The parody political group, launched on social media over the weekend, uses the cockroach as its symbol and has gained widespread attention through memes, mock campaign messages and satirical videos targeting political institutions and government policies. By Thursday, the movement’s Instagram account had amassed more than 15 million followers, surpassing the platform following of India’s ruling party.

The movement was founded by Abhijeet Dipke, a political communications strategist and student at Boston University, who said the initiative began as an online satire project but quickly evolved into a broader expression of public frustration among younger Indians.

According to Dipke, the rapid growth of the movement reflects concerns over employment opportunities, economic pressures and dissatisfaction with political institutions. He said many young people viewed the platform as a space to express grievances through humor and digital activism.

The controversy that sparked the movement originated from remarks made by Surya Kant during a court hearing last week. Kant criticized individuals he described as attacking institutions and compared some unemployed young people and activists to cockroaches, comments that quickly circulated across social media and drew criticism from many users.

The remarks came against a backdrop of growing concerns among sections of India’s youth over unemployment and disruptions to government recruitment processes caused by examination paper leaks. Critics online interpreted the comments as dismissive of the challenges facing younger generations.

Kant later clarified that his observations were directed at individuals obtaining fraudulent academic credentials and said he had not intended to insult unemployed youth. However, the explanation did little to stem the online backlash.

The parody party subsequently adopted the cockroach as a symbol of resilience, portraying the insect as capable of surviving difficult conditions and using it as a metaphor for citizens navigating economic and social challenges.

Its social media content has focused on corruption allegations, job market difficulties, governance issues and broader political dissatisfaction, themes that have resonated with large numbers of young internet users.
While the Cockroach Janta Party has no formal political status and does not contest elections, its rapid rise highlights the growing role of digital platforms as vehicles for political expression in India, particularly among younger demographics increasingly turning to satire and online communities to voice discontent.

Entrepreneur and content creator Ankur Warikoo has shared a personal account of how his mother became the financial and emotional foundation of his family after his father unexpectedly lost his job, describing her consistency as the force that allowed the household to survive years of uncertainty.

In a post shared on social media, Warikoo reflected on the sharply different personalities of his parents and how those differences shaped the family’s response to economic hardship.

He said his father initially held a stable job during his childhood, providing what he described as a comfortable middle-class lifestyle.

According to Warikoo, the family’s financial stability changed after his father accepted what appeared to be a significantly better opportunity offering double the salary and additional benefits, including a company car.

The decision, which was intended to improve the family’s prospects, quickly unraveled when the company shut down roughly a year later, leaving his father unemployed for several years.Warikoo said the abrupt loss of income pushed the family into financial instability and transformed the dynamics within the household.“It was during this period that my mother became the source of stability,” he said.He explained that his mother worked as a primary school teacher while also taking evening tuition classes to supplement the family income. Although the earnings were far lower than what the family previously had, he said the consistency of that income provided predictability during a period dominated by uncertainty.Warikoo described that sense of predictability as emotionally important for the family’s survival, particularly during a prolonged period in which his father continued pursuing professional risks and new opportunities.According to him, his mother’s steady support effectively gave his father the freedom to continue experimenting despite repeated setbacks.

“She believed it gave the risk-lover in the family the freedom to keep trying,” he said.

Warikoo acknowledged that the burden often exceeded what his mother could reasonably manage but said she continued working relentlessly to preserve stability at home.

He noted that she was still taking tuition classes into her late sixties and reportedly continued doing so until about four years ago, even at the age of 72.“There were moments when she was exhausted,” he said, adding that she nevertheless continued because she believed the family depended on that stability.

The entrepreneur framed his mother’s role not only as financial support but as a form of emotional steadiness that kept the household functioning during years of unpredictability.“She created stillness in a volatile life,” he said.

Warikoo’s comments resonated widely online, particularly among middle-class Indian families familiar with economic insecurity and intergenerational financial pressure.

His remarks about the “middle-class curse” reflected a broader sentiment often discussed in India’s urban professional class, where families frequently balance aspirations for upward mobility against fears of instability.

The story also highlighted a recurring dynamic in many households where one family member assumes the role of economic risk-taker while another provides continuity through stable income and caregiving responsibilities.

Warikoo, known for discussing career decisions, personal finance and entrepreneurship with younger audiences, has often spoken publicly about failure, risk and long-term resilience.

His latest reflections focused less on ambition and more on the quieter forms of labour that sustain families during periods of disruption.He suggested that while visible success is often associated with bold decisions and entrepreneurship, long-term survival frequently depends on individuals who continue performing routine responsibilities despite emotional and financial strain.

The account arrives at a time when concerns over job security, economic volatility and career transitions remain central issues for many middle-class households in India, particularly amid rapid technological and workplace changes.

