"Everyone has the right to take part in the government of their country, directly or through freely chosen representatives…

The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage".

Article 21, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

"People do not want to be passive participants merely casting votes in elections. They want to have an active part in the decisions and events that shape their lives".

Human Development Report 2000 (UNDP)

The Constitution of India begins with the words "We the People of India," implying that all its power and authority is derived from the people. It makes elaborate provisions to ensure regular elections on the basis of universal adult suffrage. It also ensures adequate representation to people from every state.

Representation is assured in Parliament, the highest decision-making body. The rules for composition of the Lok Sabha - the House of the People - say that "there shall be allotted to each state a number of seats in the House of the People in such a manner that the ratio between that number and the population of the State is, so far as practicable, the same for all States."

Similarly, the composition of the Council of States requires that "the representatives of each state in the Council of States shall be elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assembly of the state in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote."

In addition to this, Art. 326 states that there shall be one electoral roll for every constituency for election to either House of Parliament or to the State Legislature, and no person shall be excluded from such a roll on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex.

The Constitution also has a specific provision to provide for reservation of seats in the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (initially for ten years) to ensure their representation in decision making. The reservation policy is intended as a measure to provide special opportunities to the most disadvantaged of all Indians. Reservation, therefore, exists in educational institutions as well as government jobs, in the hope that over time such opportunities would sufficiently empower these communities to eventually achieve parity with other citizens.

The Directive Principles of State Policy also require the state to promote devolution of power by taking "steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government."

These provisions echo the sentiments of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which calls for the "right to freedom of peaceful association and the right to take part in government through periodic and genuine elections."

Granting the right to every Indian citizen above the age of 18 to participate in the electoral process provided an opportunity, earlier unavailable, to citizens to express themselves and participate in the formation of the Government. According to Sandeep Shastri in his essay The impact of electoral politics¹, "The voter turnout has increased from a mere 45.7% in the First General Elections (1952) to 64.1% in the Eighth General Elections (1984)". The UNDP Human Development Report put voter turnout for 1999 at 60%. Merely granting universal suffrage, Shastri says, "has not resulted in mobilisation of the masses." And he adds": "The 'user attitude,' as against the 'participatory attitude,' appears to be more common amongst the citizens."

Elections in India have been considered to be, by and large, free and fair. Attempts to prevent voters from participating, or to mar the election process in any other way, have been brought to the attention of the Election Commission which in recent years has sought to curb electoral corruption and favours and implemented a code of conduct for political parties and candidates. The fact that in the aftermath of the Emergency, declared by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, the electorate could exercise its mandate to vote her out of power is seen as an example of the strength of the electorate to decide the nation's political future.

The press has played an important part in covering anomalies. In a few states, noticeably Kashmir, organisations such as the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre claimed large-scale violations of election norms during the 1996 polls.

As the Human Development Report notes, things have changed and after half a century of democracy, people's expectations are shifting. It is no longer enough to have a right to vote. What is now demanded is greater involvement in the functioning of the democracy. But although efforts have been made to strengthen participation at various levels of decision making, problems remain. Not surprisingly, perhaps, they affect most acutely those who are economically and socially disadvantaged.

One such problem is ensuring that reservation quotas, where they exist, are filled. A story in The Pioneer (Any answers to Dalit questions in U.P? 20.9.2000) describes the apathy towards protecting the rights of Dalits in U.P. where

The representation of Dalits in the state bureaucracy in 1989 was only 8.16, 10.12, and 15.76 per cent in group A, B, and C services respectively. The state provides for 23 per cent reservation for the Dalits.

In his January 25, 2000, address to the nation, the President appealed for honest self-analysis. He said of reservation:

Though the constitutional provision of reservation in educational institutions and public services flow from our Constitution, these provisions remain unfulfilled through bureaucratic and administrative deformation or by narrow interpretations of the special provisions. It is forgotten that these benefits have been provided not in the way of charity, but as human rights and as social justice to a section of society who constitute a big chunk of our population, and who actually contribute to our agriculture, industry and services as landless labourers, factory and municipal workers.

Other issues include

Are the poorest able to participate freely in self-governance?
How representative are these representatives?

Studies on electoral trends indicate that candidates fielded by the winning party tend to pick up reserved seats.

Within the definition of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, or even of so-called "backward" sections, it is the "upper-backwards", the more advanced economically and the better organised who gain leadership positions.

