New Delhi, India — As the toxic smog enshrouds India’s capital New Delhi, Gola Noor pushes the wooden cart loaded with waste with her bare hands to help her coughing husband, Shahbaz, who struggles to peddle the cycle.
Under hazy skies, the couple, barely 40 years old, leave at 6am daily to pick waste in Delhi’s affluent localities. Shahbaz stops peddling to take long, gasping breaths. “Death is in the air,” he says, spitting on the road. “The air tastes bitter and the coughing is constant now.”
