Indian “cockroach” activist Sonam Wangchuk ended a 26-day hunger strike on Friday over an exam paper scandal that has spiralled into a wideranging youth-led protest against Narendra Modi’s government, with protesters continuing to call for the education minister to resign.
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Wangchuk said on social media that he ended the hunger strike in Delhi in the presence of two federal ministers at the urging of scores of members of parliament, and after “a long negotiation on various conditions and in view of possible violence in the country”. He did not elaborate on the talks but promised to lay out details in a video soon.
Protests under the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) movement have called for nationwide demonstrations on Friday in solidarity with students who alleged police brutality during a march on parliament on Monday by tens of thousands of people, even as Modi’s government urged them to join talks.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke thanked Wangchuk for his “courage and sacrifice” and said the protests would continue until minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned. “We won’t let Sonam sir’s sacrifice go in vain,” he added in a video message.
The CJP movement wants Pradhan to step down over exam paper leaks that affected 2 million students in May and have been linked to several student suicides.
Late on Tuesday, Pradhan, in his first comments since demands for his resignation were made, said the government was committed to addressing concerns and reforming exams.
The protests have drawn tens of thousands on to the streets, and represent the biggest youth challenge to Modi since he came to power in 2014. Opposition parties have echoed the youth movement’s demands and have disrupted the monsoon session of parliament that began this week.
On the ground at India’s ‘Cockroach’ protest
After Wangchuk ended his hunger strike, Modi urged the activist to follow doctors’ advice and regain the weight he has lost.
Thousands of people remained at the Jantar Mantar protest site on Thursday afternoon, carrying anti-government posters and chanting slogans amid heavy security deployment. The protests have shut metro stations and mobile internet services and curtailed business in central Delhi.
Protests also have spread to other cities, including Ranchi, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram and Kolkata, local media reported.
Authorities in Delhi shut down 16 metro rail stations on Thursday in and around the central parts of Delhi where the protesters have remained camped, inconveniencing thousands of commuters.
The government also ordered telecom firms to block mobile internet services in the area, sources told Reuters, a move that not only affected protesters but also stopped shops and restaurants receiving digital payments by phone.
The measures are widely seen by human rights groups as an attempt by authorities to curb protests and prevent any fresh outbreak of violence.
A supporter of India’s Cockroach Janata party (CJP) stands next to a graffiti of a cockroach holding a pen at the ongoing protest site at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters
Earlier on Thursday, Modi said that special courts would be set up to prosecute those behind exam paper leaks, his first public response to the crisis. “Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth!” Modi posted online.
But the CJP rejected the proposal, saying what courts do after paper leaks is just one aspect of the problem. “But Modi-ji, tell us why are paper leaks happening in this country in the first place?” CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said, using the Hindi honorific.
“Fast-track courts are set up in this country for every other issue, but whether those fast track courts have actually solved those issues – you know the answer to that question, and so do we.“
Later in the day, Modi said on social media that the government would announce more strict actions against paper leaks at a cabinet meeting on Friday.
Top Bollywood stars, including Salman Khan, Alia Bhatt and Kareena Kapoor, supported the protesters via social media posts, saying it was heartening to see students come together to fight for a cause. %!s()
At the peak of the June heatwave, the warmest June on record in England, all Tavia Watts could think about was how hot it was in her two- and five-year-old's bedroom - above 30C in some cases.
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"During the heatwave, I've got a high level of anxiety all the time and I'm pretty much useless," she told the BBC. "I've had to leave bedtime when my husband reads [my kids] stories to have a little cry and to calm down, because it's just too hot in their room and I'm afraid for them."
Feeling "incredibly helpless", the 36-year-old posted a short reel to her hundreds of followers on Instagram, in which she voiced her inner anxieties. To her surprise, it got more than 18,000 likes and 1,700 reposts.
In the video Tavia, a stay-at-home mum living in Cheltenham, says the heat "feels like the world is literally ending", she's "terrified for [her] children's lives", and that she "wants to scream at the people not taking this seriously".
Watts is not alone. A 2022 study from the University of Bath estimates that about 4.6% of people in the UK have climate anxiety, which is recognised as a form of mental distress by professional bodies and the NHS. Young people and women are among the groups most at risk, according to a study published in 2025.
"Anticipatory anxiety", related to heatwaves in particular, has become more common, say psychologists Dr Caroline Hickman from the University of Bath and Dr Emma Lawrance from the University of Oxford.
"Once people have been through a traumatic event like a flood or a heatwave, they anticipate the next one," Hickman, who offers therapy to individuals experiencing climate anxiety, told the BBC.
