Fruits of shared labour: the Indian women joining forces for food security

Rural women in Tamil Nadu are mostly excluded from land ownership, but collective farms can offer self-sufficiency

When all the shops closed due to the coronavirus lockdown, pulling together in small collectives was key to remaining self-sufficient for widow farmers in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu.

We had sufficient grains and vegetables at home, while others in the village were seeking government support," says 46-year-old Poongani, one of the nine widowed Dalit women who form the Sivanthi Poo farming collective in the village of Thottampatti.