60-year-old S lived with her husband and together they had one son and six daughters. Most of their children lived Bombay, working as domestic help and rickshaw pullers. One of her grandchildren died from tuberculosis, but his brothers continue to visit her during summer. Her husband’s health was a little poorly and he was unable to do much except take his cows out to graze. Meanwhile, after cooking, cleaning, and sending the younger children to school, S left for work de-weeding plants. She told us that she had never got work from MNREGA, and had not even heard of it. They also had an acre of land used to grow green gram, but because of recent pest infestations, they only managed to harvest a fraction of their usual collection. Interestingly, while the children used brushes and toothpaste to clean their teeth, S and her husband used a tooth powder made out of tobacco and brought from Bombay.
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Bidar, Karnataka