Jantar Mantar: How India’s "Cockroach" Protests Forced a Historic Resignation

36 days is like a stretch, and during that time the streets of New Delhi were filled with all kinds of voices from young people, they were just plain tired of being ignored. They kept asking for change, and over the weekend they sort of… actually got what they were asking for. The so-called “Cockroach” movement , which was made up of people from all over India, decided to cancel their strike after the Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan resigned from his post. It felt like a deal to them , because it basically proved that young people really can move things when they stay united and work together. The whole movement started because something went wrong with the exam setup in India. A lot of students were hit hard by leaked exam papers, and because of that they had to retake their exams. That kind of situation is very stressful, and some students even took their own lives, which is just awful and shouldn’t happen. The students were clearly upset. So they thought, okay we can’t just sit around. They started protesting in the streets, led by a group called the Cockroach Janta Party . They wanted the government to listen and make changes. And even if people said it was only “about exams”, it wasn’t really. It was about the entire education system in India. They wanted the system to be reasonable, and they wanted every student to have a real chance to succeed, no extra nonsense. At first the government did not really want to hear them out.. The students didn’t stop though. They kept showing up , kept protesting, until eventually the government had to pay attention. Then the Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned, which is what the students had been demanding from the start. So yeah, it was a victory. The government also agreed to make adjustments to the exam system so it would be more fair and more secure. Students who had been affected by the leaked exams would get help as well. And the government agreed to drop all charges against the students who had been protesting peacefully.