The Perils of Population Based Claims in Democracy
The Perils of Population Based Claims in Democracy Delimitation involves the re-alignment of parliamentary constituencies in relation to their population in order to provide proportionate representation. It has emerged as one of the most debated issues amongst the different interest groups. The fundamental question that emerges from this debate is whether the democracy is only about the numbers? Many states of India have been successfully running family planning programs for decades. This has ensured their stabilized population growth and significant progress in human development. However, if political representation is solely determined by population, then the very states that have achieved success will now lose out politically. They have raised significant objections to the delimitation exercise and termed it “demographic penalty.” After all the controversy on demographic penalty, the government of India has proposed a suggestion related to delimitation. The government proposes a...