Kamala Markandaya, in her first novel Nectar in a Sieve narrated the suffering of rural women in south India. Rural India is embedded with traditional system wherein the women had to face many obstacles to sustain their life. She had critiqued the peasant women to overcome the obstacles. Her novel “Nectar in a Sieve” had depicted some of the social evils for women’s identity in rural areas. The social evils are viz., patriarchal system, alien population, castes, prostitution, poverty, inequalities, education, dowry system, unemployment, barren women, disability, zamindari system, tenant farmers and money lending. The most advanced stage of these evils led to hunger, starvation, degradation, migration and disintegration of joint families. It ultimately drove the rural women to hopeless in life. Kamala Markandaya observed that Indian women in the pre independent era are desperate to search for their identity. It ended up with futile as many obstacles in line. Although some of the evils had started manifesting themselves in certain parts of south India for long back, these evils had assumed a serious dimension during pre-independence period. In this paper, an attempt has been made to find out some the barriers of the women’s identity and its relevance in the 21^st century. Kamala Markandaya narrated that Rukmani, a woman character who had overcome the hurdles through acceptance, tolerance optimism and modernity. The modernity welcomed to eradicate the social evils in some extent.