Surveying the youth

Auroville Today: What motivated you to do this survey?

Valentine: The Disha project was under SAIIER. During a conversation, one of the SAIIER team remarked there are a lot of rumours and negative stereotypes about the youth of Auroville, but we don’t really know the reality. So it was suggested we could research into this, and assess the opportunities and obstacles facing youth in this community. 

Having grown up here I have my own perspective, so this was also an opportunity for me to investigate if that perspective was valid and then to share the findings with the rest of Auroville.  For unless you are a parent or work in a school, it is very difficult to get an idea about what it means to be a young person in Auroville.   

Avinash: I feel that the youth are rather like a marginalised community, a separate community, yet many of the issues prevalent in Auroville seem to be particularly impacting them. I thought a survey could help bring more understanding about this, so I joined the survey team to analyse the data and report on the findings. 

There were only 46 respondents to the survey. Do you feel it is representative?

Valentine: We reached out to different sectors of the youth, to different age groups and nationalities – Lucrezia was particularly active in doing this – to try to make the respondents as diverse as we could, and from other conversations we’re satisfied that what they expressed is very representative of the larger youth community.  

Some of the results were predictable – for example, money and housing issues are clearly impacting the youth very much – but were there things that came out of the survey that surprised you?

Valentine: What surprised me very much was that a vast majority of them want to be here. I found it really heartbreaking that some of them felt they could not continue to live here, or would not be able to return, primarily for financial reasons, for many of them really want to participate fully in Auroville.  This is something not widely understood by adults.

The fact that people in their 30s were not sure they would stay in Auroville is also very worrying because that is the demographic which makes the city move, which can make real change happen, and there are few people in the 30 to 45 age bracket at present. 

Why is this? 

Valentine: The survey revealed that these young adults experienced certain issues, like financial and housing challenges, more strongly than the younger age group, because at this age they would like to settle down and have a family.  But if they can’t do so here because of factors like these, they end up living somewhere else, and that is a loss to Auroville. 

Avinash: I think the youth are like a barometer.  If this group is doing well, the health of the larger community is probably okay. I knew many of the youth were not happy but I didn’t know why and now the data is much clearer. Some things are quite striking. For example, we could very clearly see that people with poorer access to learning opportunities in their early years were less likely to want to stay in Auroville when they became older. 

Why did some have fewer learning opportunities?  

Valentine: Sometimes in Auroville you don’t find what you need because it’s simply not available. But it also a lot to do with your state of mind. If a young person feels empowered, motivated, they will make the effort to search out opportunities. But not all youth have that state of mind because they may have financial issues or other issues which impact their confidence.  I know youth who do not feel comfortable walking into Housing Service for example, because they are scared.  It’s very saddening to realize they feel so uncomfortable, alienated.

Actually, the survey reveals a general lack of understanding and fear of administration and governance of Auroville. 

To what extent is this influenced by the attitudes of the adults to the Town Hall and working groups?

Valentine: A lot. Some of the children hear terrible things at home about these groups and then take it as truth, and this is very unfortunate. Some years ago I was working on an Auroville Gap programme. As part of this programme the students visited the Town Hall offices and met people from working groups, and they were really surprised to find that people from the working groups were actually super-cool.  They were very easy to talk to and answered all their questions. Thank god the kids can quickly shift their attitude when they are exposed to a different experience. But until that moment, they were living through their parents’ attitudes.

Avinash: I agree that individual motivation is a big factor when it comes to youth accessing learning opportunities.  But a society can also make access as easy as possible so that people do not have to struggle to find them. Also, professional guidance and counselling should be available. The survey revealed that many of the youth felt they lacked such guidance when it came to understanding the opportunities available to them, or when they had personal difficulties. 

I’m very surprised by this lack of information and support. I came here three years ago as a participant in a programme which is all about figuring out what you want to do in life, and Aurovilians were helping us do this.  As an outsider, it was relatively easy for me to access help, but obviously this is not the case for everybody who is growing up here.

Why is there so little professional guidance for young people in Auroville?

Valentine: There are a few reasons. For a long time, there was a belief that the children of Auroville were special souls and needed to be dealt with in a different way: I was raised like this.  My generation was told that when there are personal issues, there is always some spiritual answer: psychotherapy and counselling had a bad reputation.  In the survey, mental problems are mentioned as one of the main issues the youth have to deal with.  So people need to accept that sometimes youth do need therapy or counselling, without feeling that this means that Auroville has failed them. 

