Beyond the front lines: What sustains civic leadership among young women and queer people in India

In mid-2026, India saw one of its largest youth-led protests in recent history, sparked by anger over the leak of the 2026 National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) paper, India’s medical entrance exam, with at least 21 students dying by suicide in the aftermath.

2026 年年中，印度发生了近代史上规模最大的由青年主导的抗议活动之一，起因是印度医学入学考试 2026 年国家资格暨入学考试 (NEET) 试卷泄露，引发愤怒，事件导致至少 21 名学生自杀身亡。

The protests sustained a 36-day occupation at Jantar Mantar alongside demonstrations in cities across the country and ended with the education minister’s resignation .

抗议活动在简塔·曼塔天文台持续了 36 天，全国各地城市也发生示威活动，最终以教育部长辞职而告终。

Coincidentally, this was the very moment that I began to collect data to understand the civic participation and leadership of young women and queer people in urban India.

巧合的是，就在那时，我开始收集数据，以了解印度城市中年轻女性和酷儿人群的公民参与和领导力。

Reporting on these protests, especially on social media , highlighted visuals of women at the frontlines —from physically protecting others from police brutality to ensuring medical care and legal aid.

对这些抗议活动的报道，尤其是在社交媒体上，突出了女性在前线的形象——从保护他人免受警察暴力到确保医疗和法律援助。

Yet despite being “seen” (and perhaps even being hyper-visible) in the media, women’s civic participation in India continues to be limited.

然而，尽管媒体“看到”（甚至可能是高度可见），印度妇女的公民参与仍然受到限制。

A 2010 Population Council survey across six Indian states, for example, found that only 23% of young women aged 15-24 reported participating in civil society, compared with 48% of young men, and data on young queer people’s civic lives are largely absent.

例如，人口委员会 2010 年对印度六个邦进行的一项调查发现，15-24 岁的年轻女性中只有 23% 表示参与了公民社会，而年轻男性的这一比例为 48%，而且关于年轻酷儿群体公民生活的数据基本上缺失。

The distinctly gendered backlash that followed the protests may provide a glimpse into why women’s participation has historically been lower.

抗议活动后出现的明显性别差异或许可以让我们了解为什么历史上女性的参与度较低。

That backlash ranged from online sexual harassment and the use of morphed images online to the case of a 15-year-old girl being charged by police for using “foul” language while protesting , apologizing publicly and continuing to be harassed, and to familial pressure applied through the state .

这种强烈反对的范围包括网上性骚扰和在线变形图像的使用，到一名 15 岁女孩因在抗议时使用“粗俗”语言而被警方指控、公开道歉并继续受到骚扰，以及通过国家施加的家庭压力。

When queer youth mobilized protesters, brought together mutual aid supplies, and stood at the front lines, not only did they face backlash, but their identities were also used as content and slurs during the protests.

当酷儿青年动员抗议者、筹集互助物资、站在前线时，不仅遭到强烈抵制，他们的身份也被用作抗议的内容和诽谤。

In almost a decade of running leadership programs for young women and queer people at One Future Collective, I have seen how this type of visible backlash serves as a deterrent to women and queer people weighing whether to raise their voices.

在 One Future Collective 为年轻女性和酷儿人士举办领导力项目的近十年中，我看到这种明显的强烈反对如何对女性和酷儿人士权衡是否提高自己的声音起到威慑作用。

For queer participants especially, a duality marks their civic lives: the same gendered backlash, alongside what often feels like an intentional exclusion, even from progressive spaces .

特别是对于酷儿参与者来说，二元性标志着他们的公民生活：相同的性别强烈反对，以及常常感觉像是故意的排斥，即使是在进步空间中。

These protests suggested on a far larger scale what I had observed anecdotally: that young women and queer people do want to participate and lead in civic life.

这些抗议活动在更大范围内表明了我所观察到的轶事：年轻女性和酷儿确实希望参与并领导公民生活。

They also shifted the emphasis in my research from what stops people from starting to participate to what allows them to continue.

他们还将我的研究重点从阻止人们开始参与的因素转移到了让他们继续参与的因素。

Why does the civic participation and leadership of young women and queer people matter?

为什么年轻女性和酷儿群体的公民参与和领导力很重要？

In youth and early adulthood, civic participation changes what we believe about ourselves.

在青少年和成年早期，公民参与改变了我们对自己的看法。

It is also during this period that our sociopolitical attitudes crystallize , often determining our lifelong civic engagement.

也正是在这一时期，我们的社会政治态度得以具体化，往往决定了我们终生的公民参与。

What begins as inner transformation compounds outward : Participating builds our sense of self, our skills, and our networks, and makes further participation more likely.

内在的转变开始向外复合：参与建立了我们的自我意识、我们的技能和我们的网络，并使进一步的参与更有可能。

Such civic engagement strengthens the communities young people are a part of.

这种公民参与加强了年轻人所属的社区。

For queer young people, civic and community spaces are also where recognition, belongingness, and safety are found.

对于酷儿年轻人来说，公民和社区空间也是他们获得认可、归属感和安全感的地方。

As young people gain the formal rights to vote, organize, and enter the workforce, participation typically rises .

随着年轻人获得正式的投票权、组织权和进入劳动力市场，参与度通常会上升。

But a 2025 study across 27 Indian cities found that while political engagement rose with age among boys aged 14-22, it stayed flat among girls of the same ages, right on the cusp of adulthood.

