Shruti Jaiswal grew up in the midst of a loving and close-knit joint family in the temple town of Varanasi. As one of the youngest, she was indulged by her parents, her brother and various uncles and aunts. However, unlike many young people, she was, from a young age, aware of the privileges she enjoyed because of the family she was born into. Others, she knew, were not so fortunate. Women from the lower socio-economic strata of Indian society, especially in relatively conservative places like Varanasi, had to work doubly hard to achieve anything for themselves.