This chap is taking firewood to the village to sell, most probably to one of the roadside cafés in the village. They use wood fires for cooking and boiling the tea.
He’s got another four or five miles to go, and has probably walked three or four already. The road he’s walking on is one of the three main roads from the north to the south of India, the one down the middle of the country.
Central India, 1983 – but could equally well be today, although that particular road is very much “improved”, as indeed are many others.
Then, as now, you can also see women carrying firewood, often for considerable distances. Women don’t usually carry it this way: they usually make a single long bundle and carry it on their heads. Women don’t generally walk alone like this; they generally walk in groups of at least five or six.
©Clive K Semmens 1983