2021 doesn’t feel too different from 2021 – the ‘waves’ of pessimism shattering many of us, as we struggled to latch on to whatever strand of hope we could find. For us at Youth Ki Awaaz, one of the things that truly, significantly kept us going was YKA members – their stories and narratives that unabashedly told the truth, shed light on the horror and cruelty that the pandemic silently inflicted on so many of us; their voice of sanity and empathy that wanted to do right by the world and its problems; and, the last for the best, our interactions with them.
This article is a short summation of the boldest of these voices and issues, stories that kept us going.
So here’s a roundup of 2021’s 21 most inspiring, distinctive and powerful narratives that defied norms, took charge, made a point and how!
1. Has law ever been a deterrent enough for public behaviour? Nope. Only one of the reasons why raising the marriageable age for women from 18 to 21 years is not a good idea at all.
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How Increasing Marriageable Age Might Actually Hurt Girls In India
Prerana on January 7, 2021By Priti PatkarOver the past 4 years, I have been working closely with many adolescents (all between the ages of 16 and 18 years). Many of them had run away from their homes, primarily due to irreconcilable differences between them, and their parents.Many of them left from situations of despair to hope. When the police would trace […]
You can read more from Prerana here.
2. Survival is more important than prevention of disease for so many in India. Not just our politics, our healthcare is exclusionary too.
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“Test Ke 500Rs Ka Khaana Lenge, Didi”: COVID Second Wave Left Out Domestic Workers
Martha Farrell Foundation on May 12, 2021This article has been compiled by Sarita Devi, a domestic worker champion from Harijan Basti and Nitya Sriram, Senior Program Officer at MFF. In the heart of Gurugram’s posh DLF Phase 5 area, nestled amidst the multi-storey deluxe complexes, is a small urban village, set quite a way off the main road so as to be […]
You can read more from Martha Farrell Foundation here.
3. “What is your caste?” A question that haunts you if you are from the SC/ST/OBC communities. Apparently, education and wealth and a stable loving relationship of many years still can’t make you fit enough to ‘pollute’ their bloodline.
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Navigating Caste And College As An Urban Dalit Female: “I’ve Lost Count Of The Times We Stay Silent”
Amrita on January 11, 2021Trigger warning: casteist slurs, casteism“Kya Bh*ngi / Ch**aro wale kapde pehene hai?” (Why are you wearing clothes resembling bhangis and chamars?)“Tera dost vegetarian hai. Anda bhi nahi khata? Brahmin hai kya?” (Oh, your friend is a vegetarian? He doesn’t even eat eggs? Is he a Brahmin?)“Rajput/ Jaat/ Pandit/ Gujjar/ Chaudhary XYZ on Facebook ”“Abey itni […]
You can read more from Amrita here.
4. A tale of too many gurus spoils the broth. Toxic positivity on LinkedIn is a real problem. Our anxiety, frustration and helplessness find a community in Shraddha’s piece.
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The LinkedIn Fatigue: “I Scroll For 1 Hour, Feel Anxious About Myself For 1 Week”
Shraddha Iyer on June 22, 2021“How am I, a fresher, applying for an entry-level job supposed to have work experience of 5-7 years? Why does LinkedIn constantly throw at me the achievements of others, rather than opportunities for me? I scroll for 1 hour on LinkedIn, I feel anxious and horrible about myself for 1 week. This is where many […]
You can read more from Shraddha here.
5. All that Mamata had to do to ensure her daughters don’t have the same fate as her.
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Everything Changed In A Day When They Said I Would Make A Beautiful Wife
Haasini Sai Sri Gurram on May 29, 2021Childhood And SchoolingMamata Devi (name changed) was just 13 when she was married off in 2004. Born in the village of Dahu in rural Jharkhand, she went to the school in a nearby village till 5th grade. She had to walk to another village to study till 8th grade.“My father was a Mali (gardener) at […]
You can read more from Haasini here.
6. A powerful story during the COVID second wave that will always be a testimony to the lengths of insensitivity our education system went to.
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“My Father Has Covid And Is Critical. How Do You Expect Me To Appear For A Test?”
Shraddha Iyer on April 24, 2021Trigger Warning: Mention of Covid trauma, death“The night before my internal, my 29-year-old brother tested Covid positive. The next morning, and 2 hours before my test, his oxygen levels dropped and we needed to rush him to the hospital. After 28 hours of excruciating trauma, his condition stabilised. When I returned home the next day […]
You can read more from Shraddha here.
