Youth Unrest Is Not Lawlessness — It’s a Broken Social Contract

Youth Unrest Is Not Lawlessness — It’s a Broken Social Contract

A Generation Raised with Aspirations are Facing the Wall of Exclusion

Across the continents, Asia to America, Africa to Europe to Australia young people are getting involved in indiscipline activities, starting from coming to streets, making verbal and physical violence in the campuses, showing anger and frustration in digital space. Governments and authorities are making policies, fixing laws and orders through physical and digital policing, curfews and calls for maintaining discipline. But if we keenly observe the whole activities, we certainly realise that all those are just control measures. They are not designed to eliminate the reasons or results. 

During the Covid 2020-2022, while whole world was debating on social norms like  living together, sharing together, learning together will come back or isolation will be future norms of the world. Then and there itself we all were strongly realising that this isolation is breaking the age old well designed social structure, in the way a human being grows and respects.

Break Down of Social Institutional Structure

Living together with the family teaches us to communicate the necessities,  and share the feelings, both positive and negative, share the space, accept another person in the private space with all good and bad characters and slowly develop the patience to act on it positively or to live happily by ignoring the things, which is not harmful. We slowly get connected to the generational knowledge and values and learn to respect it and grow with it.

Learning together in the institution makes us aware about our own capabilities and capabilities of other individuals and helps us to grow with knowledge by sharing, by co-learning, by competing, by accepting the higher order of knowledge and being respectful for that. The engagement in such learning centres for around average 13-20 years, shapes the characteristics of a human being. 

The family, learning centres, play grounds are designed on invisible, non codified social contracts, which shapes the lives. Those institutions bring everything to a common platform and act as the place of equalisation, reward based on efforts and capabilities, without any social or economic biases.

But the loss of procedural relevance of those structures need attention for restructuring to maintain its essence and values and respect among the present generation. The system should evolve keeping the core intact by intervention of technology, meeting the expectations of the present generation and hold and nurture the dreams for realisation.

Expectations Vs Reality

The youth were bargained for long-time to get convinced that education is equaliser, employment is the reward and democratic participation is an avenue for change. But that promise for bargain is broken, education does not guarantee employment, employment does not guarantee fairness or justice or security. The youth unrest is the reactive response to the gap between promise and reality. 

They are expected to be loyal to a system, where system itself is not transparent, they are expected to be patient, where system does not deliver to reach their aspirations, they are asked to be flexible, when system is rigid, such contradictions break the trust, the bond. What they experience is not just economic exclusion, but a steady erosion of dignity.

Lack of Empathy to Address the Issues

Governments, meanwhile, continue to misread the signals, protests are framed as irresponsibility, radicalisation, or a failure of discipline. Youth are described as entitled, impatient, or manipulated because those narratives protect the rulers and policies and blame is shifted from Institution.  But they ignore a basic truth: unrest grows when system does not respond appropriately, sensibly or responsibly. Exclusion creates unrest. When participation is reduced to symbolic gestures and consultation without consequence, frustration inevitably spills into the streets.

Not Local, A Global Phenomena

This is not a local or cultural phenomenon. Youth unrest today follows a remarkably similar pattern across countries with very different political systems. Starting from Delhi to New York, or the campuses of Cambridge to Tokyo.  Rising costs of living, shrinking public investment in education, health, climate, creates anxieties among the youth because very few get the opportunity to be part of global developmental process and economic growth. Social media has not caused this anger, but it has given it platform,  language and visibility. Young people can now see, compare, and articulate the gap between what was promised and what is delivered.

Youth are always expected to tolerate all the crisis, what they have never created, can be economy, climatic or social. Treating youth unrest as a security problem only accelerates this breakdown and deepen alienation and confirm the belief that systems are incapable of reform.

Youth Participation in National Decision Making 

History shows that societies which ignore or suppress youth grievances do not achieve stability; they accumulate pressure. The result is often more radicalisation, disengagement from democratic processes, or the rise of polarising political movements that promise recognition where mainstream politics has failed. Very very important factor is that those youth should be allowed to participate in policy making process of employment, economy, industrialisation, social development etc. Which will directly bring the aspirations and dreams of the present generation on the table to be discussed and decided. In the process they become the decision makers not the at the user end. 

Redesigning Institutional System

The institutions built up 1000 to 1500 years ago should be re-looked, redesigned, and bring contemporary systems in place which can help the generation to learn, live and grow. A renewed social contract is still possible, but only if institutions are willing to listen, share power, and restore credibility.

The question is no longer why young people are angry. The question is whether those in power are prepared to respond — not with force or rhetoric, but with reform.