Lakshmi Devi has rolled incense for as long as she can remember — first beside her mother, now
beside her daughters. For years the work paid in coins, sold to a trader who set the price and
kept the name.
When VillPower came to Kishanganj, the rolling stayed the same; everything around it changed.
Materials arrive at her door. The price is fixed and fair. And for the first time, the sticks she rolls
carry her name to the people who light them.
Today her work scents homes she will never visit, in cities she has never seen. The income put a
solid roof over her family and her granddaughter into school.
