Indhumathi: the ultimate multi-tasker

Indhumathi Kalaivanan lives in the village of T. Puthur, where most men are employed as rice farm laborers. When I went to meet Indhumathi, it wasn’t hard to find her, as she was sitting on the road behind her house talking with four other women. The women were also grinding rice for idli and dosa in the shade of a tree, which they said is a weekly task. There were a few young children climbing from woman to woman, and it appeared that they were socializing, preparing for the week’s meals, and watching the children simultaneously. Although I was hesitant to interrupt, Indhumathi seemed happy to tell me about her family.Indhumathi’s husband is an agricultural laborer, who takes his green XL Super two-wheeler to work every day.  After speaking with Indhumathi for a few minutes, she walked me the twenty meters to her house and showed me her family’s toilet. A single leach pit model, she said that it cost Rs.15,000 to construct, which means that they will have to dig another hole once the first pit fills up in a few years. I asked Indhumathi why she didn’t go for the two-pit model, and she joked that, “she’ll get a twin pit with the next loan.”  Indhumathi no longer walks to the agricultural field, about 500 meters away, to relieve herself, and neither does the rest of her family.