For 15 years till 2013, K Valli, 40, was as a domestic worker in South Chennai, washing dishes, sweeping and swabbing floors in at least five homes in the residential neighbourhood of Thiruvanmiyur, taking home Rs 6,000 a month.
Her husband, who works as a driver, earned a monthly salary of Rs 15,000. Their combined income at that time was insufficient to educate their two children and run the household. But things changed for Valli after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa opened Amma Unavagams or Amma canteens in Chennai in February 2013.