In the UK, "now we're getting the repeat, repeat, repeat [heatwaves]. It triggers that sense that 'I can't be safe in the world, and the world can't be trusted'," she added.
In June's heatwave, Hickman said she "had people saying they're going to kill themselves, I've had people saying they're going to terminate pregnancies, I've had people saying that they want to sell their houses and move somewhere cooler".
Watts said that her video "clearly struck a chord with people" - including therapists posting comments about coping mechanisms - and that she wanted to help others deal with climate anxiety.
"It can go one of two ways. You can either just fall into doomism and think, 'What is the point?'" she said.
"Or you can try to do something. I sign petitions during a heatwave; I organise climate community events; I run a free children's clothes swap shop. During the last heatwave, I finally became vegetarian, because then I can tell my kids at least I tried."
Lawrance had some recommendations on how to cope with climate anxiety:
Talk to others: There's often "a huge perception gap between how concerned people are about climate change, and how much they think other people care", said Lawrance - meaning you might wrongly assume that you're in the minority, or even that you're alone.
"Make space to be kind to yourself, to tend to those emotions and know that it's coming from a place of care for the world," she added.
Find a community: Lawrance recommended finding a strong social network who care about the same things, and taking positive action together.
Whether it's planting a garden in your school or putting solar panels on the roof of your business, action can not only help you channel your anxiety into something positive, but can help alleviate the symptoms of anxiety too.
Lawrance cited the Climate Psychology Alliance in the UK for further support, as well as groups like the Resilience Project, the Climate Cares Centre, and the Climate Majority Project.
Keep yourself cool: Your physical health also affects your mental health, and being hot can also make your anxiety and mood worse, Lawrance said - so she recommended making sure to keep yourself physically cool in extreme heat.
"Having a cool shower, putting a cold washer on your neck, making sure you're hydrated - all of those things will help physiologically as well," she said. "There's a lot we can do - we're not powerless." %!s()
Dave Green and Andrea Urmston found they instantly hit it off when their paths crossed while working in separate roles at Manchester Airport.
The two strangers got on so well they could complete each other's sentences - which made sense when they discovered the truth.
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Green was the adopted brother Urmston had not seen in more than 30 years.
"I was shaking, I was just shaking and my heart was pounding," Urmston told the BBC. "I'd finally found him. It's unbelievable."
In 2005, Green was managing the bus station at the airport and Urmston serviced the vending machines.
Over the next two years they became firm friends, texting and phoning each other when they were not at work.
One day during a phone call, Green told Urmston something he had never mentioned before. He was adopted and his birth name was Stuart Proudlove.
"I kind of froze and didn't speak for a minute," says Urmston. Her maiden name was Proudlove and she had a brother who was adopted before she was born.
"It's not a very popular name and it had to be him. Other than family, I had never heard that surname anywhere else," she added.
She immediately rang her mum, Susan, to check her long-lost brother's birth date. They matched: 24 March 1966. She called Stuart straight back.
"I said 'it's got to be you, it's got to be you', and I said 'I need to see you', and so I went to pick him up," Urmston said.
As they were driving to their mum's, Green realised where he was. They were driving along the bus route he used to cover before becoming a manager.
His old route had taken him right past his mum's house, and the school that Urmston had attended.
He had been within touching distance of his birth family without realising.
Susan finally meeting Green was a surreal moment. "There were lots of tears," said Urmston, "then we just all hugged."
"I couldn't believe that I'd got my brother and my mum together, it was amazing."
Urmston's mum had told her that she had a brother when she was younger.
She told her he had been given up for adoption and had gone to a lovely lady who could not have children of her own.
"I immediately wanted to go and call him so we could play," Urmston recalled. Susan said she had tried to find her son with the help of the Salvation Army, but hadn't got anywhere.
"I asked if we could go and get him back," Urmston said, "she did explain that it didn't work that way, so I promised her that I would find him for her one day."
Now they were finally being reunited.
"She had wanted that since being as young as I can remember," Urmston said, "so yeah, I gave her that. I promised her that."
On the mantlepiece in Susan's home was a picture of Green as a baby.
It had been sent by his adopted parents to his birth mother days after his adoption.
The same photograph had also been displayed in his adopted parents' house.
Green had known he was adopted since he was 10 years old - his adopted parents had shown him the paperwork.
But he says he had a very happy childhood, and had never harboured any desire to track down his birth mother.
"I didn't feel like I had to go searching or have any unanswered questions," said Green.
For all three, finding each other has been a life-changing experience.
"I went from having really not a lot of positivity in my life at the time, to finding out that my best friend was my sister," Green added.
