We have to do this[work] to fill out stomachs,” says Kitabun.
Kitabun then raised their five children alone, on the streets of Sewri.
Kitabun now has hopes for her grandchildren-
she wishes for them a life outside Deonar.
It's a 100-square feet room that shelters 16 people- Kitabun's three sons, Zahida and 11 grandchildren.
One night, at around 9 p.m., Kitabun saw some men running with knives and kerosene-soaked cloth balls.
Perhaps not wanting to look after them, his family asked Sher, Kitabun and their two small children to leave the house.
Somehow I managed to throw a stool at him and ran away,” says Kitabun, of the violence that then became frequent.
Kitabun left Mumbai for the first time when she was 25,
to go to Khalilabad after her marriage to Sher Ali Shaikh, a truck driver, 12 years older than her.
Kitabun Nisa Shaikh, a 75-year-old waste picker
who works near the huge Deonar dumping ground in Mumbai, has braved a life of poverty and violence to take care of her family.