Warikoo did not present his father’s decisions as mistakes but instead described the family’s experience as an example of how ambition and stability often coexist uneasily within households attempting to improve their circumstances.

His reflections ultimately focused on the resilience required to maintain ordinary life during extended periods of uncertainty and the role played by caregivers whose contributions often remain less publicly visible.

A former corporate executive from Mumbai who left a senior product leadership role in London to relocate to Melbourne has drawn attention online after describing her transition from a high-paying technology career to managing and cleaning short-term rental apartments in Australia.

Shweta Desai said the move forced her to reassess the relationship between professional identity, financial independence and personal stability after struggling to secure equivalent employment following her relocation in late 2023.Speaking to Hindustan Times and in a video shared on social media, Desai said she had spent nearly 15 years building her career in the United Kingdom after moving there from Mumbai in 2008 for higher studies.

Before leaving London, she worked as Head of Product for a commercial business platform and was reportedly earning close to £100,000 annually, equivalent to roughly ₹1 crore at current exchange rates.Her relocation to Australia followed her husband securing employment in Melbourne. However, Desai said the Australian job market differed significantly from the one she had experienced in the United Kingdom, making it difficult to obtain a similar leadership position.

“The job market in Melbourne is very different, so I couldn’t find what I wanted,” she said.Unable to secure a corporate role immediately after arriving, Desai said she accepted the first available employment opportunity she could find, which involved managing Airbnb apartments.

The work included cleaning rooms, replacing linens and responding to customer queries on the rental platform.“I went from Head of Product in London to cleaning apartments in Melbourne,” she said in an Instagram video. “And for a long time I thought I’d lost myself completely.”The experience, according to Desai, marked a sharp shift not only in employment status but also in lifestyle and financial autonomy. Reflecting on her life in London, she described a period of economic comfort associated with senior corporate employment and long-term career growth.“The title.

The salary. The wardrobe. It was all gone,” she said.Desai said unemployment and career uncertainty had a significant emotional impact during the initial stages of relocation. She described feeling disconnected from her previous sense of identity and increasingly uncertain about how she defined herself outside professional achievement.“The person who remained was like a shell,” she told Hindustan Times.

“She was bending over backwards for everyone, making sure that any needs that she had didn’t really get done.”The adjustment period also highlighted broader issues surrounding migration, employment mobility and the challenges professionals face when moving between international labour markets. Despite years of experience in the United Kingdom, Desai said her qualifications and previous corporate role did not immediately translate into equivalent opportunities in Australia.

Economists and labour market analysts have increasingly noted that skilled migrants often face transitional barriers when relocating across countries, including local hiring preferences, accreditation differences and limited professional networks in new labour markets.

Desai said the manual and routine nature of apartment management work eventually provided a degree of psychological stability after months of uncertainty.“It’s a functional job,” she said. “It gave me a small part of myself back.”Over time, she said the experience helped separate her sense of identity from corporate designation and salary level. Questions from others about her profession during unemployment periods had initially intensified feelings of insecurity.

“Everywhere we went, people would ask me, so what do you do?” she said. “I didn’t really have an answer.”Desai said she sometimes referred to herself as “figuring it out” or as a housewife, although she felt uncomfortable with descriptions that she believed no longer reflected her personal or professional identity.The experience later became part of a broader reassessment of financial independence and self-worth.

Desai said the loss of professional status forced her to confront how heavily she had associated personal value with career success.“But here’s what nobody tells you about losing a career you worked fifteen years to build,” she said. “When the title goes, you find out who you actually are underneath it.”She added that the transition ultimately led to greater self-awareness and a revised understanding of financial freedom.“I’ve realised that money equals freedom,” she said. “It means options.”

Desai currently continues to manage apartments while also teaching English to children and developing a coaching and business practice, according to the interview.Her account has resonated widely on social media platforms, particularly among professionals discussing career instability, migration challenges and shifting definitions of success in post-pandemic labour markets.

The discussion also reflects wider changes in global employment trends as professionals increasingly relocate across borders for family, economic or lifestyle reasons while navigating uneven labour conditions and rising living costs in major international cities.

Australia, like several developed economies, has experienced fluctuations in hiring across technology and corporate sectors in recent years, affecting both local job seekers and newly arrived migrants.

Professionals relocating from established overseas careers can face extended transition periods before re-entering comparable positions.Desai said her experience ultimately changed how she viewed both work and financial security.

“Money means options, freedom and sometimes happiness too,” she said.

A report published by Nachiketa Desai in National Herald India stated that, the entrance test was conducted recently to fill up 1149 vacancies of Class-IV positions of peons, bearers and bailiffs in Gujarat High Court and sub-ordinate courts.

