In 1995, I made a documentary about a credit co-operative called Annapurna. It had been founded in 1975 by a group of women including Prema Purao, Savitri bai and Parvati bai. By the 1990s, its members were women in various unorganised work sectors like vegetable vending, but its initial membership had been made up almost completely of khanawalwalis — women who made tiffins for migrant workers.

Prema Purao explained to me that things had been different earlier. "Many women also worked in the textile mills. But with the passage of labour laws, which mandated maternity leave, people either laid women workers off or stopped hiring them. That's how women workers became clustered in the unorganised sectors. Many began working as khanawalwalis out of their homes. They confronted many difficulties in their business though, including extortionist rates from moneylenders."