This TED Talk features rural social worker Ashwita Shetty, recorded live at TED Women 2018.

I was eight years old.

I remember that day clearly, like it happened just yesterday.

My mother is a bd roller.

She hand rolls country cigarettes to sustain our family.

She is a hard worker and spent 10 to 12 hours every day rolling bids.

That particular day she came home and showed me her BD rolling wage book.

She asked me how much money she has earned that week.

I went through that book and what caught my eyes were her thumb prints on each page.

My mother has never been to school.

She uses her thumbprints instead of a signature

to keep record of her earnings.

On that day, for some reason,

I wanted to teach her how to hold a pen and write her name.

She was reluctant at first.

She smiled innocently and said no.

But deep down, I was sure she wanted to give it a try.

With a little bit of persuasion and a lot of effort, we managed to write her name, her hands were trembling, and her face was beaming with pride. As I watched her do this, for the first time in my life, I had a priceless feeling

that I could be of some use to this world. That feeling was very special because I am not

meant to be useful. In rural India, girls are generally

considered worthless. They are a liability or a burden. If they are considered useful, it is only

to cook dishes, keep the house clean or raise children. As a second daughter of my conservative Indian family, I was fairly clear from a very early

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