While jeans and kurtis have become the daily uniform for urban youth, the saree returns for festivals, job interviews, and weddings. Furthermore, the sindoor (vermilion in the hair parting) and mangalsutra (sacred necklace) remain powerful, if sometimes controversial, signifiers of marital status.
Her day begins at 4:00 AM. She walks 2 kilometers for potable water. She cooks on a chulha (mud stove), inhaling smoke that damages her lungs. She works in the field alongside her husband but owns no land in her name.