During the 1990s, the Government, in response to human rights efforts and public campaigns, set up the National Human Rights Commission, and the National Commission on Women. It also strengthened and enhanced the status of existing bodies such as the Commission on Scheduled Castes and Tribes and Minorities.

The introduction of the Panchayati Raj system and the thrust on municipal governance with a one-third representation of women supports the Government claim that it is committed to transferring power to the people. The reservation policy, under which seats in elected bodies and even educational and work places are reserved for the most disadvantaged groups such as scheduled castes and tribes and women, is held up as evidence of its long-term commitment to adequate representation for socially, economically and educationally backward sections of Indian society.

Newspapers have allowed space for a broad-based debate on reservation. Opinion columns have provided readers with different points of view and official statements have served as pegs for news stories. In addition to this, stories from remote areas and villages provide some context for readers to understand the factors that impede wider participation.

P. Sainath, a human rights journalist who has extensively covered India's poorest districts, reported from Melavalavu, a scheduled caste constituency, that scheduled caste candidates were not permitted to file their nominations. The one who did had his house burned down the same day. Elections to the panchayat, did not, therefore, take place.

(Anti-Dalit terror in Melavalavu. Reproduced from The Hindu in Grassrooots, June 1999).

Sainath's report tracks developments in Melavalavu after the initial fiasco. When a second attempt to hold the elections was made, the scheduled castes were promised security so that they could contest. The upper castes not only boycotted the polls but also attacked the polling booths and made away with the ballot boxes. The election had to be suspended. Even after a third (and this time successful) election, the elected representatives could not function because the panchayat office was located in the upper caste area. Tensions mounted and led to a blood bath. The crisis, Sainath discovered, arose from upper caste fury over the fact that the panchayat had been reserved for the Dalits.

His story looks at the situation from many angles, capturing the trauma of the Dalits, the resentment and anger of the upper castes, the effort of law enforcement agencies to protect scheduled castes, the economic compulsions of the villagers and the history of social relationships within the area. One message that comes through is that the fight for representation is not only aimed at the government and law enforcing agencies. It has as much to do with different interest groups in the population.

Although change is visible at the grassroots, a tempering of euphoria is in order. Effective representation is possible only if devolution really takes place. In other words, the panchayats, for example, would need to have the means to carry forward local decisions. The concept of people's representation needs to be safeguarded and protected.

In Panchayati Raj falters (Grassroots, May 1999) George Mathew, Director of the Indian Institute of Social Sciences, says the IISS has been closely monitoring the implementation of the 73rd Amendment of the Constitution, which brought in Panchayati Raj. The amendment, he says, "aroused great hopes that there would be a new beginning in pro-people governance". Panchayati Raj was to enable common people, particularly depressed classes and women, to participate in governance by encouraging a mobilisation of local resources, and was to provide an opportunity for people to use their own initiative to solve local problems. But panchayats remain structurally weak, he says. Local initiative is thwarted by the influence on the panchayats of MPs and MLAs. The grants-in-aid to panchayats are inadequate, so many of them lack the financial resources to carry forward development projects.

There are serious limitations in the authority granted to them. Since it is left to each state legislature to decide what powers to give to the panchayats, there is little national uniformity in this regard.

The IISS also found many attempts to weaken panchayats. Mathew reports that in several states, including Assam and Karnataka, elections to panchayats are either not being held at all or are being delayed. "Non-holding of panchayat elections by due dates is a flagrant violation of the constitutional provisions and negates the democratic right of the people to make a choice of their representatives," he declares.

One-third of the seats in each panchayat are reserved for women, who had not previously had the space for equal participation in local self-governance. The Human Development Report 2000 records that "In India more than 1 million women have been elected in panchayat elections, reflecting the broad participation in local government." Even more encouraging is the fact that several panchayats are now led by women. While some have had great success as leaders of their communities, there are many with tales of woe brought on by slow-changing attitudes towards women. In Rajasthan, a survey of 74 panchayats by the Mahila Jan Adhikar Samiti showed that most men do not co-operate with women sarpanches.

Although the government has emerged as a champion of women's rights and the rights of disadvantaged, human rights activists warn that violations and discrimination continue and efforts to provide equal opportunity for real empowerment remain well below expectation.

Debates in the media have focussed on women's representation. They have also raised the question of who is entitled to represent the people. Several elected representatives have criminal histories, for example.

The emphasis on participation and democratic functioning is aimed at creating a healthier and more equitable society. Greater participation will, it is believed, lead to greater ownership of decisions and therefore greater initiative. Granting legal and constitutional rights of representation to the people does not automatically mean, however, that greater social justice will prevail.

