When Merlin, 36, married Joseph Rajendran, 45, he already had his own business bottling water and soft drinks. They have daughters Rene Skaleva, 11, and Rebeka, 10, who attend a private Catholic school. They used to own five or six auto rickshaws, which they kept busy delivering orders.

In 1998 competition from local water and foreign soft drink companies took away most of their business. Only in the summer months are they able to sell to a few customers. They had to sell all but one auto rickshaw. They couldn’t pay the electricity bill to run the equipment and took out loans from a jewelry broker. Joseph started drinking and abuses her when drunk. They will have to transfer their girls to another school. With several loans they bought six milk cows but had to sell them. Some of them became sick because they had to feed them waste greens from the market.

Merlin knows tailoring and has a machine. She wants to buy a hemming machine and set herself up in the tailoring business so that she can have an independent source of income.