The Indian caste system deems a certain caste, the Dalits, to be so inhuman that they are untouchable. There are 160 million untouchables in India. The Untouchables are only able to secure the lowest jobs living in fear of being publicly humiliated. Simply walking through an upper-caste neighborhood is a life-threatening offense.

Nearly 90 percent of all the poor Indians and 95 percent of all the illiterate Indians are Dalits. My choice to photograph the rickshaw drivers of Delhi came about when I visited India in 2009 for 4 months as part of my Masters project in the National College of Art and Design. I felt an affinity with these men who sometimes earn less than $2 a day. These men are some of the last rickshaw drivers in the world. Many young immigrants see pulling a rickshaw as a means of upward social mobility. I witnessed a determination in their faces to succeed for their families, many of whom are originally from an impoverished area of South East India called Pondicherry.