East Village photographer Q. Sakamaki was in India at the end of last October, documenting poverty conditions in the largely Muslim northern suburbs of Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), considered the world’s largest slum, and Delhi. Although India’s gross domestic product has been increasing, the gap between rich and poor is wider than ever.
Photos this page, clockwise from top: a Muslim woman walks atop a pipeline that supplies water to south Mumbai’s wealthy district and from which, according to Sakamaki, the poor residents cannot obtain water; addicts inhale “brown sugar,” or heroin, in a Delhi alley; a health clinic in Kamatipura, Mumbai, said to be the world’s biggest red-light district, where many of the prostitutes are forcibly brought from Nepal or rural India. Opposite page, clockwise from top: Smog blankets northern Mumbai; Anadri, 5, a handicapped girl, begs at Mumbai’s Mahim train station; a family performs acrobats in Kamatipura to earn money; in Mumbai, a family takes a sidewalk bath.
thevillager.com
