BHOPAL: They may be too young to vote, too young to hold public office and, in many cases, too young to be taken seriously by the adults they are confronting. Yet across Madhya Pradesh, schoolchildren representing Gen Alpha have begun doing something that was until recently associated with older generations: taking their grievances to the streets.
In recent weeks, students in different parts of the state have protested over issues ranging from school relocation to transport costs. The demonstrations are part of a wider wave of protests by schoolchildren across India that has been described as the first visible, multi-state mobilisation of Generation Alpha—broadly, children born from around 2010 onwards.
Protests were reported by schoolchildren recently in the Sironj area of MP’s central Vidisha district, where the immediate trigger was a proposed increase in concessional school bus fares. Private operators sought to raise the fare from Rs 10 to Rs 25. A group of schoolgirls from a government higher secondary school protested. Following intervention by the administration, the fare hike was rolled back to Rs 10.
The episode was notable not merely for the outcome but for the speed with which the students moved from grievance to collective action. What might earlier have been handled through parents, school authorities or local representatives instead became a public protest.
In CM Dr Mohan Yadav’s home district Ujjain, the issue was more directly tied to access to education. Hundreds of girls protested outside the district collector’s office against what they called government plans to shift or merge multiple smaller government schools with a bigger government school in the Daudkhedi area.