Have you invited a Madras Mali to your garden?

Many had spent years as homemakers with little opportunity for paid work. Today, as part of the Madras Malis initiative, they travel across neighbourhoods helping households establish and maintain organic kitchen gardens.

The programme traces its roots to the Chennai Resilience Centre’s Chennai Urban Farming Initiative, launched in 2021 to promote organic edible gardening in urban spaces. The idea was simple: encourage residents to grow food at home, both as a source of nutrition and as a way to create greener, climate-resilient neighbourhoods where plants help reduce urban heat.