The 11 women had never felt luck was on their side. The friends, some in their 20s and others over 70, all struggled to make ends meet, earning only a small salary as they collected and segregated rubbish in their town of Parappanangadi, in the south Indian state of Kerala.
Yet this week, their fortunes changed. An impulsive decision to pool their small resources to collectively buy a single lottery ticket, at a cost of 250 rupees (£2.50) – the equivalent of a day’s wages – resulted in them collectively hitting the jackpot. This week, they found out they had won the monsoon bumper prize, worth 100m rupees (£1.2m).