"I'd found my birth mum being able to sort of make her truly happy. And I'd found a family really that I never really knew existed."
Their mum died recently, but both say they are glad she got to be reunited with her son.
"She was so desperate to find you to make sure you'd had a really good life," Urmston said.
For Urmston the reunion is bittersweet. She had longed to find her brother for years.
"My mum and dad, they separated unfortunately and so I went through a lot of hard times knowing [Dave] was out there but I didn't know [where]."
Both though now say they are making the most of the time they have together after moving in with each other in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire. It is, they say, their "lottery win". %!s()
A Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) supporter wearing a cockroach mask at a protest over irregularities in major public examinations in Delhi
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By
India correspondent
It began with a fear familiar to millions of young Indians: if the examinations that determine their future cannot be trusted, what can?
Weeks later, on Monday, tens of thousands of young men and women tried to march on India's parliament. Police responded with tear gas and baton charges. Thousands more have returned to the streets in the days since.
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a youth-led movement born out of anger over repeated examination paper leaks, has quickly become India's biggest student mobilisation in years.
It is demanding education reforms and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. At its centre is activist Sonam Wangchuk, who says he lost 11kg (24lb) during a 26-day hunger strike in support of the movement. He ended his fast late on Thursday, but student leaders say the protests will continue until their demands are met.
The obvious question is whether this is simply another student protest - or the beginning of something larger.
History offers reasons for both caution and optimism.
Student movements have periodically transformed Indian politics. The Nav Nirman agitation in Gujarat helped trigger veteran socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan's movement against former prime minister Indira Gandhi in the 1970s. Others have erupted dramatically before fading away.
Image source, Reuters
Image caption,
A protester hurls a tear gas canister back at police during a CJP march in Delhi
What makes the CJP unusual, however, is not simply its scale but the nature and breadth of its grievance.
Unlike many of the biggest protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government over the past decade - whether over citizenship, farm laws or other contentious policies - this movement is not fundamentally about ideology. Nor is it rooted in the interests of a single community or social group.
Instead, it questions whether the state can still guarantee fairness in the examination system that millions of young Indians see as their principal route to social mobility.
"The exam and education system cuts across caste, class and gender to quite a large degree," Yamini Aiyar, Senior Visiting Fellow at Brown University, told the BBC. "The core constituency coming to these protests doesn't represent a singular interest group."
That breadth is also what makes the movement politically distinctive.
"This movement centres on administrative failure," Rahul Verma, a fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, a Delhi-based think tank, told the BBC. "The state's inability to conduct examinations fairly and prevent paper leaks makes it a very different kind of political challenge to the BJP."
Why are thousands protesting for education reform in India?
The hunger-striking engineer demanding education reforms in India
That difference, he argues, changes the politics. Unlike earlier protests rooted in ideology or policy, this one questions the BJP's ability to govern. "They must recalibrate their strategy," Verma says.
Many of those protesting, he adds, are not natural opponents of the BJP.
They are "aspirational young Indians and their parents who see these exams as a path to upward mobility". Because the grievance is about governance rather than ideology, he argues, the BJP cannot easily rally its supporters or deploy the political counter-narratives that helped it confront earlier protest movements.
Image source, Reuters
Image caption,
An injured teenage protester rests in her mother's lap at Jantar Mantar, a day after thousands marched on parliament over exam paper leaks in Delhi
Monday's demonstrations appeared to reinforce that assessment.
For the past two weeks, comparisons with the anti-corruption movement of 2011 had largely centred on the CJP's impressive online reach, while sceptics questioned whether digital momentum could spill onto the streets. Monday's turnout suggested it could.
Joyojit Pal, a professor at the University of Michigan who studies technology and society, says social media has become "a tinderbox waiting to explode with the next thing", its speed and reach driven by emotion.
Long-simmering frustration over the state's lack of accountability created the conditions for this "implosion", he told the BBC, adding that the architecture of social media makes such eruptions likely to recur.
How exam scandals threaten the future of India's young people
The question now is whether that online surge has become something more enduring.
"I think Monday's gathering indicates this movement may have crossed a tipping point," Verma says. Whether it grows from here, he adds, will depend largely on how the government responds.
For Aiyar, Monday's protests revealed something equally significant. Student unions, Left groups and organisations such as the Bhim Army, a Dalit rights group, were present, but they were ultimately "outnumbered by an organic outpouring of students from all over the country".
"That's unique compared to any significant protest in India's recent history," she says.
Image source, Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Image caption,
Cockroach Janata Party founder Abhijeet Dipke during a sit-in at Jantar Mantar demanding the education minister's resignation
Just as significantly, Aiyar believes the movement has already outgrown the organisation that sparked it and Wangchuk's hunger strike.
