Every afternoon, 12-year-old Sheetal recites her alphabets outside a makeshift tent near Jantar Mantar as her mother tries to light a fire with twigs, paper or anything she can find, to cook and feed her family. Her father, Dalpatram Audhawdas, has been camping at the same spot for almost three years now, protesting against the misappropriation of relief funds sent for the earthquake that rocked Gujarat almost eight years ago.

This Dalit family lost their land and house in Rajkot in the 2001 earthquake that left thousands dead. For months, they waited for their share of the relief, but nothing came their way, Audhawdas says.

“The whole state was destroyed. This is my last fight and I want justice,” he says, tears welling up in his eyes.

Audhawdas wants the Gujarat government to undertake a survey and reimburse those who lost their homes in the earthquake.

Thus, like many others, Audhawdas came to the “protest street” of the Capital in 2006 hoping to have his voice heard. So far, it hasn’t registered with the authorities, but he has not lost hope, he says.

“If nothing else works, we will resort to immolating ourselves — all four of us,” he says, referring to his family. His son Sanjay works as a security guard and his earnings are what the family gets by.

Sheetal, in the meanwhile, pours over literature on Dalit rights, poverty, pamphlets and even on the Constitution of India to make sense of her life. What holds hope for her is perhaps the fact that this part of her life is a temporary phase. Using the mobile toilets across the road and sleeping on the side street in the cold aren’t her definition of fun but she will still stay put, she says.

“I want a good life. When this dharna is over, we will go back,” she says. “This is for time pass.”

She was only nine when she and her brother accompanied their father and mother Prabha to Delhi. As life drags on, some protests fade out, while others remain or change gear; Sheetal’s own life remains in a limbo.

She doesn’t go to school anymore and sits outside the tent for most of the day, helping her mother.