the value of human life in different jurisdictions. Of course, the loopholes and lacunae in the legal systems in countries like India which are very easily manipulated by corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, lawyers and judges make it a lot easier for companies to pay scant regard toward the safety of the human beings and the risk hazards. It will be really too presumptuous to expect a local or an international company to be considerate in proposing the settlement to the victims in such jurisdictions leave alone for them to be so generous to match the settlement that they readily accept in the US or similar countries. — Safi H. Jannaty, Dammam