Youth in India

Book excerpt: This book explores the attitudes, anxieties and aspirations of India’s burgeoning young population in a globalised world. Drawing upon time-series survey data of the Indian youth aged between 15 and 34 years across 19 Indian states, it provides key insights into a range of themes along with an overview of the changing trends and patterns of their behaviour. The volume examines the job preferences of the Indian youth, their career priorities and opinions on reservations in employment and education sectors. It measures their degree of political participation and studies their attitude regarding political issues. It looks at aspects relating to their social and cultural contexts, preferences and practices, including lifestyle choices, consumption habits and social customs such as marriage, as they negotiate between tradition and modernity. Further, it discusses the anxieties and insecurities that the youth face, their mental health and their experiences of social discrimination. The essays here offer an understanding of a critical demographic and shed light on the challenges and opportunities that the Indian youth confront today. Lucid, accessible and empirically grounded, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of sociology, political sociology, political studies, youth psychology and anthropology as well as policymakers, journalists and the interested general reader.