The shocking part is, 19 bachelor’s degree holders in dentistry and homeopathy, and 5446 PG degree holders in law, science and commerce, sat the entrance test, the report stated.

Interestingly, owners and teachers of private tuition classes who help students clear UPSC exams, also sat for the entrance test to simply watch what kind of questions are being asked.

The salary for the positions is 30,000 Indian Rupees which is around 420 USD which is enough for any average Indian family.

The report stated that many of the candidates admitted that it’s better to work for the under-qualified yet permanent job rather sitting at home and doing nothing.

In October 2018, over 93000 youths including PhDs and PGs applied for the peon jobs in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh state.

Another report written by Bobins Abraham stated that over 5 Million Indians lost jobs due to Demonetization decision made by Modi Government in 2016.

In the period of November-January unemployment percentage was 13.5 per cent while non-agricultural unemployment was at 15.6 per cent, data claimed.

While Non-agricultural unemployment stood at 16.8 per cent in December-February period.

It stated that, youth unemployment covering ages between 15 and 24 also increased by 6.8 percentage points to 26.7 per cent.

This shortage of jobs is compounded by depressed wages, with 82% of men and 92% of women earning less than Rs 10,000 per month.

The biggest new challenge facing India’s policymakers and administrators is rapidly rising unemployment, says a report released on Tuesday by the Centre for Sustainable Employment of the Azim Premji University.

“Unemployment levels have been steadily rising, and after several years of staying around 2-3%, the headline rate of unemployment reached 5% in 2015, with youth unemployment being a very high 16%,” the State of Working India 2018 (SWI) report said. “This rate of unemployment is the highest seen in India in at least the last 20 years,” the report added.

This shortage of jobs is compounded by depressed wages, with 82% of men and 92% of women earning less than Rs 10,000 per month.

The report also notes that the growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) hasn’t resulted in a commensurate increase in employment.

“A 10% increase in GDP now results in less than 1% increase in employment,” says the study.

“It used to be said that India’s problem is not unemployment but underemployment and low wages. But a new feature of the economy is a high rate of open unemployment, which is now over five percent overall.”

The report, co-written by a group of researchers, policymakers, journalists and civil society activists, has primarily relied on data from the National Sample Survey Office and the Employment-Unemployment Survey (EUS) of the Labour Bureau—the last of which was conducted in 2015-16.

The report has looked at the Bombay Stock Exchange-Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (BSE-CMIE) surveys for data for the past two years. These surveys, says the SWI study, “report a decline in employment over the past two years, continuing the trend of declining employment observed since 2013 in government data”. However, since the two surveys are not comparable, the report doesn’t engage as much with the BSE-CMIE data.

EDUCATED UNEMPLOYMENT

The report calls rising unemployment a “new” problem for India.

“It used to be said that India’s problem is not unemployment but underemployment and low wages. But a new feature of the economy is a high rate of open unemployment, which is now over five percent overall, and a much higher 16%t for the youth and the higher educated. The increase in unemployment is clearly visible all across India, but is particularly severe in the northern states,” it says. States such as Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Karnataka are exceptions to the trend of rising unemployment nationally.

Amit Basole, associate professor of economics at Azim Premji University and one of the authors of the study, said that the nature of India’s job market has changed as more educated people enter it.

“Over the past decade, we’ve seen a huge educational dividend. As school enrolments and completion rates have risen, the labour market has transformed. The creation of work commensurate with these degrees has not happened. A significant percentage of job seekers would like to hold out for better jobs,” he told HuffPost India. Basole cautioned that the quality of the education being provided also “needs to be looked at”.

“Confirming and building on a view held by the critics of India’s economic reforms process, the study points out that the relationship between growth and employment generation has become weaker over time.”

NO LIVING WAGE

Another significant trend that the report highlights is the problem of low earnings. “Nationally, 67% of households reported monthly earnings of up to Rs 10,000 in 2015. In comparison, the minimum salary recommended by the Seventh Central Pay Commission (CPC) is Rs 18,000 per month. This suggests that a large majority of Indians are not being paid what may be termed a living wage, and it explains the intense hunger for government jobs,” the report observes. Worryingly, it adds that 90% of industries even in the organised manufacturing sector “pay wages below the CPC minimum. The situation is worse in the unorganised sector”.

Confirming and building on a view held by the critics of India’s economic reforms process, the study points out that the relationship between growth and employment generation has become weaker over time. “In the 1970s and 1980s, when GDP growth was around 3-4%, employment growth was around 2% per annum. Since the 1990s, and particularly in the 2000s, GDP growth has accelerated to 7% but employment growth has slowed to 1% or even less. The ratio of GDP growth to employment growth is now less than 01,” it notes.

[The article was first published on HuffPost India by Akshay Deshmane]