This article explores the role of education in marginalised young people’s aspirations for aage badhna (forward movement). Drawing on ethnographic research in rural Chhattisgarh, central India, we show how young people’s orientations toward a desired future remain anchored in education, even when possibilities for education-related forward movement become unattainable. The way in which aspirations are translated into locally viable outcomes, we suggest, is inextricably linked to the structural limitations that prevent access to education’s more expansive opportunities and that underpin the possibility of falling behind. Focusing on how young people and their parents navigate this tension, we examine their attachment to the idea that education is necessary to get ahead, even as they fail to access its promised benefits. We suggest that a relational approach is critical to this understanding and argue that the way in which young people frame (and reframe) their aspirations must be understood in relation to both peers and parents, but also in relation to the central role that education plays in viable alternative pathways.

本文探讨了教育在边缘化年轻人对Aage Badhna的渴望中的作用（向前移动）。借助印度中部恰蒂斯加尔邦农村地区的人种学研究，我们表明，即使无法实现与教育有关的前进运动，年轻人对理想的未来的取向如何仍以教育为基础。我们建议，将愿望转化为本地可行成果的方式与结构性限制有着千丝万缕的联系，这些结构性限制阻碍了获得更多教育机会的机会，并为落后的可能性提供了基础。着眼于年轻人及其父母如何克服这种紧张局势，我们考察了他们对教育是取得成功所必需的想法的依恋，即使他们无法获得其承诺的收益。