BHOPAL, India (Reuters) – Protesters in the central Indian city of Bhopal formed a human chain on Thursday to demand justice for people suffering from cancer, blindness, respiratory, immune and neurological problems since the world’s worst industrial disaster 36 years ago.

In the early hours of December 3, 1984, methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide factory belonging to the American Union Carbide Corporation. Over half a million people were poisoned that night, and the official death toll was over 5,000.

Thousands of survivors said they, their children and grandchildren are struggling with chronic health problems and facing high medical bills as a result of the leak and the toxic waste left behind – at a time when their health has become even more fragile due to the pandemic.

Dow Chemical, Union Carbide’s current owner, denies liability and says it bought the company a decade after Union Carbide settled its debts to the Indian government by paying $470 million in 1989.

Protesters say the government continues to underestimate the number of victims and that many who need compensation are not being compensated.

“Stop making false promises to us… shame on you,” the protesters shouted, demanding financial help.

According to a local human rights group, victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy are more vulnerable to the coronavirus than other people.

“Today we have official documents showing that the death rate of Covid-19 gas victims is 6.5 times higher than that of people who were not exposed to the gas,” said Rachna Dhingra, an activist who has worked with survivors of the tragedy.

Local media quoted a government official as saying that of the 518 coronavirus deaths in Bhopal district since the outbreak began, 102 were survivors of the gas leak.

Urmila Patel told Reuters partner ANI this week that her family, who survived the leak, had scraped together money for two months of COVID treatment for her husband, who eventually died. “Now we have a lot of problems,” she said.

(Written by Shilpa Jamkhandikar, edited by Rupam Jain and Philippa Fletcher)