Over the past year, we have worked with young Indians to document the lives of their peers, including young workers, first-generation students, and others navigating early adulthood. These are not expert accounts or policy briefs, but first-person narratives shaped by those living through India’s demographic moment. Together, they have produced more than 100 profiles across 22 states.
The stories cut across regions, occupations, and aspirations, but they share a common thread: the distance between India’s promise and the everyday realities faced by its young. Education is often inaccessible and does not reliably translate into opportunity. Work is informal, insecure, and offers few pathways forward. Social and economic mobility is more an aspiration than an achievement. Heartbreak is common. Where a young person has succeeded, it is often because someone believed in them, rather than because the formal system offered sustained support.
This series does not claim to be statistically representative. Its value lies in bringing young Indians into a conversation that too often speaks about them, and at them, but rarely engages with their experiences. It brings texture and specificity to debates that are usually reduced to averages and aggregates. And on this Republic Day, it serves as a reminder of how much remains to be done for a country that is young in numbers and ambitious in spirit.
You can read the full Tracking Indian Youth series here. Alongside these stories, we have also created YouthPOWER, India’s first district-level youth opportunity map, an attempt to make youth outcomes visible, comparable, and actionable across all 800 districts.
Happy Republic Day.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.