7. ‘Why does the thought of having a gay man join the oversight institution of the government send tremors to the dominant heteronormative order of our State?’
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Why Does A Gay Judge Scare The Indian Government?
Vaivab on April 10, 2021If you have clicked on this article to know whether Senior Advocate, Saurabh Kirpal, can be a rainbow crusader against the injustices being institutionalised in the modus operandi of the Indian Judiciary, then this article might disappoint you. But if you want to know what does the government’s attitude towards an openly gay advocate reflect […]
You can read more from Vaivab here.
8. He didn’t get why only brides are given importance while grooms end up wearing a sherwani and no makeup? So, he changed it.
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Why I Dressed Up As A ‘Bride’ For My Wedding Photoshoot
Sas3 Tranimal on March 13, 20212021 has started in a full swing with people going back to there works and hangout places, the vaccine coming and avenues opening and welcome artists to take the stage. This year for me also started with a ray of new hope and sunshine. The lockdown gave me a great way to explore my art […]
You can read more from Patruni here.
9. First there was social inequality. Then capitalism. Then the pandemic came. Read the story of these booksellers whose plight didn’t get a space in mainstream conversations.
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How Delhi’s Iconic Sunday Book Bazaar Is Reviving Itself After The Pandemic
Mir Umar on March 17, 2021Mohammad Waseudin sits under the shade of bougainvillaea flowers and waits for customers to come. Under the shade of pink flowers, he clears dust off from the books. It is a Sunday morning, and he is hopeful that he will sell as many books as he can depending upon the buzz of customers.Like many vendors […]
You can read more from Mir here.
10. Linguistically, Hindi continues to live in the past. Read this compelling story by Chandan that asks a simple question: why is Hindi so exclusionary?
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If English, Bangla, Assamese And Bhojpuri Be Gender Neutral, Why Is Hindi Far Behind?
Chandan Kumar on June 20, 2021Is The Search For Gender Neutrality In Hindi Even Possible?Festivities of Pride Month are going on and all websites are filled with posts related to the history and opposition of the Queer community. Allies are also taking to social media to post against the heterogeneous notion of sexuality. As a linguistic understudy, I often think […]
You can read more from Chandan here.
11. Do you know 80% of those displaced due to climate change are women? Look at these pathbreaking photos that tell stories of these women and the unimaginable scale of impact climate change has on them.
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Photostory: For India’s Women, Climate Change Has Already Gotten Out Of Hand
Divy Bhagia on June 3, 2021Photographs and Story – Divy Bhagia Co-author – Manasvi NagA lady walking on the only road which accesses her village to the nearby town in Northern Gujarat. It is a common sight to see women walk for miles in 45 degrees of heat at a stretch due to the lack of public transport facilities. They normally […]
You can read more from Divy here.
12. Hiring people from the LGBTQ+ community is considered ‘progressive’, but is it enough? What’s considered as the final step towards ‘equality’ is only the first step, and this powerful story by Ankita is proof.
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Inappropriate Texts, Gender-Binary Toilets: LGBT+ Men Share Why They Feel Unsafe At Work
Ankita Marwaha on July 22, 2021Vikram (38) got his first job at 17 back in 2000. He worked as a salesperson and lab assistant, among other odd jobs in Vadodara, but had to quit soon from each of them due to harassment. In case of Ahaan* (25), who had been working at a Delhi-based textile company for over a year, […]
You can read more from Ankita here.
13. A narrative, a reality, a story that didn’t get space in the education discourse during the pandemic, but Amya made sure to tell it.
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Name, Please? How Online Classes Are Erasing Identities Of Trans And Enby Students
Amya Roy on September 23, 2021Trigger Warning: Deadnaming, Misgendering, Mental Health IssuesThe globe has been afflicted with the COVID-19 pandemic for nearly a year and a stretch. People were separated, secluded, and constrained to undertake all human activities from within the boundaries of their dwellings. Virtual classes for students are now a cornerstone of these activities. While these on-screen exchanges […]
You can read more from Amya here.
14. Education? Space? Relationships? Exposure? Support systems? Stability? I could go on, but the list of what Kashmiri teenagers are deprived of is daunting and long. This narrative by Ali documents how life, and time, work differently in a conflict region.
