Crucial Policy Reforms Needed to Awaken Indian Democracy

Author : Arish Rajan Contributors : Megha Narkhede & Vinaya

Policy Changes Required to Improve the Indian Electoral System

Click on the Light Blue Boxes to see Full Details about each of these 7 Points.

ISSUE 7 In Certain States, Voter ID Card is used as Sole Proof Document valid for many important activities – e.g. as Domicile proof document

ISSUE 5 Today, our Voter Lists contain Large Number of Bogus Voters

ISSUE 6 Very Complicated boundaries of Constituencies

ISSUE 3Vidhan Sabha Seats created by Mixing up Urban and Rural areas

ISSUE 2 Lok Sabha Seats created by Mixing up Urban and Rural areas

ISSUE 1 Indian Cities are NOT getting their rightful share of seats in

• Lok Sabha (At National Level) • Vidhan Sabha (At State Level).

ISSUE 4Failure of Rajya Sabha to Effectively Represent the State Level Aspirations/Needs of people.

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The Delimitation of Lok Sabha seats was done as per 2001 census and is now frozen.

At that time India’s Urban population was only 27.8% of total population.

So, Only around 150 seats were allocated to Urban areas.

Issue 1 - Indian Cities are NOT Getting their Rightful share of Seats in Lok Sabha

India is rapidly urbanizing. Urban population will become 50 percent of Indian population in 2039.

After 2039, Urban population will Overtake Rural population in India.

It will then deserve more than 270 seats instead of current 150 seats.

Too many people packed in 1 Urban Seat

Too Few People in 1 Rural Seat

But the next delimitation is scheduled to happen only by 2037-8.

So, in the time interval, before this Delimitation, the cities are getting heavily discriminated.

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Issue 1 - Indian Cities are NOT Getting their Rightful share of Seats in Lok Sabha

The below table shows how unfair the situation is for Indian Cities at National Level (Lok Sabha).

2001(Census)

2011(Census)

2021(Projected)

2031(Projected)

2039(Projected)

(A) Percentage of Population in Cities

27.8% 31.2% 36.0% 43.0% 50.0%

(B) Seats that should be Allocated to Cities = 543 *A/100

151 169 195 233 272

Example Scenario: In 2035, the Indian Cities will deserve 260+ seats but they would have only 150 seats.

This is a Huge Gap of 110 seats. It will have a massive impact on the country’s governance.

This discrepancy of 110 seats will decide who will become the Prime Minister.

It will have a decisive impact on the type of policies followed by the government.

This problem is further aggravated by the issue covered in Problem 2.

Lok Sabha seats are being created by mixing 1-2 Urban Vidhan Seats with 4-5 Rural Vidhan sabha seats. Thus the voice of Urban citizens is overwhelmed by putting a much larger rural population in the same Lok Sabha seat.

Due to this the Actual number of Urban Lok Sabha seats is Not 150, it is Only around 50 to 60 seats.

We are not giving our hardest workers, our best and brightest their rightful share of voice in our democracy.

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Total numbers of Assembly Seats in Maharashtra 288

Total numbers of Assembly Seats for Pune 11

Factors2011

(Census)2014

(Projected)2021

(Projected)2031

(Projected)

(A) Maharashtra Population(Growing at 1.6% per year)

112,374,333 117,768,301 130,354,226 148,334,120

(B) Voters per Assembly Seat = A/288 390,189 408,918 452,619 515,049

(C) Pune Population (Growing at 3.43% per year)

5,049,968 5,570,115 6,782,107 8,514,246

(D) Seats Deserved by Pune = C/B 13 14 15 17

Issue 1 - Indian Cities are NOT Getting their Rightful share of Seats in Vidhan Sabha

This situation is similar at state level also for Vidhan Sabha seats. The cities do not get their rightful share of seats.

The case of Pune City in Maharashtra is analyzed in the tables given below.In the 2014 Maharashtra State Assembly Elections, Pune will get only 11 seats while it deserves 14 seats.This discrepancy will keep increasing in the future.

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New Urban Seat having correct number of people

New Rural Seat having correct number of people

In India, the population census is done only once in 10 years.

In a fast urbanizing country like India, significant changes in population distribution can happen within these 10 years.

So an even better idea will be to, first estimate the population level 5 years after the census year.

For example the projected population in 2016 should be calculated by using the 2011 census population data.

