Imagine you do not eat anything for three weeks. Your body starts to use the fat it has stored. You lose a lot of weight more than ten percent of your body weight. Your lips become very dry. Your organs are under a lot of strain but you still do not give up.
This is not a move from the past. It is happening now in New Delhi, the capital of India.
The Jantar Mantar protest site in New Delhi has become a place where tens of thousands of students are in a big confrontation with the government. It started because students were upset about leaks in exams and problems with the system. Now it has become a big hunger strike that is going on for a long time. If you care about the future of education around the world and how it is. If you care about students being able to make their voices heard then you need to know what is happening right now.
The Reason It Started: From Leaks In Exams To Not Eating At All
The thing that started all of this was when student groups got together on June 20 2026 because they were upset about problems with the system and corruption in exams, like the NEET-UG.
When Sonam Wangchuk, a known engineer and environmentalist from Ladakh teamed up with students from JNU, AUD and Allahabad University the movement started to get a lot of attention from everyone. They decided to go on a hunger strike demanding that the Union Education Minister quit his job and that the whole examination system be changed completely.
The Midnight Crackdown
As the protest went on for than three weeks things started to get really tense. On July 18 the Delhi Police suddenly came to the protest site in the hours of the morning. They said they were worried about security because the Parliament Monsoon Session was coming up so they forcibly removed Sonam Wangchuk from the site. Took him to Safdarjung Hospital under tight security.
What happens when a leader is taken away from a movement that is not controlled by one person? It usually makes the movement stronger. After Sonam Wangchuk was taken to the hospital, Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party started a hunger strike right at the protest site.
"Wangchuk is Not Alone":
The Fight Gets Stronger with a lot of police presence and orders that do not allow more than five people to gather the people at Jantar Mantar are still determined to keep fighting.
Doctors who are volunteering at the camp are worried because many protesters are still on a hunger strike. At least 21 of them have not eaten for a time and are showing signs of serious health problems.
The Main Demands
The protesters are clear about what they want:
* They want the people in charge of the education ministry to take responsibility for not being able to keep the exams safe.
* They want the exam system to be completely transparent and secure.
* They want to have a conversation with the government about their demands.
From his hospital bed Sonam Wangchuk is still refusing to take any fluids or medicine until the government agrees to talk about the problems with the education system in Parliament.
What We Can Learn From This
The hunger strike at Jantar Mantar shows that there is a problem with trust between the young people and the system that is supposed to help them. As the protest moves towards Parliament it is a reminder that the problems with the system cannot be solved by ignoring them.
Movements, like this need people to know about them and talk about them. Do you think going on a hunger strike is still a way to bring about change or do we need to find other ways? Let us know what you think in the comments.