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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