Terrible burden on India's youth

At Jantar Mantar, angry young Indians brought their revolt to the capital. A leak from the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) lit the fuse. Tens of thousands marched in Delhi on 20 July. Police used batons and tear gas; calls for the education minister to resign spread.

In May, 2.275 million registered for NEET and 2.205 million sat it. The paper was cancelled; nearly 2 million sat it again in June. The Central Bureau of Investigation says experts hired by the National Testing Agency (NTA) leaked questions, one allegedly after rebuilding physics items from memory.

There have been arrests, a 2027 switch to computer-based NEET has been promised, the NTA faces an overhaul and fast-track courts are planned. The 2024 anti-leak law can jail organised offenders for ten years and fine them Rs 10 million.

Fast trials begin after the harm. Students lose months, fees, travel and coaching costs; job candidates may also lose an attempt or cross the age bar. No law can guard a paper while the choice of experts, private vendors and chain of custody stay hidden.

This is why a leak can bring a generation to the street. India's official unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 29 was 9.9 per cent in 2025. Some 25 per cent of that age group was neither working nor studying nor in training. At the last count, in March 2022, 964,000 central civilian posts were empty. An Indian Express study found 41 recruitment paper leaks across 15 states in five years. They hit 14 million applicants seeking just over 104,000 posts.

Young Indians saw revolts in Bangladesh and Nepal. The first began over a captured quota, the second over corruption, poor job hopes and a social-media ban. In India, a score can be stolen and reservation cannot undo the lead built by caste and wealth.

Central hiring sets aside 15 per cent of posts for Scheduled Castes, 7.5 per cent for Scheduled Tribes, 27 per cent for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and 10 per cent for poorer applicants outside these groups. The rest are open to all. These shares have opened doors, yet caste still shapes where people work.

Data covering 3.25 million central employees makes the point. In Group A jobs, Scheduled Castes held 14.2 per cent of posts, Scheduled Tribes 6.54 per cent and OBCs 19.14 per cent. Among 40,737 sanitation workers, the three groups made up 66 per cent. The OBC share near the top was almost eight points below its hiring quota. Caste remained tied to sanitation work.

OBC reservation in central jobs began in 1993 and does not cover promotion, leaving senior posts to older batches. Poor schools, weak English, costly coaching, family ties and wealth shape who reaches an exam and can keep trying. Reservation cannot mend those years or add jobs.

The creamy-layer rule bars some better-off OBC families under an income and status test, with an income ceiling of Rs800,000 a year. India has no sound count of how many it excludes. Data gathered by the Rohini Commission found that 97 per cent of OBC quota gains went to fewer than 25 per cent of the castes on the central list. The first issue concerns families, the second the share won by whole caste groups.

The Mandal Commission used eleven social, school and economic tests, but its estimate that OBCs formed 52 per cent of India drew on the 1931 caste census. Rahul Gandhi called for a new caste and economic census. During the 2024 election, Narendra Modi linked Congress's separate wealth survey to a charge that wealth would be taken and handed to Muslims. On 30 April 2025, the government agreed to count caste.

Households are being listed from April to September 2026, and caste will be counted with the population in February 2027. The yardstick is still missing from public view. Names alone will not show land, wealth, schooling, debt, work and access to quotaAgnipaths. Household assets are being gathered, but the government has yet to show how the facts will be joined and checked.

Agnipath replaces long careers with four-year service, after which no more than 25 per cent stay in the armed forces. The services are seeking a higher share. The Centre has set aside 50 per cent of certain constable and rifleman posts in the Central Armed Police Forces and Assam Rifles for former Agniveers, tightening the queue for others.

Artificial intelligence (AI) may tighten it further. The World Bank says South Asian job adverts have fallen by about 20 per cent in work most exposed to and replaceable by AI since ChatGPT appeared. A public office need not sack a whole floor. A clerk can retire, software can take part of the work and the post can stay empty. The reserved share may stay while hiring falls.

India needs paid training for growing work in health, care, teaching, skilled trades, clean energy, field services, data checks and safe use of AI. It also needs a yearly count of public posts, vacancies, hires, contractors and caste share by grade. A quota is little use when the job no longer exists.

The protest has forced movement. Its test is a public NTA audit, a named chain of duty, an account of 101 reform proposals, compensation, protection of age and attempts, and a fixed clock for filling posts. The caste census must measure living conditions; the jobs plan must face AI.

Yet a re-test, fast courts or one resignation may not end this. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies govern 22 states and Union Territories, 17 led by the BJP. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) says India is already a Hindu Rashtra, while its chief backs reservation while caste bias lasts.

This is the deeper fear as 2029 approaches, not a forecast. If one party controlled nearly every state, both Houses of Parliament and all key institutions, it could try to remake the order. Article 368 needs a majority of each House's full strength and two-thirds present and voting; key federal changes need at least half the states. The Supreme Court once said no amendment may destroy the Constitution's basic structure but now it doesn't seem to have time for ordinary citizens. Some OBC, Dalit and minority families fear captured checks would not hold, letting Ambedkar's Constitution give way to a Hindu Rashtra document shaped by Manusmriti. The dread grows as power gathers and the opposition proves useless.

That is why the agitation cannot end with a re-test or fast courts. Students came for an honest paper. Now they are silently expected to save the Union, the Constitution and the chance to rise. These are tasks the opposition and adults failed to carry for twelve years. The young have been saddled with the repair of a nation. Imagine their terrible burden.

Background and sources: https://x.com/FPWrites/status/2080623696247435363