as feeling sorry'' for them. Each one of these profiles is an excellent account of poverty in its existential manifestations. More insights could have been obtained if the perceptions of the women themselves of their situation and of how they understand the systemic features of poverty and its solution had been recorded by interspersing the narrative feature with autobiographical accounts. As case studies, these profiles have served the purpose. What is needed next is not merely a presentation of the existential manifestations of poverty but an examination of its genesis and development in an explicitly systemic framework. And perhaps there Leela Gulati should avoid the title 'Female Poverty', houses, but dwelt in sheds. Even the richest crowded together, three or four families in a hovel, with goats, cows and calves, until they were almost poisoned with vermin and nastiness. But they had reason for what they did. Any Banian suspected of being rich was certain to be deprived of his wealth by the Nawab of Surat, unless he had secured the protection of some powerful grandee.
