"Youth protests across the world reflect a crisis of expectations rather than of absolute deprivation." Critically examine, with reference to intergenerational mobility.

The post-war social contract promised that each generation would out-earn the one before. The youth-led protests of 2026 suggest that young people no longer trust this promise: students in France over education, young people in Spain over housing, and citizens in Serbia and Albania over corruption [1]. The statement is largely valid. The anger comes mainly from blocked relative mobility, though real deprivation also remains.

Crisis of expectations: arguments in support

• Absolute mobility is still positive. About 60% of US youth and 67% in West Germany earn more than their parents did [2].
• The real problem is rank. In OECD countries a child from the bottom income decile needs 4–5 generations to reach average income. The OECD calls this a "sticky floor" [3]. In the US, 43% of children with bottom-quintile parents stay in the bottom quintile [2].
• The credential trap. In India, youth unemployment was 29.1% for graduates but 3.4% for illiterate youth (2022) [4]. The promise breaks exactly where families invested most.
• Who protests. The protesters are educated and urban. In India, urban youth unemployment is 13.6%, against 8.3% in rural areas [5].

Limits: deprivation is real

• Hidden distress. 25% of Indians aged 15–29 are NEET (not in employment, education or training). That is about 2.5 times the 9.9% headline unemployment rate [5].
• Too few jobs. The ILO–IHD report says India's main constraint is the demand side, meaning too few jobs, not unrealistic hopes [4].
• Material grievances. Spain's housing crisis is a matter of hard costs, not perception [1].
• Divergence between groups. India's overall mobility has stayed about the same since liberalisation. It rose for Scheduled Castes but fell for Muslims [6]. For some groups, losses are absolute.

So these protests combine frustrated aspirations with real material shortfalls for particular groups. The way forward is job-led growth that goes beyond supply-side programmes like Skill India. India should track NEET rates alongside unemployment, and measure mobility for each social group. It should also reduce inequality, since Nordic countries pass on less than 20% of parental income advantage to children, against 38% on average [3]. This would carry out Article 39(a) and SDG 8, so that the promise of progress is renewed for every generation.