ABSTRACT
Draupadi earns her living as a domestic worker, sweeping floors, washing clothes and utensils, running from house to house throughout the day, and is very keen to educate her daughter Sunita so that she will not have a similar life. On talking to Sunita, however, we find she is unable to do her sums at school and says she has problems making sense of ‘division’. ‘But you know how to do division, don’t you? If your mother wants to divide Rs. 180 equally between her three children how much would she give you?’ we ask her reassuringly, expecting a pat reply. Sunita seems confused and stares blankly at us, but her mother, unschooled and barely literate, laughs and provides the right answer instantly.
