Dharmendra Pradhan, CJP protest: India’s Gen Z protesters force out a minister, but what next?
The discontent among India’s youth and the courage to voice it on the streets has spread to other parts of the country.
Somaya Korde was detained at her home after urging people online to join the July 20 protest in Mumbai, but she continued to attend numerous demonstrations in the following days.
The 26-year-old says Pradhan’s resignation is “not the end, just the beginning”.
“For this generation, this is the first time many of us have gone out to protest. But there are bigger issues to talk about, and we will talk about them,” he says.
Korde, the first woman in her family to earn a law degree and a recent local election candidate, comes from a community officially classified as “underdeveloped” due to its historical social and economic disadvantages.
Like many young Indians, he saw education as a path to a better life, but he says the leak of NEET papers has shattered his faith in a system that promises hard work will be rewarded.
“Schools and colleges are getting privatized, there are paper leaks, there are not enough jobs even if you finish your education. In a democracy, all these raise questions of accountability to the government,” he says.
