As the afternoon sun beat down on Jantar Mantar on 21 June, Shubam, wireless microphone in hand, weaved his way through hundreds of protesters who had gathered in response to the Cockroach Janta Party's (CJP) protest call.
The demonstrators are demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak and other student-related controversies.
Close behind Shubam was Tiwari, his cameraman, filming the proceedings on a smartphone mounted on a handheld rig. The duo spent the day moving through the crowd, interviewing participants and documenting the protest for their online audience.
“We launched a YouTube channel on 6 June, the day the first protest of CJP was held. We are building up gradually,” Shubam tells Live Mint as he moves on to the other interview of the day.
The CJP has so far organised nine protests since 6 June.
Inside the high-security compound designated for protests in central Delhi, Cockroach Janta Party supporters seemed fewer in number than the content creators who had turned up to cover the protest in the first few hours. Equipped with smartphones on selfie sticks and portable camera mounts, content creators moved through the crowd, filming the demonstration and interviewing protesters.
Shubam is one in the many. “We have over 3 lakh followers on Facebook. We will soon be on YouTube soon. The monetisation has also started on Facebook,” said Meraj Ahmad, originally from Purnia in North Bihar. Meraj who runs the ‘news’ page ‘Meraj News’ is accompanied by his cousin Irshad who does the camera handling job. The two live in Trilokpuri and do this for their living for last few months.
In the past few years, a thriving ecosystem of independent, private, journalist-led YouTube channels has emerged in India, offering an alternative to legacy television media. The shift is led by big names from the media industry who have launched prominent YouTube channels. The rising number of content creators was evident at the CJP protest too. While mainstream media channels were scarce, small-time content creators were everywhere, some recording videos, others doing live interviews.
Adarsh, who worked with a satellite channel before starting Janpath News, an independent YouTube channel is also present at the protest. “I think this protest had potential to attract social media audience. But since the event has been flat without not much happening, so we have not been getting much views,” he told LiveMint at Jantar Mantar on Saturday.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, a political communications strategist and Boston University student, had urged supporters on social media to bring plates and spoons on Saturday. Delhi police had allowed him to protest till 5 pm but he announced last minute that the protest will continue. By 5 PM on Saturday, police evicted most of those present.
“The movement these influencers leave, no body will stay here,” a cop quipped at the venue.
Dipke and a few hundred others stayed back and spent the night the protest site. Early morning on Sunday, Peek TV, a prominent independent video platform run by two former TV journalists were the first to interview Dipke at the site. He thanked the Delhi Police for allowing water and food inside the protest site. Last night, Dipke and his fellow protestors had alleged that the police had cut electricity and prevented people from taking water inside.
The protest is happening on a day when thousands of students are appearing for NEET 2026 reexam. The paper for a nationwide medical program was leaked last month through social media app Telegram. Authorities subsequently postponed the exam and also temporarily banned Telegram in India. The government has said the leak is under investigation.
The movement emerged in May, after Supreme Court Chief Justice Surya Kant’s remarks comparing some unemployed youth to “cockroaches” triggered outrage. Supporters embraced the term as a symbol of resilience, helping the group amass more than 22 million followers on Instagram.
The movement’s message has since expanded to include concerns over unemployment, rising living costs and government accountability.
There is no single official count of these creators in India because different reports define ‘influencer’ differently, depending on followers, platform, and activity levels. The most commonly cited estimates, however, puts India's influencer/creator ecosystem at around 4 million people.
The India Influencer Marketing Report 2025 by by The Goat Agency (WPP) & Kantar estimated 40.6 lakh (4.06 million) influencers in India, up 322 per cent since 2020.
A May 2025 report, ‘From Content to Commerce: Mapping India’s Creator Economy’ by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), quantified the scale, influence, and economic potential of India’s burgeoning creator economy. With over 2–2.5 million monetised content creators influencing more than $350–400 billion in consumer spending, the ecosystem is projected to drive $1 trillion+ in creator-influenced consumption by 2030, according to the report.
The report highlights that India is home to 2-2.5 million active digital creators, defined as individuals with over 1,000 followers.
“Despite the scale, only 8–10 percent of them currently monetise their content effectively, underscoring the untapped potential of this fast-growing sector. The creator ecosystem’s direct revenues, estimated at $20–25 billion today, are projected to reach $100–125 billion by the end of the decade,” says the BCG report that was releaseded at WAVES 2025 in Mumbai on 3 May 2025. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the event.
While there are creators across platforms, only a small fraction operate in news, politics, and public affairs content, where independent digital influencers increasingly rival traditional media outlets in audience reach.
The ecosystem is expanding beyond Gen Z and metropolitan centres, reaching varied age groups and city tiers, the BCG report said, adding that short-form video remains the dominant content format, with comedy, films, daily soaps, and fashion being the most consumed genres.
At the Jantar Mantar protest on Saturday, a senior journalist who now works with a social media platform said his coverage of the 6 June protest had millions of views and generated over $1800 in revenue. “Usually, there is a viewership for these protests abroad. That is what most of these content creators are here for,” the journalist explained to LiveMint.
(With agency inputs)
