India's new generation between luxury and poverty | DW Documentary

a population of over 1.4 billion and young around 28 years old on average my name is simani my name is s Malik Arjuna I'm 27 I'm 25 in India a new generation is on the rise the largest population of young people in the world's most populous nation since Prime Minister narandra Modi swept to power he's been looking to take India to the top is this the start of a new Indian age what defines this young population which is charged with securing India's future you can't achieve anything without power I have many hopes and dreams you have to be a go-getter if I'm not getting something I don't deserve it [Music] he [Music] [Music] my name is Simon s I'm 22 years old I ride my bike from Village to Village making videos I'm also an author I've written on many [Music] issues Simon lives in Bahar in northeastern India the name of her Village is Chand Kari which means gate to the Moon The Villages here are poor even by Indians standards the average income is less than €2 a day that's just below the poverty line most families here lead traditional [Music] lives girls are usually married by the age of [Music] 17 Simon Wants To Tread a different path my mother got married at the age of 12 and a year after the I was born here in The Villages the girls don't have the freedom they deserve with my articles reporting and videos I want to tell the world that girls should have the right to live as freely as boys have the same rights as boys today Simon is planning a report for a YouTube channel about Medical Care for Women in the village when you're sick what do you do I take some sort of medication and hope it will get better then you go back to work yes and if you feel really bad then I go to the hospital in Musafa musapur is 2 hours away prianka quick Simon's reports are funded by a private initiative through a journalist from Delhi none of the young women here are making any money the goal is to promote rural women and portray A diversity of opinion if you have to work day after day in this heat and you fall ill what do you do take medication and get back to work and carry on working yes many media don't do their job properly they hear one thing but say another we don't trust the media they just Mod's work he's done this he's done that but they never criticize the mod government Simon is in a hurry now she wants to get the video online by the evening she's one of many who no longer want to be constrained by Indian [Music] tradition my name is Sia Malik Arjuna Redi age 33 and I'm the CEO founder of all the life sciences private limited India we developed a product a nasle spray uh for sinusitis first of its kind antibiotic NZ spray add to Bic to that we want to launch the product in India first then we want to take it across the borders usfda EMA TGA Australia Japan and all his company is still a small startup with six employees sharing office and lab space in hyroot with other medical and biotech startups but he hopes that'll soon change hydrat is in telen Gana in one of India's wealthiest States it's regarded as the center for Life Sciences biotechnology medical products and the Pharmaceuticals industry the goal is to create 400,000 new jobs in the sector over the next 5 years the average income here is already five times higher than that of the poorest state Bahar for CA nahendra Modi has also contributed to this increasing wealth as prime minister [Music] I don't follow too much amount of politics from a research point of view from entrepreneurship point of view he have done uh incredible job the amount of um startups which are spun and the number of um unicorns which are born out of India is is definitely remarkable CA realizes that it could be years before his startup turns a profit valuated hereit in two rabbit models this is I studied in some urban town in Andra Pradesh the regular trajectory would be getting into some corporate job but uh I followed a different path uh being a researcher being an entrepreneur uh that's ambitious and I I want to achieve things yes CA and his business partner embody many of the young ambitious gener of Founders and entrepreneurs in India I believe in doing just you have to be a go-getter if I'm not getting something uh I don't deserve it no and you have to make it happen that's it [Music] please stand away from the Dos India have advantage or human resources available in India who have capability to work at the fundamental research uh that is India's biggest strength I don't see any country have that positioning from a fundamental research point of view uh the weakness would be we need to take that out uh we need to take that fundamental research what is happening in India uh across the borders and make people aware that this is happening in India of course yes I'm proud to be an [Music] [Music] Indian back in rural Bahar in the musapur region my name is Sonam deie I have three children two boys one girl my husband is a [Music] Bricker I work in the fields or at home Sonam is 27 and can't read or write like a quarter of the Indian population and of the women here in b har only half can read and write she lives a traditional life here like her mother and grandmother before her like many others she's found the doors of upward Mobility closed to her there's not enough work here for us that's why we can't give our children an education or feed them good food because I'm not educated I don't have a decent job sometimes when we sit down to eat I don't know how I'm going to manage it all poverty and limited opportunities are a huge problem in Bahar of the Indian States it's the third largest in terms of population and the most densely populated the average daily income here is less than €170 very little even by Indian standards [Music] there are many Brick Works around musafar Pur there are more than 6,000 of these brick kils in Bahar thousands of families live and work here in extremely harsh conditions bonded labor and child labor are still the order of the day B car is regarded as India's least developed State many try to leave and find work elsewhere in the country like most here sonam's family lives from what they can grow and raise themselves I have seven goats and one cow