The prodigal son and daughter are returning home. This time, in droves and all over the world. Late last year, data from the US Census Bureau had estimated that
almost half of young Americans aged between 18-29 years were living with their parents: that meant 48% of young America had been, in a manner of speaking, redomesticated by the end of 2022. Such a rare phenomenon had been last witnessed during the Great Depression. Across the pond — the Atlantic — the United Kingdom presents a not-too-different picture. Data from the 2021 census suggested that a whopping 4.19 million young adults in England and Wales had returned to stay with their families, a spike of 11% in a decade. Indian parents, of course, are familiar with their blood, especially the man-child, clinging to his hearth and home. There are now similar stirrings in China but, as always, in China’s case, it is ghar wapsi with Chinese characteristics. It has been reported that young Chinese, men and women, are being paid by their parents to become ‘full-time sons and daughters’.
This return to a kind of second childhood and its attendant perks — shelter, food and even a stipend in exchange for domestic chores — has been fuelled by a combination of implosions. A common causal element has been the devastation — social, economic, psychological — wrought by the Covid pandemic that, some psychologists believe, has forced youth to reassess their priorities. Persistent, pervasive and pathological social conditions — extreme competition and the relentless pressure to succeed — have also forced a significant number of young people to ‘retreat’ homeward. The principal reason though lies with the global economic downturn. Employment — young Indians would know — is hard to find: joblessness among 16-24 year olds in metropolitan China has been on the rise. Youth unemployment combined with the pitfalls of China’s slowing economy — sluggish domestic consumption, a struggling property market, a trait that China shares with some Western nations, as well as inflation, among other challenges — have expedited the speed of such transitions.
The possible outcomes of the rise of the ghorkuno youth, experts suggest, can be diverse. Some believe that the refurbished family, no longer skeletal — nuclear — in form, could help fight the equally potent contagion of loneliness. A few extra hands, some others say, could ease the domestic burden of women or, still better, strengthen demands for wages for that invisible labour called housework. But there are concerns as well. The security and shelter promised by a life at home may discourage working-age youth from actively seeking work, adversely affecting employment rates and labour markets. A sheltered life is not exactly ideal for the flowering of social skills either, leading to debilitating psychological impairments. Significantly, forced domesticity is likely to spur a momentum in favour of cultural infantilisation that could have serious implications for not only the agency of the youth but also democracy and dissidence. History, after all, is replete with instances of young people being the first to raise their voice against authoritarianism.
It is not implausible that China’s masters would welcome the ghar wapsi of its youth; so would New India.
