— ✍️Naveen Kumar

Today’s Gen Z cannot be described merely as another generation. It is a generation that questions, challenges, protests, demands accountability and refuses to remain silent when it believes that its rights or dignity are at stake. The growing participation of young women in public life is particularly significant. They are not simply participants in change; they are increasingly becoming the voices, organisers and leaders of change.

When we look at this energy among today’s youth, an important constitutional decision from the late 1980s deserves to be remembered. During Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure as Prime Minister, the 61st Constitutional Amendment reduced the voting age from 21 to 18 years. This was more than a change in an electoral number. It represented a powerful democratic message: if young people are old enough to carry the hopes and responsibilities of the nation, they should also be trusted to participate in deciding its political future. Young people are not only the future; they are the present.

Today’s Gen Z asks difficult questions: Why? For whom? Whose rights are being affected? Who is accountable? These questions are not a threat to democracy. They are part of democracy’s living spirit. Young women, in particular, are increasingly asserting themselves on questions of education, employment, safety, equality, representation and dignity. They are challenging the idea that age or gender should determine the value of their political voice.

This transformation did not happen overnight. Indian democracy has gradually expanded the political agency of young people and women. Lowering the voting age to 18 was an important milestone in that journey.

Rajiv Gandhi’s Vision and Today’s Gen Z

Rajiv Gandhi’s political vision placed considerable emphasis on youth, education, science, technology and modernisation. The decision to lower the voting age during his tenure can be understood within this broader recognition of young Indians as active participants in the country’s democratic future.

Today, Gen Z lives in a completely different technological environment—with smartphones, social media, instant information and digital political mobilisation. Yet the fundamental democratic power remains the same: to question, to express dissent, to participate and to vote. That is where the constitutional reform of the late 1980s and the political energy of Gen Z meet.

Then, the message was: “An 18-year-old is capable of participating in democracy.” Today, Gen Z is saying: “If we are trusted to vote, we must also be trusted to have a voice.”

Young Women: A New Force in Democratic Participation

The growing participation of young women in contemporary movements is one of the most important signs of India’s changing democracy. This is not merely about gender representation. It reflects a deeper transformation in which young women are increasingly emerging as political actors who shape agendas, organise movements, articulate demands and provide leadership. They are not simply joining movements created by others. They are creating the conversation themselves.

Protest is also a language of democracy. Peaceful and constitutional protest should not automatically be understood as opposition to democracy. In a healthy democracy, protest can be a form of democratic participation, provided it remains peaceful and respects the rights and dignity of others.

Gen Z reminds us that democracy is not limited to voting every five years. Democracy is: Vote + Voice + Question + Accountability + Participation. The expansion of voting rights helped open the door to that participation.

For a university such as Jawaharlal Nehru University, this idea carries particular significance. JNU is not merely a place to obtain a degree. It is a space where students debate society, politics, philosophy, economics and the future of India. Therefore, student politics should not be reduced merely to electoral competition. The challenge before JNU’s Gen Z is to transform the confidence of India’s young citizens into a constructive democratic journey: Vote → Voice → Ideas → Research → Policy → Nation Building. That is where Rajiv Gandhi’s youth-oriented vision can acquire a contemporary meaning.

Conclusion

The decision to reduce the voting age from 21 to 18 during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure remains significant because it represented a fundamental democratic principle: Trust young citizens. Give them a voice. Give them responsibility.

Today, Gen Z can take that trust further, not merely by voting, but by questioning, researching, peacefully protesting, organising, leading and participating in democratic institutions. And the rising voice of young women is perhaps one of the clearest expressions of this transformation.

The democracy of yesterday gave the 18-year-old the power to vote. The Gen Z of today is asking for the power to be heard.

That is not a rejection of democracy. That is democracy evolving.

Rajiv Gandhi’s generation expanded the political franchise of India’s youth. Now it is the responsibility of today’s Gen Z to transform that vote into voice, that voice into ideas, and those ideas into a more equal and democratic India.

-The author is a Research Scholar in Philosophy at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.