Toxic Trespass, Sameer, 16 Years Old

Sameer, 16, is held by his mother Wahida at home in Bhopal’s Jamalpura neighborhood. Sameer was born to parents contaminated by carcinogenic and mutagenic water stemming from the 1984 Union Carbide gas tragedy which has claimed 25,000 lives to date. For decades thousands of families have used contaminated water leading to serious illness and birth defects, as afflicted Sameer. The title refers to scholar-activist Sandra Steingraber’s concept of toxic trespass, in which toxic chemicals enter our bodies without our consent.