the goats gave birth not long ago I use the cow dong to make briquettes and then use the briquettes for cooking although the cast system has officially been abolished it's still a major feature of everyday life here Sonam belongs to the lowest cast formerly referred to as the Untouchables I belong to a dallot community people from lower casts work in the fields of the upper casts till their lands the upper casts still discriminate against us and look down on us Sonam would love to be able to give her children a different life there are admission quotas for doets at schools and universities but those are a long way away in the big cities too far for many children sonam's husband Mukesh is often away for months he earns a bit of money working as a brick layer on building sites in urban areas at the moment he's expanding the family home to accommodate his brother who's about to get married and move in daily life in the Villages here has barely changed in recent decades sonam's mother and grandmother cooked in clay ovens like this [Music] one we eat dull rice and bread every day sometimes we go hungry sometimes we only have doll and bread to eat when there are no vegetables sometimes we eat just bread and salt we get almost nothing from the state just 5 kilos of rice a month they only come when it's time to collect votes when there's an election and then they disappear again [Music] [Music] [Music] my name is vikas I'm 27 years old and I live in the greater NOA area yes financially were strong I thank the gods to have been born into a good family I am ambitious but it depends on what it [Music] is 10th or 12th I and 12th grade exams at the greater Noida school then I prepared for medical studies for a year and in 2018 I went to study medicine in China vas's family made most of its money by selling land in the Delhi area wealth is distributed extremely unequally in India the most affluent 10% possess 80% of the wealth vas lives with his extended family in a 10 room house built by his [Music] father we live together in a large family group my parents my brothers and their wives their children we're together all the time from morning to evening my oldest brother runs a school one of my brothers has passed [Music] away just as in most wealthy families here education is a top priority One of vas's nieces is studying law and another has plans to apply to the Civil Service as for vcas he wants to follow in the footsteps of his deceased brother who set his sides on a career in [Music] politics without power you can't do anything as a doctor you can open a hospital and that's about it in politics there are no limits that's why I want to join politics I want to work for the people [Music] just a few kilometers away also in NOA near Deli my name is so I'm 25 years old or maybe a little less I work in the grand omx project and do cleaning sweeping and washing utensils soy lives with her two young daughters in a slum just across the road from her place of work she's one of an estimated 40 to 100 million migrant workers in India who leave their home States hoping to find a better life in the [Music] city India needs to create millions of jobs one in every six young people is out of work the highest unemployment rate in 45 [Music] years my husband only used to have odd jobs but not long ago he started driving a water tanker that helps us because now we can get our water delivered here I don't have to go fetch it anymore the authorities have already torn down her Hut three times because like all the others here it was put up illegally the family moved here to earn money to repay a loan of around €440 when we got married we had to take out a loan and so far we haven't been able to pay it we've been paying small amounts for about 4 years but there are other things we have to pay for too it's not that much it's around 40,000 rupees but because of the interest the loan amount keeps going up even though we're repaying it the amount we owe goes up we can't pay more we don't earn that much so's story is a familiar one many take out loans for example for weddings seeds or doctor's bills almost 55% of the rural populace are in debt often they're exploited by local lenders because they can't read or write moving to a city can seem like the only way to earn money there's no power or running water here and no toilets or sewage systems everything here is hard none of us are here for the fun of it we have to manage here on our own and everyone has problems cooking in this heat with a wood fire is hard washing is hard just being out in the heat is hard every day from 9 to 11: in the morning and 4: to 6:00 in the afternoon soy goes over to the residential complex to clean she gets paid 4,000 rupees per month the equivalent of just under €5 when she's at work neighbors watch out for her children [Music] [Applause] [Music] back to SAA the successful Pharma startup founder in hyroot this is my favorite picture so uncle aunt and uh me my wife because I lost my father at the age of three uh he is my dad so he took care of me and um my entire education uh what not everything every part of me is taken care by him and her the families everything for me without family nothing nothing I am nothing basically [Music] CA lives with his mother like almost 80% of all young people in India's cities his cousin and his cousin's wife also live here in the evening he enjoys talking to other relatives who live further [Music] away so you evening times this is my life I do video calls spend some time yeah share what happened in the day I have very limited friends um whatever I spend time I I would like to spend my time with my family complete time 24 hours is not sufficient to spend with my family and all of us feel the same including the new kid new baby born he is the 11th person so all of us feel the same in keeping with tradition his wife is spending the first few months after the birth with her parents that's why during the week he can only see his 5-month-old son on his smartphone screen of course I missed him the marriage was arranged like more than 90% of all marriages in India it's an arranged marriage when we met we shared our thoughts and what what family is meant to us and then it happened like means I I