Another reason why there is a lack of professional counselling is that many Auroville schools make it difficult for people to come in and do this. I am a peer educator, and I wanted to come in and do sessions on topics like safe sex, but I discovered there is a strong reluctance to let anybody bring this knowledge to the students, because it may not be compatible with the values of the school and you might be ‘putting ideas in their heads’.

So at first the community was in denial, it wasn’t admitting that there is a need for counselling the youth.  But now, in this survey, the children themselves have expressed such a need, so I don’t have to argue about this anymore. 

It would be great if the insights gained could be taken into consideration by our working groups and guide community decisions. However, things have already shifted a bit. Now Mattram, a psychological counselling service exists, and a psychotherapist, Juan Andres, is working at Santé, and these people are not rigid but are blending their knowledge with the reality of Auroville.  Still, issues like the mental health of our youth remain something of taboo.

Avinash: Auroville is not unique in this respect. Having grown up in India, I can tell you that it’s still very difficult in this culture to talk about issues like this.

On the basis of the survey responses, what changes need to happen? 

Valentine: My idea was to share the results of the survey – which makes certain concerns of the youth very visible for the first time – with the working groups, schools, and anybody who is potentially concerned, and let them figure out what needs to happen. We don’t feel we should be telling them how to do their job. Now that the information is out there I can sleep better, because I feel we have done what we could.

But something is already happening. Mattram responded very enthusiastically: we had a long conversation with them about the findings, and Santé would also like to meet us.

You must have your own ideas about what needs to change, and how.

Valentine: I can give you my wish list. If we had more structured higher learning opportunities available in Auroville, like an Auroville-style university, and financial support for those youth who wish to stay here and continue their studies, I think it would completely change the outcome of surveys like this.

I know the Tamil students very much want this as they suffer most from its absence.  Once they graduate from Auroville schools, if they want to further their education they have to go to Indian schools. Here, students get treated in a very different way and the teaching style may not be suitable for kids educated in Auroville, so that can be pretty traumatic for them. 

Avinash: I think even some of those students whose parents can afford to send them abroad for further studies would stay here if that option was offered, because they like the style of education here. 

Valentine: Another of my wishes is that Auroville provides many more apprenticeship maintenances, and these should be easier to access. This is an amount that young people receive if they are working in an Auroville unit. But there are very few apprenticeships available, and the apprentices need to work 35 hours a week, commit to working in that unit once the apprenticeship is over, and their parents should be on maintenances.  That’s a lot of conditions. We need more apprenticeships and fewer conditions.

Another thing is to make life easier for youth who would like to start businesses.  I know a few of them who tried doing this, but they gave up because paying the Auroville contribution as well as GST etc. suffocated them.  

Housing also has to change.  At present, if your parents are living here, you can build in the garden: it’s a form of nepotism.  But if you don’t have parents here and you lack financial resources, you will struggle to find a place to live. 

I had grown up with the belief that if you do your best, the world will provide for you, but too often you end up in your mid-twenties, like I did, living in a “dungeon” in Vikas and struggling to make ends meet. 

So if you are a youth of Auroville and you decide to stay here, you should at least have your basic needs met. 

Finally, many of the respondents said that they would like to have been educated regarding community processes and to be more involved in decision making and I think this would be a very good thing.  

Avinash: I see there are general Auroville issues and some that are specifically youth issues. When it comes to the youth, there is a clear need for emotional guidance and professional guidance, as well as access to higher education within the community.

However, I would also try to build a system that removes dependence upon privilege in general.  I think with current technologies you can develop many systems that can make things fairer and more equitable for everyone than they are at the moment.

Regarding Aurovilian youths’ struggle to access resources and financial assistance, as well as  their wish to be more involved in community affairs and decision-making, would this be an argument for some kind of affirmative action, like having a youth quota in commercial units, working groups or housing allocations?

Avinash: I wouldn’t do it in a blanket way. I’m not saying there should not be affirmative action, but it would need to be done on an individual basis, based on many factors. For finances and housing, I think you can give special consideration to people who grow up here. Perhaps it would be better to try a youth quota in our working groups or services than in commercial units, although, even here, if you have a choice between youth from outside the community and someone inside with equivalent ability, or even slightly less, than I think there’s a good case for choosing Auroville youth.  A lot of people who grew up here are very capable, but at present they’re not given a chance.

Valentine: I think some kind of affirmative action would be a good way to start, although we can’t expect units and groups to immediately welcome youth.   But it would remind people that Auroville is supposed to be a community, with notions of solidarity and sharing.

