“I want to grow up to a policeman. Or Spiderman, maybe.” Before the lockdown reduced his family to homelessness and penury, eight-year-old Arshad had a home, his parents had work and his siblings went to school. However, despite being forced out of their home and dependent on charity under a south Delhi flyover, the twinkle in Arshad’s eye has not waned. The state may have forsaken India’s poor, but will the people extend solidarity to each other?
First published in Newsclick. Video courtesy Karwan-e-Mohabbat.