Representation is intended to inform all kinds of decisions at all levels of functioning, but this has, evidently, not been happening. Take Madhya Pradesh.

Chhattisgarh is among the most backward regions in the country, with a predominant tribal population and a dominant political class. The region is rich in minerals and earns a handsome royalty from mining activity for the state exchequer. The region is also the rice bowl of the state, supplying food grain to almost 6,000 mills. Chhattisgarh accounts for more than 70 per cent of India's total production of the tendu leaves that are used for making bidis. About 70 per cent of the total revenue generated in Madhya Pradesh comes from Chhattisgarh, earning Rs 500 crore from Central excise alone.

Yet poverty pervades the 16 districts comprising the region. That's because the money that Chhattisgarh earns is not ploughed back into the region. As a result, the region has long nursed a grudge against the rest of Madhya Pradesh which has treated Chhattisgarh as a colony.

India Today 14.8.2000

If the principle of representation and participation had functioned as intended within the state, Chhattisgarh could not have found itself in this position. But the constitutional rights granted to the people did little to ensure that the district received its due. Instead the state exchequer benefited from Chhattisgarh's rich earnings, but did nothing to honour that contribution, leaving the people of Chhattisgarh to occupy what is described as one of the poorest districts in the country.

Such injustices have not angered the people of Chhattisgarh alone. In response to public protests, Parliament passed bills to give statehood to Uttaranchal, Vanachal (Jharkhand) and Chhattisgarh in July 2000. These are among several regions in the country that have felt 'ignored' by the Centre and within the state. People in these parts have claimed that the benefits of development and progress are slow in reaching them because they are, as it were, peripheral. This has applied, in particular, to states in the North-East.

Representation is a means by which the government's decision making can become more transparent and people friendly, but it doesn't always work out like that. The policy of adequate representation and reservation should, together, by now have created an environment of respect for minority right, but it isn't that simple.

Amnesty International claimed on its website (December 2000): "There were increasing reports of attacks on minorities including Christians and Muslims, most notably in Gujarat state. Many of the attacks were reportedly carried out by members of militant Hindu groups. The National Commission for Minorities investigated reported incidents in Gujarat in August and expressed serious concern about the situation, pointing to violations of fundamental rights. Its recommendations included increased training of police in order to ensure respect for the rights of minorities."

The right to representation is intended to ensure that people's rights to liberty, equality and participation are not infringed. While much of this task is left to elected representatives, citizens retain the freedom to form groups and associations which also represent their interests and concerns. The Human Rights Watch world report on human rights for 1999 notes in its section on India:

On September 8, the Association of the Parents of Missing People, the first organisation of its kind in Kashmir, stated at its inaugural press conference that 2,000 people had 'disappeared' since 1990 after being taken into custody in Kashmir, and that no legal remedies were available for discovering their fate."

The press has played an important role in drawing attention to the factors that impede wider participation in democratic processes.

The Hindustan Times ('Husband forces corporator in Bhopal to resign') reported that a woman corporator in Bhopal resigned from the Municipal Corporation for 'personal reasons' but her husband, who refused to allow her to meet the press, said he felt that women should stay away from politics. Not only did it affect family life, he said, but it was "unbecoming of a decent woman to visit the Bhopal Municipal Corporation". His family tradition held that "a woman's honour is secure only within the four walls of her home," and he claimed that he had 'allowed' her to function from the house as long as she held the post.

The Hindustan Times, 14.7.2000

As the World Development Report, 2000-2001, puts it, "Customary gender norms and values can lead to political, legal, economic, and educational inequalities that perpetuate women's lack of access to resources, control over decision making, and participation in public life. Greater political representation could help change this - in no country do women hold more than a very small share of the seats in Parliament."

Aside from the democratic provisions that allow participation to every Indian citizen in choosing the country's political leadership, questions have been raised about the health of the system. Aruna Roy, formerly of the Indian Administrative Services and now a social activist in Rajasthan, puts forward the view2 that "The democratic political system, with a vote for every citizen, has got embroiled in feudal caste relations. What appears before us now is an emperor who stands naked. And a people who see him being stripped with every fresh scam but who are nevertheless afraid to expose his nakedness. Out of self protection, they keep quiet. Like they did when Gulam Rasool was taken away. When Shankar Guha Niyogi was shot, when Safdar Hashmi was battered to death by political goons, when the poor are plundered, raped and looted without a murmur of protest."