On one recent trip, I snapped at my eight-year-old son. What he said to my husband and me a few minutes later took us completely by surprise. And it has been coming back to me often ever since.

I had just had an argument with a staff member at a food outlet. We were getting back into the car, but my son was a little slow getting in. He was about to ask me a question when I snapped, “Why don’t you ever listen to what I tell you to do?” My husband, trying to help, added curtly, “Chittu, listen to Amma.”

About five minutes into the drive, my son, holding back tears, quietly asked, “You and Amma said I didn’t listen to what you were saying. What did I not listen to?”

We were both taken aback. The truth was he had not done anything wrong. It was just my own displaced frustration from my conversation with the staff member.

What was remarkable and even embarrassing was the clarity of his question. In those few minutes, he must have replayed the interaction in his mind and arrived at that simple, logical question. He wasn’t being argumentative or disrespectful. And he was right — we did not have an answer.

Lately, this question comes back to me whenever I watch young people question decisions they believe are unfair. It makes me wonder whether what we are witnessing is a profound shift in how the next generation relates to authority. While we discuss their slang, their memes, and their digital habits, perhaps language is the least interesting thing about this generation. The real shift here is not linguistic; it is about values.

Gen Z has grown up with greater access to information than any generation before them. Many more than in the previous generations have been raised by parents who, less consumed by fight for survival, were able to encourage self-expression and confidence. The language they grew up with is one of rights, dignity, authenticity, mental health, inclusion, and accountability.

Given this background, it is but natural that they are going to be less quietly deferential to authority and institutions as the millennials and the generation before them. They recognise trauma patterns at home. They are going to call out toxic workspaces and unreasonable bosses. The ideals of accountability and transparency, once discussed in aspirational terms in public administration textbooks, have moved to everyday expectations citizens have of their civic institutions.

This has implications for our public service delivery mechanisms.

Preparing institutions

If institutions are to reflect the values of the next generation, the place to begin is with the everyday experience of citizens.

A birth certificate should be issued for the 25 rupees it is meant to cost. Every child should have access to a nearby municipal park to play in the evenings. Becoming a homeowner should not require navigating a maze of middlemen to secure building permission, electricity or water connections. Buying an apartment should come with the assurance that it has been built to code. A visit to a police station or government office should not be accompanied by apprehension or the need to know someone who knows someone. A visit to a government hospital should not leave patients wondering whether the doctor will show up. Pursuing a business idea, big or small, should not mean navigating a myriad of palms to grease. A land title should actually mean something — not merely until someone chooses to encroach upon it.

A choreography

Where procedures remain dependent on delay, discretion, and middlemen, graft is not chaos. It is choreography. A choreography that previous generations often resigned themselves to, but one that the next generation is far more likely to question.

There are many proposals for deeper institutional reform. But we can begin with something simpler, and perhaps more transformative: placing citizens at the centre of public service delivery.

Beyond fixing systems, we need a shift in mindset so that an ordinary citizen can secure what is already theirs — not as a favour, but as a matter of right.

My son’s question still echoes in my mind. “What did I not listen to?” To me, it was a question that exposed the gap between authority and fairness.

We are witnessing a generational shift in how citizens relate to authority.

The real challenge with Gen Z isn’t learning their language — it’s adapting to what they value. Accountability and transparency are no longer aspirations (they are expectations). Public service must now be designed for citizens who will no longer accept opacity, delay, discretion or graft as inevitable.

(Views are personal)

innusarma@gmail.com