Rajkumar Mahto of Kirari village in West Delhi lives in a single room by an open gutter with his wife, Hema Devi, and two daughters. Contact with the sewage appears to be the cause of the sores on the children’s faces and bodies. But Mahto says they have broken out because they are worried. The children, he explains, haven’t seen their 8-year-old sister, Kajal, since April 21, 2010.
“She wanted ice cream,” said Mr. Mahto, who is tall and bucktoothed, and sells secondhand clothes from a cart. “My wife told her to wait a minute, she’d come along. But Kajal was too eager. We never saw her again.'
Continue reading the third installment of my series, The Other India, on the NYT's India Ink site, here.
Photo: The Mahtos with their two youngest children in their home in West Delhi.
“She wanted ice cream,” said Mr. Mahto, who is tall and bucktoothed, and sells secondhand clothes from a cart. “My wife told her to wait a minute, she’d come along. But Kajal was too eager. We never saw her again.'
Continue reading the third installment of my series, The Other India, on the NYT's India Ink site, here.
Photo: The Mahtos with their two youngest children in their home in West Delhi.
