When it comes to India, most people who have never traveled outside their own state in their countries are clouded by solipsism. They have this view that India is the same everywhere in terms of culture including the role of women. What you see in the media is mostly not the real India and is mostly stereotyped.

> It is traditional village. Women don't count.

Is an uneducated guess and that too especially in a highly literate state like Kerala. Maybe the below link can throw some light on the small state of Kerala and why is it very different than other states in India.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala_model

According to the 2011 census, Kerala's has overall 94.59 literacy. Females - 92.12, Males - 97.10.

PS: I am a native of Kerala. If anyone is curious about Kerala and would like to visit Kerala which is called God's own country, you are welcome here and yes most of us can read/write/speak English. It includes the bus drivers, cab drivers, grocery store guy or those native villagers who plays chess. Kerala has the highest mobile phone density, the most internet users, excellent healthcare facilities, schools, Ayurvedic facilities, greenery, religious harmony. I can go on.

Kerala Government's tourism site : https://www.keralatourism.org

This is Kerala - women definitely have a major role and this is the best state in India for gender equality. Women even outnumber men in this state. This is also a state that historically had a matriarchal society.

A quick search about the village, Marottichal, and it's chess obsession will lead you to a lot of other publications about this topic. I found similar articles which included pictures of men and women enjoying chess.

First the observation and subsequently this assumption, perhaps speaks more about how we let stereotypes cloud our thinking and judgement, and less about the people of the village/country themselves.