This generation gap is actually a valley

The first beneficiaries of the 1991 economic reforms are now retiring. Their kids are clear that they don’t want to repeat their parents’ lives

The age cohort that began work in the decades surrounding 1991 is now in its 50s and 60s. This is the urban mass affluent population slice that saw its boats lift with the giant wave of economic growth and prosperity that the economic reforms of 1991 unleashed. You just had to be in the right place at the right time with the willingness and ability for sustained hard work, and economic growth, job opportunities and competition did the rest. People of this generation had grown up at a time of peak socialism with the state intervention and dysfunction making everyday life difficult. They were afraid of sliding back into genteel middle-class poverty if they did not work hard and build careers and assets. Now 30-40 years later, as this cohort slips into retirement and watches their kids take over the story for the next three decades, it finds itself shaking its collective head over some of the behavioural changes it sees in Gen Next, which has seen a lifestyle unimaginable 30 years ago. They worry about some of the decisions around marriage, kids and work they see in their younger selves.

The FIRE movement — Financial Independence, Retire Early — movement is a rage with the young urban Indians who can’t wait to quit the work grind and travel the world, engage in their hobbies and just chill. / AFP PHOTO / INDRANIL MUKHERJEE (AFP)

There are two major changes that define the chasm between the behaviour of the two cohorts that are causing the generation gap to turn into a valley.

One, the wariness around marriage and kids. When the same story is repeated across tens of social or work-related interactions, it might stop being an anecdote and might upgrade to a trend. I find that an increasing number of the upper-middle class young are choosing to stay single or in relationships without marriage. From questioning the institution itself to the inability to find a suitable partner since the option of an “arranged” marriage is off the table, more young adults are preferring to “go solo”. The trend is especially sharp in highly educated professional women who just don’t see the point of repeating their mothers’ lives in what-could-be toxic extended family situations.

While there is hard data to show that the overall age of marriage has gone up in India, the behaviour of the slice of the population at the top 5% is harder to pin down. A ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) report titled Youth in India 2022 finds that the percentage of women between the ages of 20-24 years who were married before the age of 18 years has dropped from 47.4% in 2005-06 to 23.3% in 2019-21. Overall, fewer young men and women are getting married. The same report found men and women between the ages of 15 -29 years who were not married, rising from around 17% in 2011 to almost 25% in 2019. The YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey found that 40% of those surveyed marked marriage as “not important at all”.

Those who do get married are reluctant to have kids due to a mix of lifestyle, financial and freedom issues. There is also the fear of bringing a baby into a world they believe has gone to hell. Overall, the fertility rate in urban India was down to 1.6 in the National Family Health Survey 2019-2021, which is below the replacement rate, and it is likely that the rate in the highly educated, well-off segment might be even lower where there is a preference for being dog parents over being parents to a human.

Two, the focus on work-life balance and a desire to retire early. A doctor who runs his own practice talks about how his son, who has begun to work in the father’s clinic, is unwilling to put in the hours it takes to sustain the business. “I am still here at 8pm some nights, but he needs to be with his friends after 6 — I just don’t see how he will finally take over,” he shares. From the point of view of the young cohort who saw their parents slog with little time for leisure or even family, they certainly do not want to repeat their parent’s grind. In fact, the FIRE movement — Financial Independence, Retire Early — movement is a rage with the young urban Indians who can’t wait to quit the work grind and travel the world, engage in their hobbies and just chill.

Fundamental choices as those around marriage, kids, and work have long-term consequences. I see two threads that will follow people of this generation when they hand over the baton to the next cohort in 30 years. One, they need to plan for old age care since they might be either single or married with no kids. Despite worries about the climate crisis and other global disasters, this generation will live well into the 90s. Old age care will need a plan, money and a support system.

Two, they need to earn and save aggressively to meet their desires for an early retirement and to have enough to last their entire long retired life. But this comes directly in conflict with the desire for a work-life balance today. This is a wrinkle they will need to iron out as they choose between their today and their tomorrow.

Just as the Millennials and Gen Z in India don’t understand the uncle jokes around the lady knitting sweaters behind the bank counter, they perhaps don’t get the worry that the first cohort of economic freedom feels when it watches their kids, now young adults, take very different decisions with their lives. The post-Independence cohort went from coal and wood to kerosene to gas cylinders. The post-1991 generation went to piped gas and microwaves. And their kids have gone to Swiggy. And so, the story of the generation gap continues, as it has over the ages!

Monika Halan is the best-selling author of the Let’s Talk series of books on money. The views expressed are personal