Gen Z leads protests worldwide over inequality and social justice

A wave of youth-led protests is sweeping across countries including France, Albania, India, and Italy, with young people aged roughly 13 to 29 taking to the streets to voice concerns about inequality and social justice, France 24 English reported.

These demonstrations reflect a broader political consciousness among Gen Z, shaped by material insecurity and institutional disillusionment, according to sociologist Gökçe Tuncel, who highlighted young people's clear awareness of their material conditions.

In France, protests began over deteriorating conditions in underfunded schools and have grown to involve hundreds of thousands of participants, Al Jazeera English reported.

In India, the Cockroach movement has emerged amid controversies over the removal of more than 130 million names from electoral rolls, with its leader recently arrested.

Despite varied national contexts, the central grievance across these movements is inequality, both in terms of class and generation, exacerbated by growing income and wealth disparities and the weakening of European welfare states, Al Jazeera noted.