Through Koly’s story, Homeless Bird explores entrenched cultural traditions in India and their impacts on women’s rights and identities. The novel focuses on four specific types of cultural traditions: gender norms and disparities; arranged marriages; dowries; and the status of widows. The text demonstrates how these customs foster a lack of autonomy and financial security for women and girls, provide inadequate protection for their rights, and create a cycle of cruelty toward them, all of which makes them feel worthless and hopeless. Koly’s resilience, along with the help of some well-placed advocates, enables her to eventually overcome these adversities, develop her sense of self, and find happiness. For many women in her society, however, the entrenched cultural traditions that disempower women condemn them to lives of despair.

At age 13, Koly has never attended school, though her brothers do. She begs to go, but her maa sees school as a waste of time and resources for girls. Traditional gender roles relegate women to cooking, cleaning, and child-rearing. Sending a girl to school requires expenditures on clothes, books, and tuition, and means that a girl’s mother has less help at home. Superstition and stigma reinforce negative attitudes toward girls’ education.