Introducing the Pehli Peedi Fellowship

Tracking Indian Youth

At the Future of India Foundation, we are committed to amplifying the experiences and voices of young people in our public discourse and decision-making. Fewer than 3 in 10 college-age Indians attend college today. Among them, pehli peedi - first-generation college students - stand at the sharpest edge of India’s social and economic transformation. Their journeys are marked by both aspiration and adversity, and we deeply respect their drive to build a better future.

The Pehli Peedi Fellowship is our effort to centre their experiences and bring visibility to the structural barriers they confront: financial pressures, lack of social capital, unfamiliar academic environments, and the absence of tailored support systems. Higher education can be difficult terrain for anyone - but for pehli peedi students, it often means navigating an entirely new world alone.

Yet despite these challenges, their stories are also ones of resilience and achievement. These young people carry not just their own dreams, but also the hopes of their families and communities. Their success has the potential to transform lives far beyond their own.

While 65% of India’s population is under the age of 35, access to higher education and professional opportunities continues to be shaped by class, caste, and geography. Through this fellowship, we aim to go beyond data points - to give our pehli peedi students a platform to share their voices, reflect on their journeys, and offer the country a deeper understanding of what it takes to build a more inclusive and equitable future.

This is an ongoing effort to listen, document, and learn - from the everyday experiences of India’s first-generation learners.