{"id":198224,"date":"2022-08-01T18:21:54","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T12:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=198224"},"modified":"2022-08-01T18:22:32","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T12:52:32","slug":"representation-all-the-way-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/representation-all-the-way-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Representation, all the way up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article \u201cRepresentation, all the way up\u201d<\/strong> published in the \u201cThe Hindu\u201d<\/strong> on 1st<\/sup> August 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS 2 Issues and Challenges Pertaining to the Federal Structure, Devolution of\u202fPowers and Finances up to Local Levels and Challenges Therein.<\/p>\n

Relevance: L<\/strong>ocal Self Government; Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs)<\/p>\n

News: <\/strong>Recently, Droupadi Murmu, an Adivasi woman from a humble background, was sworn in as the 15th President of India<\/strong>.\u00a0It has become possible due to various constitutional reforms after independence. The article highlights some major reforms and analyses them.<\/p>\n

The 73rd and 74th Amendments<\/strong> towards democratic decentralisation<\/strong> has played a key role in diversifying representation in politics.<\/p>\n

Merits of the Constitutional Reform<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The reforms mandated the creation of rural and urban local governments with functions, funds, and functionaries. It enabled them to function as \u201cinstitutions of self-government\u201d <\/strong>at the local level across the country.<\/strong> These reforms were aimed to meet the stated ends of economic development <\/strong>and social justice.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

These amendments signaled a realisation of a long-held vision of Mahatma Gandhi and his followers to make the village the core unit of governance.<\/p>\n

These reforms have provided Intersectional reservation, <\/strong>which refers to reservation for SC Women, ST Women and OBC Women. <\/strong>It mandates the reservation of seats <\/strong>to members belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs<\/strong>) and STs, <\/strong>in the elected councils<\/strong> of Panchayats and Municipalities. Further, a minimum of one-third of seats have to be reserved for women.<\/p>\n

Such reservation has succeeded in broadening the representative character <\/strong>of the Indian state by increasing the total number of elected representatives and diversifying its constituents.<\/p>\n

In fact, some states have gone beyond the Constitutional mandate by increasing women\u2019s reservations from 33% to 50% and introducing reservations for OBCs.<\/p>\n

Issues in the local-self-governance<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Despite 30 years of these constitutional reforms, the local governments have still not become powerful \u201cunits of self-government\u201d. The reasons include:<\/p>\n

(1) There are issues in the design and the implementation of the Constitutional Amendments.<\/p>\n

(2) The expansion of the reservation to other social bases has been relatively ignored in academic and policy debates.<\/p>\n

(3) The judiciary has been quite sceptical about diversifying representation<\/strong> in local governments, like OBC reservation in local government elections.<\/p>\n

The Judiciary has upheld various amendments that prescribed educational qualifications<\/strong> for contesting local body elections on the ground that it is for the \u201cbetter administration of the panchayats\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(4) Some believe that reservations in local governments do not substantially benefit the marginalised groups. For example, women are sometimes proxies for their husbands in reserved constituencies.<\/p>\n

What should be done?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Empirical studies have shown that women-led panchayats <\/strong>invest more in public goods, prioritize infrastructure more relevant for women, and increase women\u2019s involvement in village affairs.<\/p>\n

The SC has given direction that diversifying reservations to OBC should be justified by \u201cempirical findings\u201d of backwardness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article \u201cRepresentation, all the way up\u201d published in the \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 1st August 2022. Syllabus: GS 2 Issues and Challenges Pertaining to the Federal Structure, Devolution of\u202fPowers and Finances up to Local Levels and Challenges Therein. Relevance: Local Self Government; Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) News: Recently, Droupadi… Continue reading Representation, all the way up<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10308,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-198224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}