The constitution (one hundred and Twenty Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, introduced in Lok Sabha in the new Parliament building on September 19, and almost unanimously legislated into an Act of Parliament on September 20, reserves one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha, state legislative assembles and the assembly of Delhi NCR state, for women. However this historic legislation approved by all major political parties is an elaborate exercise in prevarication.
Under s. 5 of the Amendment Act, the Union government has to first decree a Census of India pending since 2011. After that there has to be delimitation, i.e, redrawing of Lok Sabha constituency lines on the basis of population data disclosed by the new census. These are elaborate, time-consuming exercises stretching into years, if not decades.
Under the Census Act, 1948, a nationwide census is obliged to be conducted after interregnums of ten years because it not only records population growth (or decline) in several constituencies, but it’s also “an attractive source of data for scholars and researchers in demography, economics, anthropology, sociology, statistics and many other disciplines. The rich diversity of India’s people is indeed revealed by the decadal census, which has become a tool for understanding and studying India,” says the website of the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner under the Union ministry of home affairs. But for mysterious reasons, it has not been conducted for the past two years.
Moreover delimitation, i.e, redrawing electoral constituency lines scheduled to be completed after the next census, is likely to prove even more time consuming. A Delimitation Commission needs to be constituted under a special Act of Parliament to redraw boundary lines based upon the population data provided by the census. And since the number of representatives in the Lok Sabha is based on the principle of one-man-one-vote, states whose population has increased since Census 2011 will be awarded greater representation in this apex legislative body. Conversely, representation of states with better governance and education which results in falling birth rates will be reduced. This is certain to lead to long discussion and arguments which will delay the delimitation process. The southern states which have directly or indirectly practiced family planning will suffer reduced representation in the Lok Sabha. This is unlikely to be acceptable to them.
Instead of these prolonged processes, surely it makes more sense for political parties to issue tickets to a larger proportion of women? That’s the route taken by most European countries to eliminate gender disparities in their parliaments. Since all parties except one voted in favour of the Women’s Reservation Act, they could pass resolutions to mandate that one-third of their Lok Sabha and state assembly party candidates should be women. That they prefer the long route indicates prevarication intent.
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