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was related to the village
panchayat
president. She had acquired an almost goddess-like status in the eyes of the poor village women, when she told them that she worked for DevEx, an organization that was committed to wiping out their sufferings and exploitation at the hands of informal moneylenders or
sahukars
. Most of the villagers were illiterate and had no means of understanding the accounting methods of the
sahukars
. All they knew was that they seemed to be making payments all their lives and yet the principal loan amount hardly diminished. They would be told that those payments were hardly enough to meet the interest. Ramulamma told them that the moneylenders charged them exorbitant and usurious rates of interest that were prohibited under law. The organization she represented had been formed for the primary purpose of reaching out to poor rural folk and meeting their credit and other financial needs. They were going to help them with credit, train them to set up business enterprises and help them save. In short, there was an implicit promise of a golden future. Mylaram was among the first batch of women to join the organization and avail of their credit facilities. Her first loan went towards buying a pushcart that would help her transport her wares to the bus terminal and back. She took a second loan to set up a small mobile eatery. She was immensely gratified by the response to the eatery and the resultant spurt in income. She was now emboldened to take a loan to gift somewhat high-end phones to her daughters. The two girls had not had an easy life and Mylaram did not want their youth to be as harsh and barren as hers had been.
    While Mylaram dreamt of her daughters getting a good education and well-paying jobs, her older daughter decided to take a leaf out of her book. She fell in love with a man who was as much of a good-for-nothing as her father. Thankfully, he was not already married. But his reputation, as well as the fact that he belonged to a different caste, did not exactly endear him to Mylaram. Faced with stiff opposition, her daughter, like her, eloped with her lover.
    After much screaming and chest-beating, Mylaram had taken her daughter back a year later, when she was three months pregnant and her husband had taken off for parts unknown. Much as she resented the girl for her actions, she could hardly abandon her to fate. Besides, Mylaram desperately needed a helping hand at home.
    Her second daughter had been falling ill once too often. She was unable to attend classes regularly and could not help with the business either. Visits to the village primary health centre and even the local tantric had not yielded any results. The girl continued to suffer from acute abdominal pain.
    Mylaram now had to divide her time between her business and ferrying her younger daughter around to various hospitals. Finally, the girl was diagnosed with an infected appendix and advised surgery. The nearest government hospital was more than seventy kilometres away. This forced Mylaram to take her daughter to a private hospital closer to home. Faced with huge medical expenses, Mylaram was grateful when Ramulamma recommended her case and got her an emergency loan to cover them.
    The surgery was successful and Mylaram was able to bring her daughter home a week later. The girl was weak and ill and needed constant care. Mylaram’s older daughter was a huge support. It was the monsoon season and Mylaram had to contend with a leaking roof. She already had two loans running concurrently with DevEx. It was then that Ramulamma introduced her and the other women to Sarasakka, a representative of another organization like hers called SAMMAAN Microfinance. They were kind enough to lend Mylaram money to cover the medical expenses and then gave her a second loan for house repairs. While Mylaram was grateful for all the money she got, she was now struggling to repay the instalments every month. And while they had been very kind to begin with,