"The catalyst may have been the CJP," she says, "but it became bigger than them."
Students came not only because of the state's handling of the protests, she argues, but because they wanted "a space and a site to express the deep frustration" they had been carrying for some time. "The memes, posters and slogans suggested grievances extending well beyond exam paper leaks."
After initially leaving the response to ministers and party spokespersons, the ruling BJP party's top leadership stepped in on Wednesday. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh accused the opposition of using students "as a political tool" while insisting the government remained committed to addressing their concerns through parliament.
Modi addressed the issue publicly for the first time on Thursday.
"Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth," he wrote on X, announcing fast-track courts to ensure "swift and stringent punishment" for those involved in paper leaks. "Those who try to harm the future of our youth will not be spared."
Whether those assurances will be enough to defuse the protests remains uncertain.
Aiyar believes the movement has tapped into broader anxieties over a slowing economy, scarce jobs and a deepening sense that the future offers diminishing opportunities.
Image source, AFP via Getty Images
Image caption,
Many believe the ongoing protests have tapped into wider public frustrations
"There is deep economic dissatisfaction and distress, which has translated into a lack of hope about the future," Aiyar says. "This could reflect growing exhaustion with a government that has been in power for a long time. Its failure to deliver on the promises it built its reputation on may have reached a tipping point."
For her, the protests are about far more than a single policy failure.
"The message from protesters is clear: we're exhausted. We need a new kind of politics, a new political grammar - one rooted in ideas and focused on governance and delivery."
Whether that frustration can be sustained as a political movement, however, is another question.
Political scientist Suhas Palshikar argues the Cockroach movement may simply provide an outlet for public anger before gradually losing steam, much like the farmers' protests.
"Where will the Cockroach movement go? Perhaps nowhere - it will allow venting of frustration and taper off," he wrote on X.
He also cautions against romanticising it as a Gen Z uprising.
"It would be a mistake to imagine a youth movement or a Gen Z movement - these are only convenient myths for commentators." The movement's "ideological and political character... is currently fluid", he argues, with different political forces likely to seek influence over it.
What the protesters have undeniably shown, he says, is a willingness to confront the state.
"The young have shown their angst and their disgust. They have borne the brunt of the democratic government's brutal police. They have also shown that only street action makes this regime... listen and talk."
Whether that energy can endure, Palshikar argues, will depend on many factors, including state repression, media blackouts, leadership challenges and the difficulty of building a broad social coalition.
Economist Surajit Mazumdar of Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University also believes the movement already points to something much larger than examination paper leaks.
Image source, AFP via Getty Images
Image caption,
Students participating in India's anti-corruption movement in 2011
"The current protest and the spontaneous response it has evoked is indicative of the widespread discontent of young people and students about the state of affairs in the country and in the education system which goes beyond the specific paper leak issue," he told the BBC.
Compared with earlier student mobilisations, he argues, the current movement appears "broader and larger in scale".
Mazumdar also rejects the idea that the protests are post-ideological. Like the farmers' movement before them, he says they show that "the democratic spirit is still alive in Indian society".
For Aiyar, that democratic impulse is already reshaping politics.
"People are seeking accountability for governance in sites that are non-electoral," Aiyar says. "The split between electoral legitimacy and democratic accountability outside electoral space is the new phenomenon of politics in India."
Whether that proves to be the defining legacy of the Cockroach Janta Party's protests - or merely a passing moment of public anger - will become clear only with time. %!s()
Indonesian babies were trafficked to Singapore. What happens to them now?
Figure caption,
Watch: A baby trafficking ring has been convicted - but what now for the babies?
ByTessa WongReporting fromSingapore and Astudestra AjengrastriReporting fromJakarta
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On Tuesday an Indonesian court convicted 19 people for baby trafficking, wrapping up a high-profile case - but leaving a key question unanswered.
The members of the trafficking syndicate were found guilty of procuring at least 34 babies and selling them for adoption.
Most of the children were bound for Singapore, and at least 12 babies were sent over.
The case has garnered attention in both countries for months. Now that it has ended, its verdict has sharpened the question of what will happen to the babies in Singapore.
Will they - and should they - return to Indonesia?
This is foremost in the minds of the adoptive parents in Singapore taking care of the babies. For months they have been on tenterhooks, waiting to find out whether they will get to keep their children.
Speaking to the BBC after the verdict, David, the Singaporean parent whom we interviewed previously, said he wanted both governments to make a decision soon.
"Since the case is concluded, how can we move on and what will happen to our son? It's been almost a year of fear and anxiety from waiting," said David, who spoke to us on condition we use a pseudonym for him.
