Youth seeking political power in India

0:00For three weeks in 2020, part of my Seattle neighborhood was taken over by a protest occupation. We were here to protest police brutality. But it ended in tragedy. The whole space felt darker and angrier. Join me as I investigate the unsolved killing of 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. Listen to We Keep Us Safe on the Embedded Podcast from NPR. Today on State of the World, youth seeking political power in India.

0:32You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. They're called cockroaches, but the name itself is a dig at the political establishment. It's a movement in India dominated by Generation Z. They're demanding political reforms and accountability from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. NPR's Omkar Gandhikar takes us to New Delhi to understand this youth movement. Growing up in the North Indian town of Ludhiana, Bhaiwan Singh says a lot of his friends were planning to leave India after high school.

1:12To Italy, Canada and the US. Bhaiwan says he used to think, why are they leaving? India is the best. But after three years working as a salesman in Delhi, the 24-year-old says he's tired of the pollution, corruption and the cacophony. Today, he stands outside a Japanese language coaching class where he plans to enroll so he can one day work abroad. His primary motivation for leaving, he says, is the meeker salary, less than$250 a month. He says if he wants to buy a good car and a house, It would take his whole life. He is not the only one feeling disillusioned about his future in the country. A few miles from where we meet Singh, hundreds of youngsters are staging a sit-in.

2:12For the last two weeks, they have been showing up with tambourine and tunes, demanding political reforms. They call themselves cockroaches.

2:25Their movement started after India's top judge Surya Khan compared unemployed youths to roaches. He quickly said that he was misunderstood. But it was too late. In response, Abhijit Dipke, an Indian national who graduated from public relations at Boston University, declared that he was forming a Cockroach Chanta Party. Literally, the Cockroach People's Party. It was meant to be a joke, but within days, its social media followers snowballed into the millions. One online fan even made an AI anthem.

3:04It says, how can you crush us when we are everywhere? Last month, Dipke returned to India to launch protests in the Indian capital. He says his satire struck a chord because... The government has stopped listening. He says frustration is building because it's getting harder to afford a decent education and find well-paying jobs, and the ways to get them seem rigged. A recent State of Working India report reveals a stark reality. Around two in five graduates under the age of 25 are unemployed. The figure is among the highest in decades. And this is despite India's economy growing at 6-8 % every year over the last decade, except in the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

3:52That's also why Dipke moved to the US two years ago. He says he stayed there despite experiencing racism. You are never accepted into that society, but at least you will be able to feed your family. India's government hasn't responded to the protesters' demands, which now include the resignation of the federal education minister after a series of exam paper leaks that affected millions of students. That minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, instead has called the protesters terrorists. Political scientist Bhanu Zoshis says the government is aware of the problem. But instead of focusing on creating jobs, it has pivoted its resources towards welfare programs and unemployment benefits.

4:35The Gen Z protests, he says, are a warning. That symbolic politics cannot, in some sense, absorb material frustration forever. That the Indian youth's concerns need structural solutions, not quick fixes. Omkar Khandekar, NPR News, New Delhi.

4:58That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening. Of all the protests in the summer of 2020, For a moment there, it was utopia. one took a unique turn. Somebody over there, he's seen a lot of use of gun? This is the story of how violence came to occupy an anti-violence occupation in Seattle. Listen to We Keep Us Safe, a new true crime series on the Embedded podcast from NPR. You know that moment in an interview when someone says something that just blows you away? On NPR's Wildcard Podcast, we've got a deck of questions that offers a shortcut to those moments. What do you admire about your teenage self?

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