A couple of years ago, while waiting at an airport lounge, I received a forwarded message on a WhatsApp group. It was a picture of a woman sitting in her bedroom. ‘A Husband Divorced His Wife after Looking Closer at this Picture.’ It was a puzzle and you had to figure out why he did it.
I was waiting for a flight home. Idly, I looked at the picture, but soon enough, someone on the group posted the answer. Apparently, there was a man hiding in the corner of the picture. I boarded the flight and switched off the phone, wondering briefly who took the trouble to cook up such ‘timepass’, and whether they got paid for it.
Snigdha Poonam has the answer: it is a group of young people sitting in a shopping mall in Indore, who run an unexpectedly successful business designing click-bait content; this was one of their first viral stories; and they, it appears, have a way of monetising the clicks.
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Dreamers is an intelligent and deeply reported journey into the lives of India’s young people, and the hunger that drives them. It introduces us to an unforgettable set of characters from among India’s 600 million youth: entrepreneurs, leaders, followers, gangsters and scamsters, but also hungry and vulnerable young people with dreams in their eyes.
In the first part, ‘There Is No Plan B’, we meet a set of young people who have achieved success — but through packaging, rather than substance.
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A click-bait website that decides what the world should obsess about. A milk delivery boy turned language tutor who teaches students how to speak in English — and, because this is the first time that they are actually encouraged to speak in class, how to think.
A motivational speaker, who thrives on the limitless aspirations of college kids in small towns. A ‘Village Level Entrepreneur’ who started off taking passport photos for poverty alleviation schemes, and who now scans fingerprints and irises — and doubles as a fixer, taking money from the poor for services that should be free, and interpreting the complex world of government programmes and entitlements for the people of the village.
In the second part, ‘I Am Ready For A Fight’, we meet youth leaders, narrative shapers, and foot soldiers. An urbane young man who runs the social media campaign of a political party and talks easily about “the power of narratives”; a young woman who embarks upon a career in student politics at one of India’s oldest universities; a gau rakshak who sells insurance but also craves the feeling of importance that this role gives him; and a teenage boy who drives around Meerut with an iron rod on his motorbike, full of rage. “I hate couples,” he says.
Part three, titled ‘Nothing Is What It Looks Like’, is a heartbreaking view of the lives of those who are still struggling — some on the margins of show business, and others in a maze of scams. The biggest scam of all, it turns out, is to scam jobseekers themselves.
Not surprisingly, most of the young people Poonam meets are male. Public spaces are just easier in every way for men to manoeuvre. So are workplaces, and the poor labour force participation rates of Indian women should concern us.
Finally, the book takes us into different parts of north India; I think young people in southern states, or in the north-eastern states, may have different perspectives, and this could be a very interesting subject for further exploration.
Human potential
Half of India’s population is under 25. Dreamers shows that there is much to be concerned about; but despite the unease, the book offers a vivid glimpse of human potential. There is a hungry, volatile, rebellious energy in almost all the young people we meet in these pages — they take risks, they don’t give up, they want to change their world, but they are also rooted to their sense of community — which, if productively channelled, could surely be a force for development.
What would it take? First, a solid foundation of school education, including civics and humanities, which would equip them for independent critical thinking and effective participation in democracy. Education that lets students speak, makes them think, and helps them understand how democracy works. The Right to Education Act is now in its ninth year, more children are enrolled in school than ever before, and this is the time to focus on improving teacher quality, resourcing schools better, and retaining children, especially girls, in higher secondary education.
Second, life skills education for adolescent girls and boys that teaches them how to interact with others assertively (for girls) and respectfully (for boys).
Third, well designed, blended higher learning programmes that use available teaching faculty, campus resources and technology effectively to educate large numbers of students.
Fourth, a focus on diversity and inclusiveness in higher education, with additional support for first generation college students, and zero tolerance for bullying on campus.
And finally, a strong push for the use of other Indian languages along with English in higher education, starting with entrance exams. The almost-exclusive obsession with English shuts out the majority of India’s young people. There is no reason why this cannot change.
Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World ; Snigdha Poonam, Penguin/Viking, ₹599.