According to the book, "The House of the Blue Mangoes", written by a man hailing from Kerala (a state in India) and rooted in its rich culture, pointed out to the bare breasting problem as one to the rigid social hierarchy in India and especially in Kerala. The women of the lower castes had to keep the breasts bare in front of the men of the higher castes. That was brutal but also a right fiercely claimed by the men of the higher castes. I didn't read the article beyond the first few lines but it felt as if the "Nair" helper woman was ridiculously rigid in keeping her upper parts bare but if your read the book, The House of the Blue Mangoes then you'd realise that the people belonging to the Nair community were considered lower to some other castes and therefore it's not the helper woman that was ridiculous, it's just the casteism. She was just being traditional as she was old. I'm not at all versed in the social structure of Kerala. My only source is the book that I mentioned twice.