Lakhuben was born in Ratnal. Her family kept sheep and goats, and travelled with the herd to Chattisgadh. Even today a branch of the family herds there. She married at age 12 or 13 and continued to migrate until a year ago. Lakhuben has one son and one daughter. Her son farms 25 acres of castor. Her daughter-in law does machine stitching, and received a sewing machine through a Kala Raksha stitching workshop.

Lakhuben learned embroidery herself, and from her mother and community members. After the ban on personal embroidery in 1995, she did embroidery for sale, whenever she could. In recent years, her family mostly camped with the herds near the village, and when Kala Raksha began a group in Lodai, Lakhuben began to work for the organization.

"Embroidery used to be a way of expressing individuality," Lakhuben reflects. "Now, for us elders, embroidery is our living. We have no animals; embroidery is all we have to earn." Furthermore, she feels that it is elders who can do embroidery. Few young women are interested. If young people learn to love embroidery-- or earn well from it, they do it.

Lakhuben knows the value of hand embroidery. "We have been able to come to KRV because of embroidery," she notes. She dreams for her son to have a good income.