Mohammad Saeed Shaikh has been receiving offers of help, but nothing has progressed beyond phone calls.
Images of an auto-rickshaw driver on Mumbai roads with his little son in his lap have moved many on social media after a passenger shared the photo on Twitter. Mohammad Saeed Shaikh, 26, has no choice but to drive in the blistering heat with his two-year-old son, who looks most uncomfortable and often cries.
He has been receiving offers of help, but nothing has progressed beyond phone calls. Yet like many immigrants in the city, Mr Saeed lives on hope.
On Sunday evening, Mr Shaikh met NDTV near his tiny home in a tenement in Versova and told us his heartbreaking story.
He has two children, Muzammil, 2, and nine-month-old Muskan. The reason he has been driving around with his son is because his wife Yasmeen, 24, is paralyzed. Their baby daughter is looked after by neighbours but son Muzammil is his responsibility.
Mr Shaikh took Yasmeen to a government hospital for treatment but had to bring her back home as he couldn't afford it anymore. She is unable to take care of their children, or even move. Doctors say she was paralysed because of high blood pressure.
For the last 15 days, Mr Shaikh has been driving around the suburbs with his son. He cannot take long-distance passengers as he has to keep coming back home to check on his wife. That has hit his earnings badly. He barely manages to buy enough food for his children and wife and often has just one meal a day so his family can eat.
His parents back in a village in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, depend on what he sends home; he hasn't been able to buy tickets to bring them to Mumbai to care for his children.
Mr Shaikh says before his wife fell sick, he would make anything between Rs. 500 to Rs. 700 a day. This, after paying Rs. 400 for the auto and Rs. 100 for gas. He even managed to send around Rs. 10,000 to his parents. Now, he makes around Rs 200 a day and sometimes even less.
He is hoping for financial help, mainly for his children. If they are taken care of, he can get his wife admitted to hospital and perhaps try to earn enough for medicines.