India’s growing crowds—at protests, Apple store openings, even Instagrammable queues—may say less about fandom and more about frustration. Dilip Kumar, who leads investments at Zerodha’s Rainmatter Health, warns that these mass gatherings are signs of a deeper crisis: educated youth with no meaningful work.

In a widely discussed LinkedIn post, Kumar draws a straight line from India’s soaring youth unemployment to the rising number of young people turning up at protests and promotional events in the middle of the day. 

“These aren’t daily wage workers,” he wrote. “They’re young and educated, with smartphones, fandom merch, and the energy to stand for hours on the road making video reels.”

That energy, he argues, is unspent because it isn’t being absorbed by the job market. His post came as new data shows youth unemployment at 16.1% in Q3 FY25—nearly double the national average, and rising. For urban youth, the figure climbs to 16.8%, per the World Bank.

Kumar points out that delivery jobs, though often criticized, may be doing more to preserve social order than many realize. “Delivery boys and riders have found work. They’ve a reason to show up—even if it’s not perfect. Imagine if they didn’t have that work,” he said.

The crisis runs deeper. Nearly 28 million educated young Indians are actively seeking jobs, and roughly 100 million—mostly women—have stopped looking altogether. 

Despite reports of India leading global hiring outlooks, job growth remains skewed. Sectors like retail, oil and gas, education, and IT are all contracting, while AI and data science roles remain out of reach for most due to a wide skills gap.

Graduate employability has dropped to 42.6% in 2025, down from 44.3% in 2023. Among engineers, 83% leave college without a job or internship offer; for MBA grads, half remain unemployed. “When the youth can’t find meaning in work,” Kumar wrote, “they’ll seek it in crowds, fandoms, and shallow status games.”