South Will Not Suffer Over Delimitation, Sources Say Amid Population Concern

The government will be considerate of the fact the southern states have successfully managed to control their population and so should not suffer during delimitation, top sources indicated today amid a bitter battle in parliament over the women's reservation bill.

Fears of southern parties that South India will be penalised for early population policies by an impact on their seats, will be allayed, sources told NDTV.  The huge population in the north ensures that they will get more seats and there are concerns that the south will be under-represented.

The government understands that concern and will do the needful, sources said.

The government is trying to push through the bill -- meant to reserve 33 per cent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies -- in the ongoing special session of Parliament.

But the reservation can only be implemented after a census and delimitation exercise.

After next year's election, a Delimitation Commission will be formed. It will be a democratic exercise with representatives from all parties, sources said. The census will be carried out alongside. Even so, the implementation of the women's quota can begin only after 2029.

Under Article 82 of the Constitution, only the Census data after 2026 can be used for the delimitation exercise. There is no clarity yet on how the government plans to cross that hurdle.

The last delimitation exercise took 18 months, had over 211 meetings with public hearings in every state.

In the seven-hour debate in the new parliament today, the opposition parties demanded that the bill be implemented without any delay.

Opening the debate, Sonia Gandhi underscored that the initiative for the bill was taken under the UPA government.

"How many years will they (women) have to wait... two... four... eight? Is this right? Congress demands the bill be implemented immediately," she said, calling for reservation for women from SC, ST and OBC communities. Delaying this would be gross injustice to women," she added.

The 2010 bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha but could not be  presented in Lok Sabha following opposition from Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal -- a point that has provided ammunition to the BJP.