From the Panchayat to the Parliament.

As of 2022, more than 50% of India’s 1.38 Billion population is below the age of 25 [680 Million], and 65% is below the age of 30 [~900 million!]. Comparing this to the world, the youth population (15-29 years) globally stands at 1.8 billion. Out of which, every fifth young person in the world (20 percent) resides in India. While a lot of rights and agency over choices regarding young people’s immediate ecosystems are granted to the Indians as they become constitutionally defined “adults”, they are still denied full access to these rights due to inconsistent definitions of age and discrimination against their experiences due to their age – this is commonly referred to as “ageism”. This has become the basis of India’s gerontocracy.

With gerontocracy’s effects on the state of political bodies in the country - we believe that India is in a crisis of representation. Young India Foundation’s mission is born from this simple premise: a democratic nation is defined by the power its public holds—what power do we allow young people to exercise if we are actively disenfranchising them by preventing them from participating in public life?