List of Figures

Figure 1.1: Proportion of youth (15-34 years) to total population20 Figure 2.1: Majority of the youth stay with their parents 25 Figure 2.2: Youngest cohort stay with their parents; the older ones mainly stay with their spouse 26 Figure 2.3: Two-fifths of the married youth stay only with their spouse 26 Figure 2.4: Living arrangements across gender 27 Figure 2.5: Similar living arrangements across localities 27 Figure 2.6: For one-third of the youth, bond with their family has strengthened 28 Figure 2.7: Not much variation across age groups with regard to their bonds with their families 28 Figure 2.8: Bond with family has strengthened more among the unmarried youth 29 Figure 2.9: Bond with family has weakened among youth who live away from their families 29 Figure 2.10: Bond with family across localities 29 Figure 2.11: Bond with family strengthens with the usage of social media and smartphones 30 Figure 2.12: Proportion of youth’s bond with their friends 30 Figure 2.13: Bond with friends have strengthened the most for the youngest cohort 31 Figure 2.14: Students’ relationship with their friends has strengthened from before 31 Figure 2.15: Bond with friends has strengthened more among the youth having higher educational attainment 31 Figure 2.16: A third of the unmarried youth have strengthened relations with their friends than before 32 Figure 2.17: Bond with friends across localities 33 Figure 2.18: Social media and smartphone usage seems to strengthen bond with friends 33 Figure 2.19: People’s opinions identified as the biggest quality that the youth pays attention to while choosing friends 34 Figure 2.20: Men focus more on the caste, economic status and their ability to speak in English while making friends compared to the women 35 Figure 2.21: Youth prioritize family over friends and career 36 Figure 2.22: Men give more importance to their friendships than women while women prioritize their family more than men do 36 Figure 2.23: Ranking of priorities across localities 37 Figure 2.24: Youngsters affinity with their locality, state and country 37 Figure 2.25: Most of the youngsters witnessed greatest increased in their affinity with their village/town/city 38 Figure 3.1: Not much change in observance of certain religious practices by Indian youth since 2016 44 Figure 3.2: Christian and Muslim youth are most likely to pray frequently 45 Figure 3.3: Of all major communities, sharpest fall in practice of praying seen among Muslim youth 45 Figure 3.4: Christian and Muslim Youth most likely to fast, particularly during festivals 46 Figure 3.5: Practice of observing fasts has gone up significantly among Christian youth 46 Figure 3.6: Muslim youth continue to be least likely to visit their place of worship 47 Figure 3.7: Sikh youth most likely to visit their place of worship even when a festival is not on 47

Figure 3.8: Sikh youth most likely to watch religious shows on TV followed by Hindu youth Figure 3.9: Sikhs only community to have seen a rise in viewing of religious programmes on TV Figure 3.10: Christian youth most likely to read a religious book followed by Muslim youth Figure 3.11: Significant increase in Christian and Sikh youth’s tendency to read religious books 48

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Figure 3.12: Christian youth were most likely to perceive both an increase and decrease in their religious participation compared to youth from other communities 51 Figure 3.13: Two-fifths of youth highly likely to seek advice of a priest or religious leader for fixing a marriage date 52 Figure 3.14: Likelihood of consulting a priest/guru/baba for marriage date 53 Figure 3.15: Likelihood of consulting a priest/guru/baba for date for purchasing property/valuable 53 Figure 3.16: Likelihood of consulting a priest/guru/baba for personal/family member’s distress 53 Figure 3.17: Muslim and Hindu youths are most likely to have consulted a priest or religious guru for good luck and health 54 Figure 3.18: High or moderate likelihood to consult a religious leader for fixing auspicious dates or for personal issues has declined among youths (18-34 year olds) in the last six years 55 Figure 3.19: Only one in every three youth emphatically expressed optimism about the state of religious harmony in India during the next five years 58 Figure 3.20: Hindu and Muslim youth have opposite views on the future of religious harmony in India 58 Figure 3.21: Over two-fifths of young Muslims claim to have experienced discrimination among friends because of their religion 60 Figure 4.1: Decline in the proportion of the married youth 65 Figure 4.2: Youth are marrying at a later age; a quarter of youth were unmarried in the age group of 18-24 years 66 Figure 4.3: Decline in proportion of married youth, more pronounced in young women 66 Figure 4.4: Educated youth more likely to marry late 67 Figure 4.5: Married youth across localities 67 Figure 4.6: Arranged marriages, a preferred choice of the youth 68 Figure 4.7: Love marriage more prevalent among the better educated 68 Figure 4.8: Love marriage preferred by married youth living in big cities 69 Figure 4.9: More than 80% of the youth are married within same caste, religion and state 69 Figure 4.10: Importance attached to caste, religion and state declines in love marriages 70 Figure 4.11: Preference for an arranged marriage greatest among the youngest 70 Figure 4.12: Marital preference of unmarried youth by gender 71 Figure 4.13: Marriage choices by educational attainment among unmarried youth 71 Figure 4.14: Preference for love marriage greatest in big cities 72 Figure 4.15: Preference for arranged marriage greatest among marginal communities 72