They were not born at the time but hundreds of children live the horrors of that intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, every minute of every day -- their bodies trapped forever in congenital disabilities such as blindness and cerebral palsy. Thirty-seven years and some three generations later, the darkness of that night when 40 tonnes of lethal methyl isocyanate leaked out of the Union Carbide plant hangs like an impenetrable cloud over the lives of untold thousands, including children as young as three whose parents were exposed to the toxin when they themselves were children.

What did help was therapy and special education lessons. That has been impacted by the Covid pandemic and the months of lockdown that followed. As the world marks another anniversary, those those that survived - and their offspring -- count their losses. The official number of deaths from what has come to be known as the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, among the world's worst industrial disasters ever, was 2,259 but activists estimate the number could be well over 20,000, maybe double that.