Meet Durga Wati, affectionately known as Maya, a 73-year-old woman from Tramline, Nawaka. Before most of Nadi wakes, Maya is already at work. At 4:00 a.m., while the streets are still silent, she begins preparing the sweets and snacks she has made for decades. Every day she cooks gulagula, bean and bajiya, carefully packing ten bags of each before setting out on foot through the streets of Nadi.

Rain or shine, Maya walks for hours, carrying the weight of her livelihood on her shoulders. On a good day, she earns $50–$60 income that helps put food on the table, pay rent and cover the daily necessities that keep her family going.

At home, Maya is also the family’s sole breadwinner. Her husband is immobile and depends on her care, making her both a caregiver and an income earner. Although she pays only $40 a month in rent, the rising cost of food, transport and basic essentials means every dollar is stretched to its limit. The social welfare assistance she receives each month provides some support, but it is not enough to meet the growing cost of living.

“Everything is expensive nowadays. People like us feel it the most,” Maya says quietly.

Maya’s story is not about individual hardship alone. It reflects the reality faced by many  women across Fiji who carry unpaid care responsibilities while surviving through informal work without adequate income security, labour protections or social protection.

Despite her age, Maya has no choice but to keep walking. Every packet she sells is an act of genuine love for her family,

There are many women like Maya across Fiji. Many remain unseen and unheard, yet they breathe the same air, dream the same dreams and deserve the same dignity as everyone else.

Poverty does not run through the blood veins of people living in poverty. Poverty is created and sustained by unequal systems that deny people access to decent work, adequate incomes, social protection, affordable housing, healthcare and economic opportunities. Women like Maya are not poor because they lack determination; they are navigating systems that continue to leave them behind.

The Fiji Government’s 2026–2027 National Budget continues to invest in social protection programmes, including assistance for older persons through the Social Pension Scheme and support for vulnerable households through other welfare programmes.

However, Maya’s experience highlights an important reality: while social welfare assistance provides a critical lifeline, many older women and caregivers continue to struggle as the cost of living increases. For women surviving in the informal economy, social protection must go beyond short-term assistance and address the deeper inequalities that keep people trapped in poverty.

A just society is one where no 73-year-old woman has to walk the streets every day simply to put food on the table.

Gender Poverty and Economic Justice report recommendations call for a feminist approach to economic justice through the 6Rs of Unpaid care and Communal work: Recognition, Reduction, Redistribution, Reward, Representation and Reconfiguration of unpaid care work.

Women like Maya must be recognised for the unpaid care, domestic and communal work they provide. Care responsibilities must be reduced through social protections, accessible public services, redistributed so women are not carrying the burden alone, and rewarded through systems that provide economic security and dignity.

More investments in social protection, decent work, accessible healthcare and inclusive economic opportunities so that older women, caregivers and people living in poverty are valued, supported and able to exercise their rights. 

This blog is written by Frances Tawake, Poverty to Power Projects Officer, DIVA for Equality.