{"id":261659,"date":"2023-09-25T21:09:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T15:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=261659"},"modified":"2023-09-25T21:09:24","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T15:39:24","slug":"taking-india-back-to-the-drawing-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/taking-india-back-to-the-drawing-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking India back to the drawing board"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cIndia and the great power contest in West Asia\u201d <\/strong>published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/strong>on 25th September 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Polity<\/p>\n

Relevance- Issues related to delimitation process<\/strong><\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, which promises 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha, and in the Legislative Assemblies of States sheds the spotlight on the delimitation of electoral constituencies.<\/p>\n

What are past delimitation exercises taken by the government?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Since the 1970s, the number of Lok Sabha seats has remained unchanged. The Constitution (Forty-Second Amendment) Act of 1976<\/strong> froze the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies based on the 1971 Census, up until the Census 2001. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2001, this deadline was extended to 2026 through an amendment to Article 82 by the Constitution (Eighty-Fourth Amendment) Act.\u00a0 <\/strong>Boundaries of electoral constituencies were redrawn in 2002. But, the total number of Lok Sabha seats remained the same.<\/p>\n

What are issues in conducting a fresh delimitation?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The freeze on delimitation- <\/strong>It was imposed in 1976 to address the concerns of states<\/strong> actively involved in population control<\/strong>. They were facing the possibility of a reduction in their Lok Sabha seats.<\/p>\n

The allocation based on the 1971 Census remains unchanged despite India’s significant population growth<\/strong> since then.<\/p>\n

Using 1971 figures to represent the present population contradicts the principles of the Constitution and distorts the essence of representative democracy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Issues related to federalism and the representation of states- <\/strong>The northern states have experienced faster population growth<\/strong> compared to the southern states.<\/p>\n

This means that Members of Parliament (MPs) from northern states represent more voters than their counterparts in the south.<\/p>\n

The delimitation has significant implications<\/strong> for both individual voters and states. Southern states may potentially lose some of their parliamentary seats once the delimitation exercise <\/strong>is completed based on current population figures.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Population data for the delimitation- <\/strong>The 2021 Census was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Union Home Minister has indicated that the next Census and subsequent delimitation<\/strong> will take place after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.<\/p>\n

Recent examples-<\/strong> The recent delimitation process in Assam highlighted widespread concerns about altering district boundaries and renaming constituencies<\/strong>, potentially impacting the representation of specific communities.<\/p>\n

For more reading- Delimitation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cIndia and the great power contest in West Asia\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 25th September 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Polity Relevance- Issues related to delimitation process News– The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, which promises 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha, and… Continue reading Taking India back to the drawing board<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"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":[212,225,10498],"class_list":["post-261659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-polity","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\/261659","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\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}