JALKA(Vidarbha): Rahul Gandhi narrated Kalawati Bandurkar's story in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. He presented the poor Dalit woman whose hut in Jalka he had visited on July 18 as an icon of grit in the face of adversity. ( Watch )

He made a connection between poverty and energy security for the Kalawatis of the country, and how it could benefit them. TOI visited Kalawati on Tuesday to find that her reality was grimmer than the picture of potential hope Rahul was trying to paint.

Her village, Jalka, goes without power for 12 hours at a stretch. While nuclear energy could take years to come, it might help to highlight her problem: her house does not even have an electricity connection.

That's not all. She has no money for its installation. The nine-acre patch she cultivates does not have an agricultural pump. So even if India were to produce more electricity, it's a moot point whether she would benefit.

Her hut is sparse. When it rains, there's no spot in the ceiling that does not leak. The oxen tied in the shed belong to one of her sons-in-law, whom she pays for using the oxen.

But she's a gritty woman all right. Three years ago, her husband, Parashuram, committed suicide owing to indebtedness. She did not get any help from the government because the land he cultivated wasn't his. Hence, he was not a "farmer" going by the government's definition of a farmer, and not entitled to the paltry compensation that might have helped her raise her kids. But carry on she did. This frail woman, now 45, has still not lost hope.

Kalawati continues to cultivate and try to make ends meet. She was helped by an NGO, Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti. But by and large, she remains a destitute. In the last two years, her produce, cotton and soyabean, is getting good rates although her expenses too have shot up. This year, she got her fifth daughter married. That still leaves two daughters and two sons to set up. Perforce she needs them to work the fields.

"What can I do?" she asks plaintively. The married daughters' families expect her to keep up the familial customs. She has to pay for her grandchildren's delivery. The last daughter she got married fought with her because she couldn't buy her a sari. She may have been made nationally famous by Rahul Gandhi but in the last two days she hasn't eaten because there wasn't enough for the entire brood. Her rations are bought weekly and she is never sure where would the next week's supplies come from.

Everybody asks her about Rahul's visit. "He asked about how many children I have," Kalavati mechanically recounts. "I told him seven daughters and two sons. I told him I pay Rs 20,000 to the owner of the field I cultivate. This year I have sown cotton and soyabean." She was cooking dinner for the family when Rahul had dropped in. She says she did not recognize him. "I said, 'namaskar', when somebody told me he was Indira Gandhi's grandson," she adds.

More than electricity, she worries about rain. A month-long dry spell has meant they had to sow the crop again. There won’t be any compensation for this because the state government insists that damage must be 100% for her to be eligible for it. On Tuesday, it was raining at Jalka. She and the villagers were hoping it would continue until September.

She learned about Rahul mentioning her in the Lok Sabha only when reporters reached her home with the news. Does she expect any improvement in her condition now? "The government and the officers should help. They have not done anything until now. I hope they will do something now," she says.