Just over a hundred kilometres from the main Yavatmal highway lies the nondescript village of Jalka. It is home to farm widow Kalavati Bandurkar, 64, who became the face of Vidarbha’s agrarian crisis in 2008, following a visit to her home by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Since then, the resident of Maregaon taluka has remained a focal point during subsequent elections.

Kalavati still resides in the home where her husband took his own life by consuming poison due to the financial crisis 19 years ago. It has been a long and arduous journey for her since then. She single-handedly raised her nine children—seven daughters and two sons. Between 2011 and 2018, she endured the loss of one of her daughters, her son-in-law and her younger son.