In 1979, on the representation from a peasant woman from a village called Muthanampatti in the Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu, who expressed the struggles of peasant women in those areas and need for non farm employment programmes, WWF for the first time moved into rural areas. WWF's efforts enabled poor women selling local produces like banana, tamarind, chillies etc, as head loaders to carry them around the villages or to carry them to village markets and town fairs nearby. This was great relief as employment in agriculture offered no scope in this drought prone district. Today in Dindigul we have 18767 members reaching 657 villages.