Born Behind Bars

The novel’s nine-year-old protagonist, Kabir, was born in an Indian women’s prison and remains there with his mother (Amma) until a new warden realizes that he’s beyond the age of six, when children legally must leave. Kabir, suddenly alone in the outside world for the first time, must learn how to look after himself, survive, and free his innocent mother too. Kabir is heavily disadvantaged because he’s low caste, so most people ignore him or even try to hurt him; for example, the old prison warden doesn’t notice (or neglects to acknowledge) that he’s too old to stay there, and neither the new warden nor the police bother to ensure that Fake Uncle is truly Kabir’s uncle. These prejudices and incompetencies thematically illustrate The Drawbacks of the Caste and Prison Systems.

Kabir is wildly unprepared for life outside, having received inadequate schooling, little practical advice, and few tools. Police place him directly in the hands of a stranger who seeks to sell him into human trafficking, so by “freeing” him from the prison where his mother is held, the authorities don’t make him safer; rather, they put him in worse danger than he ever imagined in the prison cell.