Delimiting the constinuencies

When Indian constitution was adopted, there was a provision for increasing the number of constituencies based on increased population.
This, however could not be done, the general idea being that it will reward states which have failed in family planning. I, ofcourse do not agree with such reasons, however I will prefer to address this in a seperate post at some later date.

However there is a related issue which can be addressed, that of change in rural-urban population.

At present there are only approximately 50 constituencies which can considered as urban, even if constiuencies with a mix of urban and rural constituencies is considered the number of constituencies can not exceed more than 100 (I could not find a very good reference except this)

Now this may reflect the composition of population in 1931 (Urban 34 million, rural 246 million)
however this surely doesn't represent the present composition of population.
As of now the rural population is 742 millions and urban 286 millions.

(Source here)

Now although the seats of the parliament can not be increased, the seats within a state can be delimited so that while the total no. of the seats of the state remains constant, the number of urban and rural constituencies changes.

This will mean that from present 50 the urban constituencies will increase to 130.
As a result urban population will have a greater influence in decision making.
Now although the populism in India is targeted towards both the cities and the villages, it is overwhelmingly skewed towards villages.

Further a major percentage of the income which supports such largesse comes from cities.
And therefore the urban population, in general will be more circumspect with respect to blatant populism.

What this implies is that an increased influence by cities will check the tendency by political parties to pander to rural sector by promising freebies. With a disincentive, I am optimistic that Indian political system will turn away from present day policy of entitlement and free lunch.
 

Categories : India, Society, Politics, Economics