The Research, Evidence and Narrative Development Unit

Civic intelligence for young India, by young India

TREND is Youth Ki Awaaz's cultural research and evidence-building unit. We build a living record of what young India thinks, feels and asks – using an unorthodox mix of polling, citizen discourse analysis, qualitative research and narrative-making. Every day, more than 40,000 young people across the country respond to our questions; their responses sit alongside an eighteen-year archive of over 1,20,000 pieces of citizen writing. Together, they create something no single survey can: a continuously growing evidence base on a generation, built by that generation – helping us understand the opinions, stories, anxieties, contradictions and cultural shifts.

For us, research is participatory: every question answered or raised contributes to a shared record of young India. The questions, data and insights we produce are a public resource – a commons of curiosity.

40,000+ Young Indians on Yoot every day
2,00,000+ Poll responses
18 Years of citizen writing
32,000+ Personal testimonies
3,000+ Questions asked

Research Infrastructures
Polling

Yoot

A WhatsApp-native polling community of over 2,00,000 young Indians, reaching deep into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, contributing more than 40,000 responses a day on health, education, work, relationships, money, cities, climate, safety, and the futures they expect.

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Discourse

CHORUS

A discourse-analysis framework built on Youth Ki Awaaz’s archive of 1,20,000+ citizen-written articles spanning eighteen years, with over 12,000 analysed in depth so far – tracking how young people’s arguments, language and concerns have shifted across nearly two decades.

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Presentations & Publications

The Shape of Questions

A living, public archive of the questions young Indians carry – drawn from more than 3,000 asked on Yoot, curated and growing every month. Each question holds the answers of hundreds or thousands of young citizens. Explore it freely, and write to us for the fuller dataset behind any question.

Interactive · Yoot data

The Undercurrent

A monthly digest of what young Indians are saying. Each edition brings together data from the month’s most answered polls, citizen voices in their own words, and a careful account of what the patterns suggest.

Writings · Yoot data · CHORUS

Research Briefs

Published reports on elections, data protection, artificial intelligence, sustainable consumption, climate and public safety – evidence built from citizen responses, used in policy conversations and public discourse.

Reports

Supporters & Partners

Supported by

We have built insights and evidence with UNDP India, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the National Institute of Urban Affairs, MSL, Vidhi, YLAC, The Trinity Challenge, Superheroes Against Superbugs, Quest Alliance, the Boston Consultancy Group, Centre for Men and Boys, Agami, Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, KOAN, among others.


Join Yoot

Be part of India's largest youth polling community on WhatsApp. Answer questions about the life you are actually living, and watch your response become part of a permanent public record built by young citizens.

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Collaborate with us

If your decisions touch young Indians – in policy, philanthropy, product, media, or the AI systems now entering their lives – begin from what they are actually saying. We design and field original studies, share and license our data, build interactive dashboards from it, and work alongside partners as the evidence develops.

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