Lilabai's husband helps too.
Bhagu Memane, Lilabai's husband, adds,“We cannot live only
on our own farm produce.
Lilabai and her husband Bhagu have nine children-
the oldest is 23, the youngest is 4.
Lilabai dries fruit from the hirda tree outdoors,
and then sells it to traders by the kilo;
Through their decades of hard work, Lilabai and her husband have tried to give their children an education.
From March to May, Lilabai, like most of the women in Phalode, collects fruit from the hirda trees.
Twice a week, Lilabai walks around 10 kilometres to a forest to bring
back 7 to 10 kilos of firewood.
When Lilabai wakes up by 3 a.m.,
one of her first tasks is fetching water from a well two kilometres away.
Even after working for long hours, Lilabai volunteers to teach the village women at these informal classes,
often held in someone's home.
When some women were reluctant to
take time off from housework to attend the classes, Lilabai went from house to house to talk to them.
Everyone at home felt that a son is needed to provide support in old age and
so I have eight daughters and one son,” Lilabai says.
A few families in the village
then cultivate other crops like bajra, and Lilabai and her husband work on their fields as daily wagers when work is available.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. six days a week, Lilabai is at the state-run anganwadi to cook food for 30 kids
and for pregnant women in the village.
In March, Lilabai collects the fruit after completing her anganwadi tasks,
and when the anganwadi is closed in April and May, she finishes housework and collects hirda from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., along with her daughters.