Sharma is one of an estimated 63 million visually impaired people in India, according to the World Health Organization. Of those, some eight million are completely blind — around 20 percent of the global total.

Many Delhi roads lack pavements, forcing the 44-year-old father-of-three to walk on the roadside, probing his white cane in front as cars and trucks tear past just centimetres (inches) away.

On trains, where passengers are packed like sardines in the megacity of 20 million people, he is dependent on fellow commuters helping him to navigate platforms and squeeze in and out of carriages.