The Lok Sabha and Vidhan Seats should then be created by using the 2016 projected population values.

Issue 1 - Suggested Policy Change to Solve this Issue

Only the following 3 activities will be performed during the Delimitation – Within each state, the Lok Sabha seats should be reorganized to reflect the population data reported in latest

Census.

Vidhan Sabha Seats of each State should be reorganized to reflect the population data reported in latest Census. The municipal wards should also be reorganized so that they are in sync with Vidhan Sabha seats. (Currently in Pune;

many Municipal Wards are spread across 2 Vidhan sabha seats. This problem has occurred because Municipal Wardswere not reorganized when Vidhan Sabha seats were reorganized in 2006.)

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After each Census, i.e. once in 10 years, Delimitation of Electoral Seats must be done. As done in the previous Delimitations, the number of Lok Sabha seats given to Each State should be Left Unchanged This will ensure that there will not be any resistance to this proposal. Before splitting a state into 2 or more new states, the latest population census should be used to ensure that the new

states get the correct number of Lok Sabha seats as per their current population.

Today's Lok Sabha Constituency

A mix of Large Percentage of Rural Citizens and Small Percentage of Urban Citizens

Today, we have a very large number of Lok Sabha Seats which are a mix of both Urban and Rural areas. Mostly they have - Small percentage of Urban Voters Large percentage of Rural Voters

Even adjoining Urban areas have been separated and put into separate Lok Sabha seats having mostly Rural voters.

This problem is so severe that instead of having 150 Lok Sabha seats with majority Urban voters, there are only 50-60 such seats.

Thus the Voice of Urban Educated Voter has been Suppressed Severely.

Issue 2- Lok Sabha Seats created by Mixing up Urban and Rural areas

Urban and Rural Citizens have very different needs.

It is Not Possible for the Elected MP to fulfill the Needs & Aspirations of both these groups of Voters.

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Issue 2- Lok Sabha Seats created by Mixing up Urban and Rural areas

Example - Pune City is a very good example of this problem.

Pune City has 11 Vidhan Sabha seats.

These 11 seats have been divided in to 4 Lok Sabha Seats.

Only 1 of these Lok Sabha seats has a majority of Urban Voters.The below table shows the details –

Lok Sabha Seat Composition

34-Pune 6 Vidhan Sabha seats from Pune City

35-Baramati 1 Vidhan Sabha seats from Pune City5 Vidhan Sabha seats from Rural Areas

36-Shirur 2 Vidhan Sabha seats from Pune City4 Vidhan Sabha seats from Rural Areas

33-Maval 2 Vidhan Sabha seats from Pune City1 Vidhan Sabha seat from Mumbai City3 Vidhan Sabha seats from Rural Areas

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Ideal Constituency Only Urban Assembly seats have been kept under this Lok Sabha seat.

Ideal ConstituencyOnly Rural Assembly seats have been kept under this LokSabha seat.

Lok Sabha Seat Composition

Pune Seat 1 6 MLA seats from Pune City

Pune Seat 2 5 MLA seats from Pune City1 MLA seats from Rural Areas

Issue 2 - Suggested Policy Change to Solve this Issue

The ideal way to organize Lok Sabha seats for Pune City would be to put all its 11 Vidhan Sabha seats into just 2 LokSabha Seats, as shown in the table below -

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As much as possible, the Election department should look to create Lok Sabha constituencies which contain – Either only Urban Vidhan Sabha Seats Or only Rural Vidhan Sabha Seats

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Example: In Khadakwasla Vidhan Sabha seat in Pune –

1/3rd of the Voters are from Rural area

2/3rd of the Voters are from Urban area

Issue 3- Putting both Urban and Rural areas under Same Vidhan Sabha Seat

As much as possible, the Election department should look to create Vidhan Sabha constituencies which contain –

Either only Urban Areas

Or only Rural Areas

Guideline Suggested to Reduce this Issue

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238 of 250 members in Rajya Sabha are elected by the Vidhan Sabha member (MLAs) from all the states of India

The purpose of Rajya Sabha is to represent the State Level Aspirations of people of India

However most of the time, Rajya Sabha MPs convey a Voice which is Very Different and even Exactly Opposite to the actual aspirations of the people of that state

Issue 4- Failure of Rajya Sabha to Effectively Represent the State Level Aspirations

The Root Causes for this Problem are –

Rajya Sabha MPs are Elected at the Wrong Time:The Appropriate/Logical time to elect Rajya Sabha MP is immediately after State Assembly Elections. At this time MLAs have fresh Mandate from the people and thus they have the full moral right to elect the Rajya Sabha MP.

