The Long and Hazardous Path

Through the pages of this book which number about two hundred and seventy, Devaki Jain and her associates Nalini Singh and Malini Chand describe to us five different endeavours in which women have an important role. They are mainly in western and eastern India. While four of these bring some kind of economic relief to the women of the lower strata, the fifth deals with the Manipur women who’ at¬tempted something unique—night patrol¬ling to check drunkenness among the men. To be more specific the women portrayed by the first four studies are the street vendors of Ahmedabad, milk producers of Kaira, Lijjat pappad rollers and painters of Madhubani.