"I sincerely hope that both authorities can come to a decision based on the best interests of the children.
"We respectfully ask that, in making this decision, consideration be given to the fact that both our son and our family are victims of the circumstances surrounding this case."
David and his wife Ally had previously told the BBC that they had no idea the child they adopted from Indonesia could have been trafficked. They said they had done their best to do their own background checks.
During the adoption process they had submitted to numerous checks from the Singaporean government which, they said, should have detected the trafficking.
Neither Indonesian nor Singaporean authorities gave definitive answers to the BBC's previous queries about what they intend to do with the babies.
Following the verdict, we asked them again.
Indonesia's foreign affairs ministry said "several aspects require further examination including the children's legal status, the identities of their biological parents, and the ongoing proceedings in Singapore".
It reiterated that it is "committed to prioritising the best interests of the children".
Singaporean authorities have yet to respond to our latest queries.
Image source, BBC Indonesian
Image caption,
Earlier this week a court in West Java found 19 people guilty of trafficking the babies
There is little data on what happens to children who have been trafficked within Indonesia after they are rescued, as the information is generally not made public, according to Ni Made Martini Puteri, a criminologist and lecturer at the University of Indonesia.
It is even less clear what happens to children who have been trafficked overseas.
Anti-trafficking and child rights groups in Indonesia have argued that the children in this case should return to their biological parents, as a matter of principle.
Speaking to BBC Indonesian after the verdict, Ai Maryanti, a commissioner with Indonesia's independent child protection commission, said that as the children's true identities have still not been established, their "best interests have not been given sufficient consideration".
Just because the children may already be adopted in Singapore, that "should not be treated as the final outcome", she added.
"Of course, children who are victims of human trafficking must be returned. Even if they're already adopted, what's the legal basis for that?
"What we don't want is Singapore saying that the adoptions complied with their law. According to our law, we found there was a high level of manipulation, resulting in Singapore easily accepting [the adoption applications]."
During the trial it emerged that the trafficking ring had submitted false information when applying for the infants' birth certificates and family cards.
They had listed the names of members of the trafficking ring as the children's birth mothers.
Local officials had issued the documents based on this information, raising questions about whether they failed to conduct adequate checks.
Uncharted territory
Annulling the adoptions in Singapore and returning the children to Indonesia will likely be complicated, as it goes into uncharted territory.
Lawyers told the BBC they had never heard of a case where an adoption order was revoked in Singapore.
With a framework that is designed with "substantial safeguards upfront" including numerous checks, "adoption orders in Singapore are generally treated as final", said Derek Choo, an associate director with PKWA Law Practice.
If the government applies to revoke the adoption orders, the court could consider several factors, said Lim Fung Peen, a consultant with Yuen Law.
One is the psychological impact on the child, he said. Child psychologists had previously told the BBC that separating young children from their caregivers could have a lifelong impact on their mental health.
The duration that the child has spent in Singapore, and the family and living conditions the child would return to in Indonesia, could also be considered, according to Lim.
The babies are believed to have entered Singapore between 2023 and 2025, which makes the oldest among them at least three years old by now.
Another factor could be whether the basis of adoption is untrue, said Lim. In this case, the babies' birth certificates have been proven to be fraudulent and thus a court could find the basis of their adoption "questionable", he said.
Then, there are other challenges.
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
At least 12 babies are believed to be in Singapore already (file picture)
Indonesian authorities still have not identified all of the children's birth parents. This means that some children may have no one to return to.
If they are returned, they would be placed into state care. At least eight other babies rescued from the trafficking ring are already in the care of an orphanage in Bandung.
"Suppose a child is recognised as a trafficking victim and returned to Indonesia, but nobody here knows who the biological parents are because our evidentiary system is weak," said Puteri.
"I would argue that if the child has only known life in Singapore since infancy, then it makes more sense for the child to remain in Singapore with the adoptive parents.
"However, if the biological parents are later identified, the child should still have the right to know who they are."
With the verdict, Singapore should now treat these children as victims of trafficking and thus give them protection, she argued.
"Protection should also extend to the adoptive parents because they too may have had no idea what had happened," she added.
David, the Singaporean parent, said that he and his wife only wish to "live a normal family life, like any other couple hoping to raise a child in a safe, stable, and loving home.
"We hope that this matter can now be brought to a resolution so that our son can move forward with certainty and security."
Additional reporting by Farida Susanty of BBC Indonesian.%!s()
Image source, AFP via Getty Images
Image source, Reuters
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Image source, Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Image source, AFP via Getty Images
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Image source, BBC Indonesian
Image source, Getty Images