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The village hierarchy shows in the declining quality of housing on its fringes. On one edge, ignored, lives 27-year-old Mulamma and her 13-year-old daughter in a shack. Her husband tested HIV positive in 2002 and the family followed him hundreds of kilometers south to Chennai to get help. But, ashamed and scared, her husband fled his public hospital bed, and was never heard of again. Mulamma, too, was positive, as was her son. Last year, her 10-year-old boy died here in her arms.
"When I came back to the village after my husband disappeared the neighbors didn't talk to me, even my in-laws wouldn't let me in the house. No one will allow me to attend any family occasions any more," she says.
But, since the PLC opened last year, her life has changed. "Now, I have some friends to talk to, I have some mental peace," she says.
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