Delimitation,Demography and Democracy

Social Issues Regionalism

India may face the problem of gerrymandering by default in near future.

It refers to the practice of redrawing the boundaries of electoral districts (or constituencies) to suit any one political party.
It stems from the incentives created when the power to determine boundaries of a constituency are given to the same body or person who seeks election.Countries around the world, which, on paper, have followed the “one person, one vote”
principle, have found their democracies undermined by “majorities” created through
unrestricted gerrymandering.

The problem of partisan gerrymandering was not unknown to India’s constitution framers.
The term itself occurs on at least four occasions in the Constituent Assembly debates.
The final Constitution had Articles 82 and 170, which gave Parliament the power to delimit constituency boundaries for not just the Lok Sabha, but also for the state
legislative assemblies.
Articles 82 and 170 empowered Parliament to change constituency boundaries within a state after the census was completed.
So far, four delimitation acts have been passed, in 1952, 1962, 1972 and 2002, with a Delimitation Commission in charge of drawing constituency boundaries set-up in each case.
The last commission was headed by Justice Kuldip Singh, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, and its report was implemented in 2008.
Apart from including the chief election commissioner and the state election commissioner (in respect of each state), the commission is also empowered to co-opt sitting members of Parliament and members of the legislative assembly from that state in a non-partisan manner.
However, this changed in 2002 when the 84th Amendment was passed, amending these two articles.
As it stands, the constituency boundaries are frozen till the first census after 2026, that is, at least until after 2031.

A 30-year gap in the next delimitation commission could have graver consequences.
This might push India to the risk of facing “gerrymandering by default” i.e the constituency boundaries are fixed without providing enough opportunity for revision and
readjustment. e.g The state of Karnataka. As per the 2011 Census, the city of Bengaluru had a population of about 84.4 lakh out of a total population of 6.1 crore in Karnataka.
This means that the metropolitan area of Bengaluru itself has approximately 13.82% of the population of the state.
However, Bengaluru only has 11% of Karnataka’s Lok Sabha and the state legislative assembly seats.
This may not seem like much of a disparity, but consider that between 2001 and 2011, Bengaluru’s population increased by about 66%, whereas Karnataka’s population
increased by about 16%.
In the next decade, the city of Bengaluru will be disproportionately under-represented in the state assembly and Lok Sabha as the delimitation exercise will not take place till
sometime after 2031.
This might result in the progressive disenfranchisement of urban voters i.e their vote will not count for as much as the rural voter given the demographic trend.
With urban areas showing lower turnouts than rural areas, this could have major implications for democratic participation in India.