S Adhil stirs gently in the cradle. The four-month-old sleeps enveloped by the fragrance of yellow and orange marigolds his mother Haseena Banu is stringing. Seated next to him, her fingers churn out a steadily growing sunshine-hued string of the flowers. “This is for a temple in Kerala,” she shares, an eye on the marigolds, the other on her baby.
Haseena works along with four women at Sabarish Flowers located in the maze of streets behind the old flower market in Coimbatore’s RS Puram. Hundreds of women like her work from home and from shops in these streets, stringing flowers for temples, events, and weddings at places as far as Dubai and Sharjah.
This is an industry powered solely by women. “Flower sellers buy flowers in bulk from the market and drop them off at our houses in the morning,” says 35-year-old R Veeramani, whose husband owns Sabarish Flowers. “We string them for a pay,” she explains. “We get paid per kilogram and get to make around ₹200 a day, or more on peak seasons.” For jasmine, the women are paid ₹60 to ₹80 per kilogram, and for bigger ones such as chrysanthemums, the pay is ₹20.
