KATHMANDU ¨C In the wake of massive anti-corruption demonstrations, which began on Sept. 8 over a social-media ban and left more than 70 people dead before a new prime minister took office, I think of a young Nepali man I met here in the capital, no older than 23, planning to attend a Gen Z protest. ¡°Brother,¡± he said to me, ¡°we are not just angry. We are building our nation. We are looking for a nation where there is no corruption. We cannot stay silent now.¡±
That moment will stay with me forever, a reminder that revolutions are not always born in blood but in the quiet calculations of the overlooked. Gen Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, make up over 40% of Nepal¡¯s population, a formidable force. They are the digital natives who bypassed the government¡¯s ban on Facebook, Twitter and other social media with unbanned VPNs and TikTok whispers, turning a censorship decree into a clarion call for accountability. These young people, the driving force of change, are furious over high unemployment, rampant corruption and rising economic inequality.
Nepal¡¯s Gen Z is not merely protesting corruption or joblessness; they are etching indelible patterns across the nation¡¯s social fabric, economy and environment. They are the force that could either erode the old guard¡¯s complacency or flood the valleys with fresh possibility. In a world where youth challenges fragile governments from Dhaka to Nairobi, Nepal offers a parable.
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