Aug. 01, 2024 14:52 PM EST

Photo Collection: At A Home For India's Unwanted Elders, Faces Of Pain And Resilience

Bharti Mitra stands for a portrait at the Saint Hardyal Educational and Orphans Welfare Society shelter where she is a resident in Garhmukteshwar, India, Thursday, April 18, 2024. Mitra, who is about 70, arrived at the home eight years ago from Kolkata after a fall led to injuries and infections in her hand and leg. "There was no one to take care of me," she says. She was never married but has two brothers. Asked if she misses them, she says: "Even if I do, what is the use?" (AP Photo/David Goldman) David Goldman, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bharti Mitra stands for a portrait at the Saint Hardyal Educational and Orphans Welfare Society shelter where she is a resident in Garhmukteshwar, India, Thursday, April 18, 2024. Mitra, who is about 70, arrived at the home eight years ago from Kolkata after a fall led to injuries and infections in her hand and leg. "There was no one to take care of me," she says. She was never married but has two brothers. Asked if she misses them, she says: "Even if I do, what is the use?" (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Suresh Prakash Agarwal stands for a portrait at the Saint Hardyal Educational and Orphans Welfare Society shelter where he is a resident in Garhmukteshwar, India, Thursday, April 18, 2024. Agarwal, 87, lost both his wife and his son in a landslide in 2013 while on a trek. The former law professor says their deaths left him "paralyzed with grief" and with no one else to help care for him. Looking to the home's manager, 30-year-old Naved Khan, he says: "He is my guardian." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Munia Devi stands for a portrait at the Saint Hardyal Educational and Orphans Welfare Society shelter where she is a resident in Garhmukteshwar, India, Thursday, April 18, 2024. Devi, who does not know her age, says her home life was marked by abuse. She says her daughter cursed her and her son hit her with bamboo and broke her arm and both took money from her account. When her grandson suggested they go on a trip earlier this year, they boarded a train from their home in the east Indian state of Bihar. When they arrived in Delhi, she says, he deserted her. "They took my money. That's all they cared for," she says. "Then they pushed me out." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Amirchand Sharma sits for a portrait at the Saint Hardyal Educational and Orphans Welfare Society shelter where he is a resident in Garhmukteshwar, India, Thursday, April 18, 2024. Sharma, who is about 65, arrived at the center about five years ago. He says his sons were not prepared for the amount of care he needed after he was hit by a motorist and left paralyzed. They drove him several hours from his home and left him at the banks of the Ganges River, he says. "They said, 'Taking care of him is not our cup of tea,'" Sharma says. "They said, 'Throw him away.'" (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Rajhu Phooljale stands for a portrait at the Saint Hardyal Educational and Orphans Welfare Society shelter where he is a resident in Garhmukteshwar, India, Thursday, April 18, 2024. Phooljale, who is about 65, was badly hurt in a hit-and-run accident that left him blind. He no longer could work as a cook and his wife left him. Under the guise of taking him surgery, his two sons took him to a New Delhi hospital, far from their home, and then deserted him. "I never thought my sons would do this to me," he says. "I never thought one day I would be here." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
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This is a collection of photos chosen by AP photo editors.

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