believe we understood each other and we respect each other what what I do and she um she understands what I'm doing and uh she she respect that so being an entrepreneur or being a scientist is is not an uh conventional job [Music] [Music] I don't like to be alone alone in your thoughts is okay but um as a part of family I I want to be with family what may ever happen what means more to you your family or your business family [Music] my family knows a little bit I think they know a little bit but they don't say anything about it in front of me they have a feeling and I think they ignore it even though they know [Music] it I'm 26 years I have a boyfriend and I am gay [Music] zann knows what it means to break with family tradition in India he meets Us in secret at the home of a friend who's also cut off from her [Music] family all my brothers are married and live together with their families I live with my mother my father died 12 years ago for some societal pressure on queer people is often too much to bear people say marry him off and then he'll be normal again strangers come to my house talk to my mother and try to influence her although homosexuality is no longer a crime in India it's still the case that gay people are often ostracized and there are no no laws Banning discrimination the problem is that this Society doesn't accept it to preserve the family reputation they don't want these things talked about and accepted Zayn can only meet his partner in secret a long way from his neighborhood he's always afraid he'll be recognized he'd prefer not to have to hide like this I imagine that if I was a trans woman I could have a house a family and marry my boyfriendfriend married there are hospitals that carry out gender reassignment and a third gender is officially recognized here but in everyday life trans people are marginalized ridiculed and even attacked sometimes I think I should leave India outside India I wouldn't have these problems you can lead a free life there I think I should go somewhere else and life would be better [Music] merat in the most populous state of utar Pradesh 1 and a half hours north of Delhi my name is Mohammad my name is Muhammad Amad we've been doing this work for almost 20 years now this used to be a small street food stall since I've been working here it's a proper restaurant our specialty Isani it's made with meat and it's very famous Muhammad's family makes the Biryani just the way his grandmother used to Rice spices and meat simmered for several hours the recipe for this yellow delim sauce is a well-kept secret he sells more than 160 portions of Biryani every day as well as kebabs and other North Indian Specialties he now has a staff of 18 the restaurant is open from no to 10: p.m. every [Applause] day we have one restaurant but we'd like to expand and have a few branches in a fast food Style with self-service and automatic payment we're also planning to renovate the restaurant for the Next Generation for my children for Muslims like Muhammad here in merat the situation is tense like large parts of the country merat is governed by modi's Hindu nationalist party the [Music] BJP violence regularly flares up between Hindus and Muslims in merat most recently in 2023 and there are often [Applause] fatalities narandra Modi has been acced accused of promoting policies that Stoke division between Hindus and Muslims for Muslim communities the situation is a burden Muhammad tells us he closes his restaurant on major Hindu holidays as a precautionary measure he's afraid that agitated crowds might vandalize or Set Fire To His restaurant [Music] it's important to him to maintain good relations with the local [Applause] police when they come we host them with lots of respect they eat here and we give them special discounts it's not like they say they're from the police and don't want to pay it's out of respect that we give the police and government workers a special discount local activist Muhammad Arif believes that the many different religions in India can live in peace as a social worker he tries to raise awareness about the problems faced by Muslims and provide support to the families of victims of violence Muslims are afraid they can't trust this government and feel like second class citizens the situation for Muslims has deter ated since this government took power and not just their economic situation I'd say there's a climate of fear now among Muslims and other minorities and the majority population also has a sense of fear in their day-to-day lives any Muslim SC that's even though modi's BJP pursues a clear policy of Hindus [Music] first we're only too familiar with this kind of politics whenever party is looking for votes they target the minority Community to get the votes of the majority they say if you Hindus vote for us we'll keep Muslims under control that's why they target us it's not an easy situation for the nearly 200 million Muslims in India they're the country's largest religious minority and the Indian constitution is explicitly secular and has in gr equal rights for all religious groups [Applause] [Applause] here in NOA near Delhi after going to the fitness studio and having breakfast Bas is praying at his home Shrine although he's a member of the Hindu majority that Modi intends to mobilize in his favor vas is not a fan of modi's politics I'm religious I was born a Hindu but I don't celebrate my faith in public after waking up in the morning everyone in the family offers up their prayers the children my sister-in-law that doesn't mean we should put on a public demonstration of our faith almost every day vikas and his team drive around visiting villages in the region the contacts he makes in these places could be important for his political [Music] [Applause] career the current government doesn't do anything for us used to cost 300 rupees now costs a th000 no one's thinking about the farmers their income hasn't gone up this government isn't taking care of the issues that concern us right now during the election we're campaigning we're constantly out on the road we want a new government that takes care of us young people here in The Villages of Northern India it's the men who have the say they make decisions together for example