When college student Komal speaks to us at her home in the Dalit colony of Kauseri Baksar in Meerut, an older woman chides her from the balcony of another apartment. "Where is your mother?" she asks, indicating that Komal shouldn't be talking to the media without supervision. "She is doing her work and I am doing mine," says Komal, unfazed, before walking into the two-bedroom flat where she stays with her parents in Meerut.