Untapped Talent Bank
An India-based journalist profiles the inspiring, struggling strivers who make up the world’s largest future workforce.
Review by Robin Tatu
Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World
By Snigdha Poonam.
Harvard University Press, August 2018. 271 pages.
At a time when the United States, Japan, and other industrial nations face the challenge of declining birth rates, India enjoys a tremendous demographic advantage. More than half of its 1.3 billion people are under the age of 25, representing the most massive future workforce on Earth. As a 2014 United Nations Population Fund report put it: “Never again is there likely to be such potential for economic and social progress.”
To date, however, India has failed to harness its youthful horsepower, unable to supply adequate education, training, and, most concerning, jobs. Each month, 1 million young Indians enter the job market, yet fewer than 0.01 percent will find steady employment. Having campaigned on the issue of jobs, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government now encourage citizens to embrace “opportunities for self-employment.” Glossy promotions for a “smart and self-made India” obscure a grim reality, writes New Delhi-based journalist Snigdha Poonam, who pronounces this “the most desperate generation since independence” in 1947.
Dreamers looks into the struggles of a handful of fiercely ambitious young people in Northern India, with reflection on the larger challenges they and others face, including barriers of caste, gender, religion, and extreme poverty. The men and women at the core of her three-year study kept drawing Poonam’s attention with their outsize dreams. They were the ones scrambling not just to survive but also to thrive, grasping for some combination of wealth, importance, and fame. Empowered by Internet freedoms and acutely aware of life beyond their own communities, these self-starters harness social media, engage in local and national politics, borrow money, and rail against the strictures of their lives. The determinedly eccentric team of Wittyfeed.com brainstorms each morning for the best clickbait stories to capture a global community. Pawan Poojary finds endless thrills at call centers intent on scamming Americans—until, struck by the immorality of his actions, he quits, only to be sought after by three similar enterprises. At Allahabad University in Uttar Pradesh, Richa Singh gets her arm broken while her supporters get their faces smashed as they defend her position as the school’s first female Student Union president. Azar Khan simply dreams of leaving his small town through the stardom of male modeling, falling deeper into debt as he juggles schemes to fund the endless entry fees for auditions, fashion shows, and film-casting sessions. Other protagonists embrace the religious chauvinism of India’s ruling political party, Bharatiya Janata (BJP), helping to patrol local streets with trucks, rods, and chains, ostensibly to protect Hindu’s holy cows but also for the sense of power it grants them. “People listen to you,” Sachin Ahuja tells Poonam after a night of interrogating drivers. “You don’t feel a lack of anything.” Vikas Thakur’s BJP involvement focuses on social media, working with a six-member team in Gujarat to tweak images of politicians and lotus blossoms and tone down bright colors. Like others, in the absence of financial security, Thakur keeps afloat with small bribes and gigs as a “certified paranormal investigator.”
Poonam champions her dreamers’ aspirations. “I do not for a moment think they will ever stop trying to become rich, powerful, or famous,” she writes. “It’s like flying into outer space without a return plan: No matter where you end up, the sun still shines brighter and the stars are at your fingertips.” Despite such perky pronouncements, the author seems to ignore her own bleak evidence. This portrait of contemporary India is not an encouraging one, filled with sectarian strife, religious and gender intolerance, violence, and youthful self-absorption. It’s a far cry from the burnished, 21st-century vision promoted by Modi and the BJP, the gleaming towers of Delhi and Mumbai, and the breakthrough research of the elite Indian Institute of Technology. Yet in highlighting the struggles of young people in second-tier cities and towns, Dreamers exposes the nation’s complex challenges for future growth. Despite uneven writing, the book offers insights for educators everywhere who are nurturing the next generation of innovators and dreamers.
Robin Tatu is Prism‘s book editor.
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