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)
Shushila Jain sits 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. Jain, who is about 80, says she felt forced to leave her home more than 10 years ago because of a toxic situation with her daughter-in-law. She spent her life caring for four children, her husband, her in-laws and her three grandsons, and never imagined when she needed help she would have to turn to strangers. "I never thought it would come to this," she says. "I thought I would also be taken care of, but it was something else in my fate." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Vijaya Lakshmi, 85, 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. Lakshmi, who is about 85, was part of a well-educated Mumbai family: She taught chemistry, her husband was a college lecturer and her son was an engineer. After her husband died, though, her son fell ill with cancer and she sold everything she had to pay for his treatment. He died anyway and Lakshmi said she had no other relatives willing to help. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Chhoti, who does not use a surname, sits 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. Chhoti, who is about 70, says her children abandoned her and her husband at a faraway temple. They lived there for more than eight years before they were brought to the center about three years ago. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Jugal Kishore 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. Kishore, who is about 65, was left by his children two years ago at a Delhi market. He says his wife's illness plunged his family into financial hardship. After she died, his son and daughter began to hit him but he expresses sympathy for his children and says he understands why they did what they did. "They didn't have enough money," he says. (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)
Akbar Babba 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. Babba, who is about 70, spent two years living on the streets after he said his children forced him from his home. When he arrived at the home, doctors weren't sure he would survive because of chronic infections, including one that was so serious that his left eye had to be removed. "These days," he says, "no one cares about others." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
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)
Fatima Bi, 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. Fatima Bi, 62, says her son threw her out because his wife did not want her to live with them. "If you don't go, my wife will leave me," she says he told her. "What do I say?" (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)
Radhika, who doesn't use a surname, 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. Radhika, who doesn't know her age, says her sons abandoned her because they did not want to care for her after she started suffering epileptic seizures. "No one wants to take care of me, so I'm here," she says. "They are too busy with their life. They want to enjoy their life. They don't have time for me." (AP Photo/David Goldman)