Missionaries of Charity their families every five years but do not take annual holidays. Lay Catholics and non-Catholics constitute the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa, the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, and the Lay Missionaries of Charity. The first home of the Missionaries of Charity in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York. In the USA, the Missionaries of Charity are affiliated with the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, a body of female religious, representing 20% of American nuns. They are identified by the wearing of religious habits, and loyalty to church teaching. By 1996, the organisation was operating
Nirmala (novel) her friend, Sudha. He tried to seduce Nirmala, but his wife learned of it and criticized him harshly. Bhuvanmohan became emotionally distressed, and out of sorrow and his love for her, he committed suicide. Depressed by the sad turn of events and her own failing health, Nirmala gave her daughter Asha to Rukhmini, Totaram's widowed sister, and died. A much older Totaram returned home to discover Nirmala had died. Set against a background of pre-independent India, "Nirmala" depicts a realistic and picturesque portrait of the 1920s, the language and milieu of the era. It characterizes the evils of the dowry