Incorrect Length of Tenure: The Tenure of Rajya Sabha MP should be exactly same as the Tenure of the MLAs electing them. Once the tenure of MLAs electing him ends, the mandate received by the Rajya MP from the people has also morally ended.

Solution

We should correct both these Root Causes to solve this problem.

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Issue 4- Example: Rajya Sabha fails to Represent the State Level Aspirations

Elections are held in a state ZZZ in Nov, 2009. Party A wins a majority.

In Jan 2014, 1/3rd of the Rajya Sabha MPs for the state ZZZ are elected. Their term will run till Jan, 2020. The presence of majority Party A MLAs ensures that Rajya Sabha MPs are also from Party A.

In May 2014, Lok Sabha elections are held. Party B wins a big majority on the basis of a manifesto with entirely different policies.

In Nov, 2014 Vidhan Sabha election are also held again. Party A is wiped out due to disappointment in the public over their performance. Party B wins a big majority on the basis of a manifesto with entirely different policies.

The Rajya Sabha MPs elected earlier in Jan, 2014 are from Party A and support the old policies. They are completely out

of sync with the aspirations of people of state ZZZ in 2014.

These Rajya Sabha MPS have a tenure of 2014-20. They constantly oppose the Government of Party B at national Level.

Throughout the Lok sabha tenure of Party B (2014-19), they have to face constantly hurdles from these Rajya SabhaMPs of Party A.

This type of situation has a serious impact on the governance of the country. It slows down progress and prosperity in the country.

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Today on an average, 10-15% of names in Voter List of a Constituency are of people who do NOT live in that area

The average Victory Margin in a Lok Sabha constituency is Only 5-6% of eligible voters in that area.

Thus we can see that, such a Huge Proportion of Bogus Voters in Voter List can Completely Distort Election Results.

Example: During 2014 Lok Sabha Elections in Pune, there were reports that more than 1 lakh names from Sangliconstituency were repeated in Voter List of Pune constituency also.

Issue 5- Today, our Voter Lists contain Large Number of Bogus Voters

Government should utilize Information Technology to tackle this issue.

A Comparison Check should be run on the Voter List database once every year.

In this check All Duplicate entries will get identified; i.e. cases having same value in fields like - name, age, father's name etc. Today we can do such a comparison check on a database in just a few minutes.

The election department should then Investigate (conduct Inspections) for all such cases identified by the Comparison check. If it is a duplicate entry (bogus voter) then it should be deleted from the voter list.

Suggested Policy to tackle this Issue

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Domicile Proof Document is often required for several important activities in certain states. For example –

Buying Land or House

Getting a Cooking Gas Connection

People move to distant cities for work. It is practically NOT possible for them to Go to their Native place to Vote.

They Do NOT transfer their Voter registration to their new place of residence even after living there for many years.

The Reason is that they are Afraid to lose Domicile status in Native state where they own property.

Crores of Indians have Lost their Right to Vote due to such policy.

Issue 6- In Certain States Only Voter ID Card is Valid as a Domicile Proof document

Suggested Policy Change to Solve this Issue The Voter ID Card should be used Primarily only for the purpose of Voting

States should NOT be allowed to use it as a Sole document for any important activity – e.g. as Domicile Proof Document.

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Boundaries of Constituencies have been made Unnecessarily Complicated.

Even election department employees struggle to remember the boundaries. Only 1-2 senior staff members are aware of the boundaries. This becomes a huge bottle neck while processing the Voter Registration Application forms.

Due to complicated boundaries, thousands/lakhs of citizens are not able to correctly identify their constituency. So, thousands of Applications forms are rejected for having wrong constituency name written in it.

Some of the reasons for this complication are -

Marking boundaries along Small, Short, Insignificant roads. This creates complicated zig zag pattern boundaries. Marking boundaries along open fields/scrublands even in City areas. There is no landmark in such areas to

identify the boundary

Issue 7- Constituencies have Very Complicated Boundaries

As much as possible, the Election department should look to have simple long straight boundaries along a Major Road or River.

Suggested Policy to tackle this Issue

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