concerning the distribution of water or who's allowed to marry Whom The Village Elders wield great Authority Vias tries to gauge the mood in the village the men are unhappy with their current political representation by Mod's BJP in 2027 vas wants to stand as a local candidate for the samadi party Mod's competition and for that he needs their votes how many people have found work a who's supporting [Music] you there are other issues BJP candidates promised New Roads in the last election campaign have they been built theas hopes to capitalize on the general sense of dissatisfaction we're the voters we're the youth exactly we can become number one in the world if young people work hard for it we can do that anything is possible Vias promises to come back soon he has big plans for himself but also for his country today in sonam's Village near musapur the women have gathered s they're learning to read and write as part of a government initiative to reduce the country's High illiteracy [Music] rate H stands for hen hen means [Music] chicken this is important for us women life in the village is hard the house work the work in the fields I'm here because I have no education if IID learned something maybe I could have been a teacher or civil servant a job in the city I could have lived somewhere else everything's just so hard here a small success Sonam can now write her [Music] name there's something not quite right here [Music] the pen doesn't work I have many hopes and dreams I'd love to have decent work both me and my husband would like to improve ourselves but because we're poor we're stuck I'd like our children to be educated so they can have a good career we couldn't get an education ourselves but we want our children to be able [Music] to Simon's mother runs a small kiosk where Simon helps out it's the main source of income for the entire family it's enough for life here in the village but Simon wants more I don't want the same life as my mother I don't want to get married at a young age my mother supports me in that people in the village tell my family that I should be married off but my mother says I was married at 12 and I suffered a lot why should my daughter also suffer that way after marrying the woman still usually moves in with her husband's family to look after the home and the children women's participation in India's labor force has risen by over 10% in recent years but still around 2third of all women are not in paid work for Simon that's out of the question I want to be a teacher I believe that the women in The Villages shouldn't have such a life full of suffering I want to stand on my own two feet I don't want to bow down to anyone I want to earn my own money and decide what I spended on I don't want to have to ask anyone for money Simon is hoping to get a scholarship to attend University her work as a journalist is a first step cut it out no it's important Del delete that and move it [Music] here India can become a developed country under its own steam things will improve for girls for women too for men and women if everyone works together this can become a developed country in the evening Simon's father comes home he's a rickshaw driver and is a huge supporter of his daughter and her dreams for the future I the report is brilliant she's addressing the problems that face poor people and asking questions if the media helps others understand the worries of poor people they'll try to find out more about the issues I wasn't able to achieve this but my daughter has and that makes me very happy [Music] in the evening soin returns to the slum from her cleaning job now she has to cook before it gets too dark there are no lights or electricity here [Music] I pray and ask God to keep me well to provide us money and a good house that we can live a comfortable life I want my children to live a good life that wherever they end up they have a good secure and easy life that they can make something of themselves in the future that they find good work [Music] a few blocks away in the evenings the upper classes flock to one of the many malls here prices here are similar to those in Europe like vas's family anyone earning more than 37,000 a year belongs to the upper class A group that's tripled to 90 million over the the last [Music] decade the life that you see here that you're filming with your camera if you look at it from the point of view of a person who lives in poverty it just looks like a waste of money like overindulgence rich people middle class people come here for enjoyment India is the fastest growing consumer Market in the world having money is great of course you're born into a rich family and lead a happy life but that can change overnight today you might have money and tomorrow you could be poor above all I see myself as a human being anyone can become rich anything is possible but first you have to be human and someone who's born with a silver spoon in their mouth if they don't care about the poor then they're not a good person in my view everyone has a dream mine is that one day I'll become Prime Minister [Music] [Applause] near musapur people also come together in the evening to the Mela the local [Music] fair Sonam is here with her husband and the children [Music] it's wonderful to be here when you come here you can leave your problems at home set them aside and be happy [Music] [Applause] all I want is to live in happiness and peace that's also what I want for my children we've been thinking about making a change it's not possible right now but we'll keep on [Music] trying the Young Generation in India they're living in a society that's still defined by contrasts and inequality but they are all holding on to Big Dreams if not for themselves then at least for their children I

Channel: DW Documentary

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Keywords: Documentary, DW documentary, full documentary, DW, documentary 2023, dw documentary, documentaries, Documentaries, documentary, India, Narendra Modi, BJP, superpower, poverty, wealth, Indian election, Modi, India superpower, rich and poor, inequality, wealth gap, India documentary

Id: R3M_XKOdg8k

Length: 44min 30sec (2670 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 04 2024