Life at 25 in India and China: money worries, hard work and no plans for family | India

India has become the world’s most populous country, according to the United Nations’ latest projections, knocking China off the top spot for the first time since the UN began keeping records.

Both countries are facing significant demographic challenges, be it dealing with the legacy of a disastrous one-child policy and ageing population or working out how to take advantage of a booming youth cohort while managing huge disparities in the growth rates of different states.

We asked two 25-year-olds – one from each country – about their lives and aspirations.

 

‘I don’t have time for myself’

 

Xue Pengyu, 25, Tianjin, China

For Xue Pengyu, his life is his work. As a teaching assistant at an arts college in his home city of Anyang, a small city in Henan, a poor, northern province, he lives on campus alongside his students, who aren’t much younger than himself.

When 25-year-old Xue left high school seven years ago, he moved to Tianjin, a satellite city of Beijing, to study graphic design. Tianjin’s population is more than double the size of Anyang’s, and it is only around 30 minutes by train from the capital. After graduating from university Xue stayed in Tianjin and got a job working in a preschool. He hoped to stay there, or move to another big city, but the disruption of the pandemic forced him to return home.

His living situation makes it hard to find a girlfriend. He doesn’t want to date a colleague and the job itself is all consuming. “The kids are in their rebellious period, so I need to take care of their emotions, monitor their behaviour and arrange study tasks for them,” he says. “Basically, I don’t have time for myself except for eating and sleeping.”

Xue’s income also limits his options. Although Anyang is a relatively cheap city, and his accommodation is provided by his school, his salary of about 3,000 yuan (£349.78) a month is “enough for myself” but “not enough to support having a family”. But he is sanguine about the future: the job has the potential for promotion, and he thinks it will keep him satisfied for at least the next three years.

And Xue reckons he is better off than his friends who moved to big cities such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen in the south, or Shanghai on the east coast. “The salaries there are still not enough to build a family. For them, the distance to starting a family is even further.”

For now, Xue isn’t thinking about having children. He is relaxed about his lifestyle, but having a child would be a “big burden … and I like to do whatever I want. I don’t want to be confined at home and having to look after a child. I would get annoyed by it.

“When I worked in preschool education, some of the kids were really cute, and I kind of wanted my own child. However my desire to have a child went down after I considered reality.”

 

‘I’m growing and developing but it’s slow’

 

Ranjan Kujur, 25, Jharkhand, India

Ranjan Kujur’s biggest break in life came when his aunt recognised that he was a bright boy, but would have little opportunity in his small village of Raintoli in Jharkhand state. Kujur’s father was unemployed, his mother had had no education, the village school was a shed.

He went to stay with his aunt in the city of Ranchi when he was six years old and attended the local school. The move spared him from rural poverty. The local school gave him a decent grounding and city life provided him with exposure to a more vibrant world.

Kujur became interested in dancing. After working odd jobs for a year, he plucked up the courage to join a dance class. The coach found him so talented that he waived the fees. “I feel free when I dance. It’s my life and I love it,” Kujur says.

With his eyes set firmly on Bollywood he wants to do a three-year dance diploma in Mumbai but it costs around £500 a month, far beyond his means. His average monthly income is 16,000 rupees (£160) and while it’s enough for his daily needs (his aunt does not ask him to pay rent), it is not enough for college.

“I’m growing and developing but it’s slow. I have to focus on working even harder and saving the money for this diploma which will open up all sorts of opportunities for me.”

Until he has finished the diploma, he refuses to think of marriage or starting a family – “I’m still young!” he says. He says he doesn’t have time for a girlfriend either right now.

“Of course I will get married one day but only when I’m settled. There is a lot of competition in dancing so I need to be really, really good to get anywhere.”

Kujur spends most of his time practising for video clips that YouTube dance channels commission from him occasionally, teaching classes and going to homes to provide tuition, mostly Bollywood or hip hop. His day rarely ends before 8pm.

“My parents never thought there would be a dancer in the family and it’s not the work they had in mind but I don’t ask them for money. They can see how hard I’m working to make something of myself,” he says.

Additional research by Chi Hui Lin