Distinguish between absolute and relative intergenerational mobility. Why does relative mobility matter more for social cohesion?

Intergenerational mobility measures how far a child's economic position differs from that of their parents. The 2026 youth protests in Europe suggest that today's anxiety is less about income levels and more about where people stand on the social ladder.

Absolute vs Relative Mobility

Basis	Absolute mobility	Relative mobility
Meaning	Share of children who earn more than their parents at the same age	How far a child's rank in the income distribution depends on the parents' rank
Driven by	Overall economic growth	Equality of opportunity
Nature	Not zero-sum, so everyone can gain together	Zero-sum, so one person rises only if another falls
Evidence	60% in the USA, 67% in West Germany [1]	43% of US adults born in the bottom quintile stay there [1]

So a generation can be richer than its parents yet still sit on the same rung.

Why Relative Mobility Matters More for Social Cohesion

• Legitimacy of meritocracy: If parents' income predicts a child's outcome, the promise of equality of opportunity (Article 16) loses credibility and effort seems pointless.
• Sticky floors and ceilings: In a typical OECD country, a child from the bottom 10% needs 4–5 generations to reach average income, while the rich hold on to opportunities at the top [2]. Inequality hardens into class.
• Inequality–immobility trap: On average, 38% of parents' earnings advantage passes to their children. The figure is below 20% in the Nordic countries and above 70% in some unequal emerging economies [2]. Societies with stuck hierarchies build up resentment.
• Hidden group fault lines: India's overall mobility has stayed about the same since liberalisation. Underneath, it rose for Scheduled Castes but fell for Muslims [3], a gap that can feed identity-based grievance.
• Broken expectations: In India, youth unemployment is 29.1% for graduates against 3.4% for illiterate youth [4]. Families who invested in education see the ladder blocked, which drives the kind of protest seen in Europe.

Absolute mobility measures growth, while relative mobility measures fairness. Cohesion depends on the second. Quality public education, policies that create jobs and not only skills, and tracking mobility for each social group can loosen the sticky floor. This would serve Article 38's mandate to reduce inequalities of status and opportunity and SDG 10, and help turn India's demographic dividend into a cohesive, mobile society.