但 2025 年对印度 27 个城市进行的一项研究发现，虽然 14 至 22 岁男孩的政治参与度随着年龄的增长而上升，但同年龄段、正处于成年期的女孩的政治参与度却持平。

What happens after that, and what might close the gap, remains largely unexamined.

此后会发生什么，以及什么可能缩小差距，在很大程度上仍未得到检验。

Data on the civic experiences of young queer people are harder to come by; existing research tends to focus on adults and indicators of political participation like voting.

有关年轻酷儿公民经历的数据更难获得；现有的研究往往侧重于成年人和投票等政治参与指标。

Glimpses from the One Future Fellowship, One Future Collective’s flagship leadership development program for women and queer people.

“同一个未来联谊会”（One Future Fellowship）一瞥，“同一个未来集体”针对女性和酷儿群体的旗舰领导力发展项目。

Where do young women and queer people build their civic muscle?

年轻女性和酷儿们在哪里增强公民力量？

Leadership development and gender outcomes feature prominently in India’s National Education Policy of 2020 at the basic education level, but that attention doesn’t extend to higher education or young adulthood, leaving out critical elements for building the capacity of young women and queer people to participate and lead in civic life.

领导力发展和性别成果在印度 2020 年国家教育政策中的基础教育层面占据突出地位，但这种关注并未延伸到高等教育或青年期，从而遗漏了建设年轻女性和酷儿群体参与和领导公民生活的能力的关键要素。

Civil society organizations (CSOs) also form a key part of the civic ecosystem in India, yet their role in strengthening civic participation remains understudied.

民间社会组织 (CSO) 也是印度公民生态系统的重要组成部分，但其在加强公民参与方面的作用仍未得到充分研究。

Across the country, CSOs have spent decades running youth fellowships, community organizing initiatives, feminist leadership programs, and civic learning spaces —a long, mostly under-documented history.

在全国范围内，公民社会组织花了数十年的时间运行青年奖学金、社区组织倡议、女权主义领导力项目和公民学习空间——这是一段漫长且鲜为人知的历史。

Much of India’s formal leadership infrastructure, from the National Service Scheme (NSS) to the National Cadet Corps, emphasizes service, volunteering, and individual achievement.

印度的大部分正式领导基础设施，从国民服役计划（NSS）到全国学员军团，都强调服务、志愿服务和个人成就。

Many CSOs approach leadership differently.

许多公民社会组织的领导方式不同。

Rather than starting with “How can I help?” they ask why a problem exists, who benefits from it, and how people can work collectively to change it.

而不是从“我能帮忙吗？”开始。他们询问问题为何存在，谁从中受益，以及人们如何共同努力来改变它。

CSOs like Reap Benefit , Pravah , Young Leaders for Active Citizenship , and my own organization, One Future Collective , among others, also place identity and self-reflection at the center of leadership development, treating personal leadership and civic participation as inseparable.

Reap Benefit、Pravah、Young Leaders for Active Citizenship 和我自己的组织 One Future Collective 等民间社会组织也将身份和自我反思置于领导力发展的中心，将个人领导力和公民参与视为不可分割的。

These identity- and justice-oriented approaches may matter especially for young women and queer people, whose participation is often shaped by questions of belonging, legitimacy, and safety.

这些以身份和正义为导向的方法可能对年轻女性和酷儿人群尤其重要，她们的参与往往受到归属感、合法性和安全问题的影响。

While organizations do examine their own work, that learning rarely makes its way into published research or policy conversations and decisions.

虽然组织确实检查自己的工作，但这种学习很少进入已发表的研究或政策对话和决策中。

As a 2026 Echidna Global Scholar at the Center for Universal Education at Brookings, my research asks two questions: What do young women and queer people (18-35) in urban India identify as their aspirations, barriers, and enablers for participating and leading in civic life?

作为布鲁金斯大学普及教育中心的 2026 年针鼹全球学者，我的研究提出了两个问题：印度城市中的年轻女性和酷儿人群（18-35 岁）认为她们参与和领导公民生活的愿望、障碍和推动因素是什么？

And what role do nonformal leadership programs run by CSOs play in building their capacity to do so?

民间社会组织开展的非正式领导力项目在培养其能力方面发挥什么作用？

Using a mixed-methods, participatory approach across Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore, I am combining ecosystem mapping, a survey, focus group discussions, and interviews with young people, CSO practitioners, and higher education stakeholders, alongside a case study of One Future Collective.

我在孟买、德里和班加罗尔采用混合方法、参与式方法，将生态系统绘图、一项调查、焦点小组讨论、对年轻人、公民社会组织从业者和高等教育利益相关者的访谈以及 One Future Collective 的案例研究结合起来。

An Advisory Council of young women and queer people keeps the design and analysis accountable to the people the research is about.

由年轻女性和酷儿人士组成的咨询委员会负责确保设计和分析对研究对象负责。

What young women and queer people want from their civic lives, and the role CSOs have played in nurturing it, should direct future policy attention and action toward ensuring that they can participate and lead in civic life.

年轻女性和酷儿群体想要从公民生活中得到什么，以及公民社会组织在培育公民生活中所发挥的作用，应该引导未来的政策关注和行动，以确保他们能够参与和领导公民生活。

Policymakers, funders, and educators will need to understand what they want and strengthen the ecosystems that can support them.

政策制定者、资助者和教育工作者需要了解他们想要什么，并加强能够支持他们的生态系统。