Avinash: Incentive structures could also work quite well. The issue of youth who want to start a unit but have many obstacles put in front of them is something that could be remedied in this way. 

However, you cannot just fix one issue because everything is interconnected. There are things we can do to help the youth, but this is linked to the wellbeing of the society as a whole, and this is reflected in the health of its economy.  A healthy economy generates healthy income and values in a good way for everyone, including the youth.

Valentine: I agree, the economy is crucial, and from an economy perspective Auroville could make the youth more of a priority than its present focus, which is that of growth. After all, youth is the future of Auroville just as much as the assets we are buying or creating. 

However, regarding the issue of youth in general, some things are changing. For example, for the past two years we’ve had a more professional child protection service.  When I was growing up, a very small group of people were doing this. I didn’t even know they existed, but I needed them, and I know many people with whom I have grown up have mental health issues relating to things like child abuse.  

Auroville took a really long time to get its act together on this because people didn’t want to admit that such things were happening here.  

Does this suggest that attitudinal change is a prerequisite for structural change? 

Avinash: Of course, you need first to become aware of the issues and not deny them. But I 

wouldn’t say you have to wait to become enlightened before you can change things.  I think awareness change and structural change are interrelated.   If a working group is impressed by a youth member who is there on a youth quota, they may change their view of youth in general, and this could lead to further structural changes. 

Valentine: Auroville definitely need to change its attitude regarding its youth. It needs to start looking at them as a valuable resource rather than with mistrust, even fear. At present, we are treating the youth like a different species, and we are less and less comfortable with them because we are losing the habit of how to deal with them.  When we were a small community, if one of them crossed a line we went and spoke to them: we dealt with them directly.  Now, sometimes, we call the police. 

We have to begin by getting to know each other a little bit better and seeing the kids as kids. I have a friend who, when he was a teenager, did every dumb thing possible.  But now he has one of the most responsible jobs in Auroville, and he’s one of the most capable people I know. There are many others like that. They go through a difficult phase, and then they grow into wonderful adults doing incredible work. 

I don’t condone the wild parties and fast driving, but we need to have more appropriate expectations of the youth and be a bit more forgiving, because growing up here under everyone’s scrutiny is very hard. Even as an adult, you still have to prove yourself if, as a young 16 year old here, you did something that got you into trouble.  

And then there’s the whole spiritual overlay.  It was worse when I was young – when the youth were seen as the spiritual future of Auroville – but there is still a bit of a narrative which asks why the Auroville youth aren’t more ‘spiritual’. 

When you are expected to be spiritual rather than just a normal kid, it is much worse when you do something ‘unspiritual’.  Not only do you break a rule, but you ruin your karma, so it’s double pressure.  They do find their way with spirituality eventually; we just have to trust them to find their way. 

In the meantime, if we are really serious about creating human unity, let them feel valued unconditionally, just as we do with children.

46 people responded: 8 Indians, 28 Europeans, 10 from USA, UK, Israel, Russia, Korea and Indonesia. 30 were 24 years and below, 10 were 25-29 years old, 6 were over 30.

80% said they had easy access to learning opportunities in Auroville, but many complained about the lack of higher education. One third of those who did not have easy access were unsure if they would stay in Auroville long-term.  

The main obstacles encountered in their life in Auroville were financial (65%), housing (48%), lack of professional guidance (43%) and mental health issues (37%).  These are also the areas in which they would like support.

Those people who didn’t have easy access to learning opportunities were much more likely than others to face these issues. However, 90% of those in the 25-29 age group see money as an obstacle in their life. A much higher percentage of the non-Indian groups have identified mental health and family issues as obstacles compared to Indians.

A much higher percentage of the 30+ age group identified almost every issue as an obstacle. 

59% saw themselves having a future in Auroville, 39% said ‘maybe’. Only one answered ‘no’. 

Among those that answered ‘yes’, there still seemed to be a level of uncertainty. Most of these would like to go outside to study/explore, and many say they will return after they finish their studies. or when they become financially secure. Among those that answered ‘maybe’, the reasons for their uncertainty varied. Some cited career difficulties, gender and racial bias, and monetary issues.  

The 30+ group is less sure of their future in Auroville than others, while Indians in general seemed surer about having a future in Auroville than the other groups.

However,  both the “yes” and “maybe” respondents see Auroville as their home which, ideally,  they would like to return to and help in its realization, but both groups also see many challenges/difficulties in them being able to do this. 

Significantly, however, there seems to be a general underlying faith in the Dream and a strong belief that Auroville is a place where positive change and growth are still possible.