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Between Violence And Normalcy, How Time Manifests For Teenagers In Kashmir
Ali Qalandar on September 17, 2021A little unwell and sleepy, I was lying in bed, about to drift off. It had been a long day. Before sleeping, I checked my phone a final time and saw: “Restrictions imposed in Kashmir, phones and internet to be snapped.”Seeing what I saw coming out of the blue, the uncertainty consumed my sleep. What […]
You can read more from Ali here.
15. I can love. I can love not. I can love. I can love not. Welcome to 2021 India, where the right to love is a petal-pulling game, where paternalism determines whether your right to love succeeds or not.
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Jab Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya? The Dichotomy Of Young India’s Love Life
Prithvi Vatsalya on August 10, 2021“I would talk about love, sexuality and gender openly at college, with my friends. We would dissect such topics with ease. But the moment I reached home, all the openness vanished. I wouldn’t feel comfortable broaching such topics anymore,” confessed Shreeti Shubham.The 25-year-old is a research assistant at the University of Hyderabad. Shreeti is speaking of straddling […]
You can read more from Prithvi here.
16. The hardest question, of what seems like a century, answered.
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How To Call Out Your Friends, Respectfully
Ali Qalandar on October 4, 2021Hammad* and I were really good friends. Classes at school passed by in conversations and when at home, phone conversations were frequent, to say the least. We enjoyed each other’s company and shared so many similar interests that it could be considered unusual. Our friendship preceded almost all else for the both of us.Granted that […]
You can read more from Ali here.
17. A film that created quite a stir, for the right reasons, and Sumeet Samos’ brilliant review of the movie – on what heroism, Ambedkarite slogans mean for the larger conversation on structural changes.
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Finding Ambedkar In ‘Jai Bhim’: Dissecting The Movie’s Ambedkarite Politics
Sumeet Samos on November 10, 2021Sumit Samos is an anti-caste activist who researches anti-caste student politics in central universities. He is currently pursuing MSc in Modern South Asian Studies, at the University of Oxford. He also works with the French Radio Live, Paris.The recent Tamil movie ‘Jai Bhim’ directed by TJ Gnanavel has generated many interesting themes in public discussions.Some […]
You can read more from Sumeet here.
18. Stories are one of the most powerful tools to talk to people, and this powerful, and absolutely essential story by Mythili talks about how publishers from the marginalised community are taking control, breaking the Savarna hegemony in literature.
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How Anti-Caste Publishers Are Resisting Savarna Dominance In Literature
Mythili Kamath on November 18, 2021Indian literary works focus on stories to do with Savarna histories, romance and struggles, excluding DBA (Dalit, Bahujan and Adivasi) stories, writers, readers and communities. The caste hegemony has seeped into literature, despite ‘untouchability’ being abolished by Article 17 of the Indian constitution 66 years ago. Literature is a powerful tool to establish emotional connections with […]
You can read more from Mythili here.
19. Marriage, not the start, mid, end goal for us women. We want love, not patriarchy, thanks please! A brave piece by Nupur that words the silent realities of so many women.
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As A Woman, I Don’t Want Marriage For It’s Filled With Misogyny & Chauvinism
Nupur J on December 10, 2021Getting older is a big deal! As you cross the 25th year of your life (or the 21st one if you are a woman), you are made to feel responsible—this means you have to start thinking about “settling down” in life. Even if you dodge the marriage question for a year or two, they come […]
You can read more from Nupur here.
20. When conflict is an omnipresent part of your life, mental healthcare becomes a privilege of a different level. Mental health is political and this piece is proof.
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Conflict And Care In Kashmir: A Conversation On Mental Health Services With Ufra Mir
Amar Saeed on October 14, 2021On the evening of August 2, 2019, my college administration put out a circular asking students to leave the campus immediately, without offering us any explanation.The very next day, I made my way back home, not knowing what the future had in store for us—there were only rumors of what was to come next.Two days […]
You can read more from Amar here.
21. Netflix’s sex education was a brilliant show, but almost a utopian reality for Indians.
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For Indian Students, Netflix’s Show ‘Sex Education’ Is Far From Reality
Shirley Khurana on October 21, 2021Trigger warning: Mention of abortionI think most of us would agree that Netflix’s Sex Education is nothing short of a masterpiece. The charm of the show lies in its unconditional respect for its people, especially the kids who are all constantly juggling their personal coming-of-age struggles with the pressures of society, family, school and peer […]
You can read more from Shirley here.