She is also embarrassed to hold his arm all the time. Nadia, Madhi and Chendru are members of what is probably the world's largest disabled community. Many have the same diseases as their western counterparts. But others have been struck down by entirely preventable maladies - polio, leprosy, and cataracts. Nowhere, perhaps, is it more true than on the subcontinent to say that poverty and disability go hand in hand.
Disabled beggars are a feature of every Indian city.
But it is the rural disabled who arguably suffer more than their urban counterparts since they are denied employment opportunities and access to basic medical services. Here, with its ancient Hindu traditions, locals worship terracotta deities. In the village of Udayalipatti, where the air is filled with dragonflies, one of the deities in the village shrine, Alagappan, has a lame leg. The high incidence of mental handicap here can partly be explained by a tradition, still-practised, which allows men to marry their elder sister's daughters. ADD India tries to help the disabled community in Tamil Nadu on a number of levels.