In Jalore’s Mengalwa school in Rajasthan, the students locked the school gates, and staged a sit-in, demanding that the state government get teachers for grade 1, 2 and 3 since the students were not being taught some of the subjects due to lack of adequate staff
Gen Alpha follows Gen Z: Schoolkids in 3 states protest over teachers, fans, toilets
Across UP, Bihar and Rajasthan, children as young as Class 6 are staging dharnas, forcing bureaucrats to answer for broken fans, missing toilets and lack of teachers
It's not trends on YouTube or debates on screen-time limits, India’s Generation Alpha, those born from 2010 onward, are now fiercely engaged in fighting for their basic rights coming out of their classrooms to demand clean drinking water, hygienic toilets and fill up vacant teacher posts.
All of which should be in place already in schools.
Taking a leaf from Gen Z's student protests that rocked the ruling dispensation in New Delhi, a wave of student-led agitations across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Rajasthan, are taking school administrations and district officials completely by surprise.
Armed with placards, constitution-driven slogans, and an uncompromising refusal to be gaslit by systemic apathy, these children are forcing top bureaucrats out of their air-conditioned offices and onto the grounds of neglected government schools.
"We are not asking for bheek (alms), we are asking for our rights," shouted the students as slogans at a Rajasthan school, which had not filled teacher vacancies in lower grades.
Fatehpur school: 1,500 students protest
In Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur district, the Sarvodaya Inter College became ground zero for this generational shift. On July 28th morning, students did not begin with morning prayers, but with a massive dharna (sit-in protest) by more than 1,500 students ranging from classes 6 to 12.
The immediate trigger? A teacher allegedly mocking and silencing female students with a dismissive "Tu baith ja chup chap" (Just sit down quietly) when they complained about broken fans in the blistering heat.
Instead of backing down, the students organised a protest. Led by Class 12 seniors who had allegedly returned from participating in the Jantar Mantar agitations in Delhi, the young crowd bypassed the principal, occupied the campus, and hoisted portraits of Dr BR Ambedkar. They demanded basic human dignity: Functional RO systems for clean drinking water, hygienic toilets, at least four working fans per classroom, and adequate benches to end the furniture shortage.
Also read: Gen Z slang invades Parliament as MPs invoke ‘kuchu puchu’, ‘FOMO’, ‘wasteguna huiya’
Ankur Sonkar, one of the students participating in the strike told ThePrint that he had been deeply influenced by education reform activist Sonam Wangchuk. In videos recorded during the Jantar Mantar protest, he had appealed to young people to support Wangchuk’s campaign, saying, “Support Sonam sir. If we do not support good people, whom will we support? Fight for your rights.”
It took six hours of intense negotiation, a deployment of local police, and the arrival of district Inspector of Schools (DIOS) Rakesh Kumar to break the deadlock at the school. The administration was forced to yield, issuing a formal written assurance agreeing to seven of their eight demands. After which, the students called off their demands.
Bihar and Rajasthan follow suit
This isn't an isolated incident in UP. The internet appears to have democratised the playbook of civil dissent for a completely new generation.
In a government school in Tikari in Gaya district of Bihar, students raised their voice about broken handpumps, dead fans, and shattered benches. When the students revolted and held a massive sit-in, the District Magistrate (DM) initially sent a junior official to defuse the situation.
The children flatly rejected the proxy, demanding to speak only to the top boss: "We want to talk to the DM." Ultimately, the DM had to show up in person.
Meanwhile, In Barmer’s Ramsar school and Jalore’s Mengalwa school in Rajasthan, the crisis shifted from infrastructure. Fed up with the complete collapse of the education system due to a severe shortage of educators, students locked the school gates shut. Staging sit-ins on the roads, their message to the state government was to fill up the teacher vacancies, as the students were not being taught certain subjects due to lack of teaching staff.
They chanted slogans such as: "We are not begging for charity (bheek). We are demanding our fundamental rights." Pointing out that the school in Jalore did not have teachers in grade 1, 2 and 3, they demanded they be filled up immediately.
For decades, political parties have pushed school infrastructure into the back-burner, operating under the assumption that children do not vote and therefore do not have a voice. Gen Alpha, it appears, is completely upending that calculation.
Also read: ‘CJP protests may have ended, but youth movement is far from over’ | Interview