How proposed women's reservation Bills could affect the delimitation process, Pg18

Key Highlights:

• The government proposes three Bills to expedite 33% women's reservation in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, potentially by 2029.
• The Bills aim to amend the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, establish a new Delimitation Commission, and extend reservation to Union Territories with legislative assemblies.
• The proposed changes aim to bypass the original requirement linking women's reservation to the delimitation exercise after the next Census.
• The Delimitation Bill mandates readjustment of constituencies based on the latest Census figures (likely 2011 Census).

Detailed Insights:

• The core issue revolves around concerns from Southern parties regarding potential reduction in their Lok Sabha seats due to slower population growth compared to northern states.
• The Constitutional Amendment Bill seeks to amend Article 82, removing the necessity for delimitation after each Census, potentially using the 2011 Census data for delimitation.
• Article 81 of the Constitution mandates that the ratio between the number of seats allocated to each state and its population should be the same for all states, adhering to the "one person, one vote, one value" principle.
• The current freeze on delimitation is a result of amendments in 1976 and 2001, which froze the definition of "last preceding census" to the 1971 Census for seat allocation, extended until after the first census after 2026.
• The Bills are silent on the specific population figures to be used for delimitation, despite earlier indications of a 30% increase in seats for all states.
• The journey towards women's reservation began in 1987 with the National Perspective Plan for Women, followed by the 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts in 1993 mandating reservation in Panchayati Raj Institutions and urban local bodies.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Delimitation: The process of redrawing boundaries of parliamentary or assembly constituencies to represent changes in population.
• Census: A periodic count of a country's population, gathering demographic and socio-economic data.
• Constitutional Amendment: A modification to the constitution of a nation or state.