India's living democracy: scale, grassroots participation and women's franchise

Detail

1. Scale: the world's largest electoral exercise

• Population: over 140 crore people.
• Voters: about 96.8 crore registered voters for the 2024 Lok Sabha election (NCERT: about 96.8 crore). This was the largest electorate in the world.
• The final electoral roll counted over 96.88 crore electors, based on the qualifying date of 1 January 2024 [3].

• The figure may change after the 2025–26 revision of the rolls. Check the latest ECI data.

• Representation load: one MP represents about 25 lakh people on average (2019).

• Making voting possible for everyone:
• Polls are held in the 22 scheduled languages (the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule) and in other languages too.
• Each party has an election symbol, so voters who cannot read can still choose.

• There are over 10 lakh polling stations. Some booths serve only one voter. Example: Banej in Gir forest, Gujarat, which has a booth for a single voter. The rule is that no voter should have to travel more than about 2 km to vote.

• Many parties: thousands of registered parties take part in elections.

• "Living democracy": NCERT uses this term for a democracy that does not stop at elections. It also runs through diversity, debate and people's participation every day. (Elections in depth: elections-electoral-system.)

2. Participatory democracy: beyond the ballot

• Participatory democracy: a system where citizens take part directly in decisions, and do more than elect representatives every five years.
• Channels: gram sabhas (the meeting of all voters of a village), ward committees in towns, public consultations, and community initiatives.

• It also runs through civil society groups, cooperatives and trade unions.

• Three-tier system: the 73rd Amendment, 1992 (Part IX, panchayats) and the 74th Amendment, 1992 (Part IXA, municipalities) set up elected local bodies at village, block and district level. (Details: panchayati-raj.)

Sixth Schedule: Autonomous District Councils (ADCs)

• Legal basis: Article 244(2) and the Sixth Schedule. They cover tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
• Powers:
• Legislative: they make laws on land, forests, inheritance, marriage and social customs.
• Judicial: village and district council courts settle disputes between tribal people under customary law.

• Financial: they collect certain taxes and fees.

• Example: TTAADC, the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council.

PESA 1996: gram sabha at the centre

• PESA is the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996. It extends Part IX, with changes, to Fifth Schedule areas (the tribal areas in 10 states outside the North-East).
• It makes the gram sabha the key decision-maker:
• it protects tribal traditions, customs and community resources;
• it approves village development plans and picks the people who will benefit from schemes;
• it must be consulted before land is acquired;

• it owns minor forest produce and has a say on moneylending and the sale of liquor.

• (Pointers: special-provisions-scheduled-areas, panchayati-raj.)

3. Grassroots democracy: case studies

• Grassroots democracy: ordinary people decide local matters themselves, through panchayats, municipalities and village or ward assemblies.

Case	Location	Recognition	Why it stands out
Jethipura Gram Panchayat	Idar block, Sabarkantha, Gujarat	Nanaji Deshmukh Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar, 2019	It holds regular and special gram sabhas. It keeps proper records and meets the quorum (the minimum attendance needed for a valid meeting). It holds Mahila Sabhas (women's meetings). SC, ST and women take part actively.
South Manubankul Gram Panchayat	Rupaichari block, TTAADC, Tripura	Recognised nationally as a "women-friendly panchayat"	It works on health, sanitation and livelihoods, and supports self-help groups (SHGs).

• Rural champions: NCERT names leaders who spoke for the rural poor.
• Chaudhary Charan Singh was a farmers' leader and Prime Minister (1979–80). He received the Bharat Ratna in 2024.
• Jagjivan Ram was a leader of the Depressed Classes and Deputy Prime Minister (1977–79).

4. Women's franchise: India compared with other countries

• Franchise (or suffrage) means the right to vote.

Country	Women got the vote	Note
New Zealand	1893	First country to give women the national vote
UK	1918 (partly: women over 30 with property) and 1928 (equal with men)	After the long suffragette movement
USA	1920 (19th Amendment)	Black women in the South could vote in practice only after the Voting Rights Act, 1965
Switzerland	1971 (federal level)	One of the last in Europe
India	1950	Came with universal adult franchise (Art. 326). No separate suffrage struggle was needed.

• Background (beyond NCERT):
• Indian women demanded the vote from 1917. A delegation met Montagu that year.
• Provinces gave women a limited, property-based vote from 1921. The Government of India Act, 1935 widened it.

• 15 women were members of the Constituent Assembly.

• The paradox: women got the vote early, but their share of seats in legislatures is still low.

5. Women in local bodies

• Article 243D (panchayats) and Article 243T (municipalities) (NCERT prints these as "243(d)" and "243(t)"):
• at least one-third of seats are reserved for women, including one-third of the seats reserved for SC and ST;
• seats are rotated (the reserved seats move to different constituencies);

• chairperson posts are reserved too. For panchayats, Art. 243D(4) requires one-third of chair posts. For municipalities, Art. 243T(4) leaves this to state law.

• 50% in panchayats: 21 states and 2 UTs have raised women's reservation to 50% under their own Panchayati Raj Acts or rules [4].

• The states are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal [4].

• Bihar (2006) was the first state to do this.

• 50% in urban local bodies: 17 states and 1 UT (2023; check the current figure).

• Result: about 1.4 million women serve in panchayats and rural local bodies. They make up 46% of all elected PRI representatives [6].
• The "sarpanch pati" problem: a husband or other male relative runs the post in the elected woman's name. This is called proxy representation, and it weakens the purpose of reservation.
• The Ministry of Panchayati Raj set up an Advisory Committee in September 2023 to study the problem. It reported in February 2025 [5].
• Its recommendations to states were: legal safeguards, capacity-building, women ombudspersons (officials who hear complaints), public oath-taking, mentoring by women leaders, social audits (public checks of panchayat work) and penalties for proxy leadership [5].

6. Women in Parliament and state assemblies: 106th Amendment, 2023

• Name: Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. It was introduced as the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill, 2023 and became the 106th Amendment, 2023.

Article	What it does
330A	Reserves one-third of Lok Sabha seats for women, including one-third of the SC/ST seats
332A	Reserves one-third of seats in every state Legislative Assembly
239AA (amended)	Applies the same reservation to the Delhi Legislative Assembly
334A	Sets when the reservation starts and how long it lasts

• How Article 334A works:
• Step 1: the first census after the Act begins is published.
• Step 2: delimitation (the redrawing of constituency boundaries) is done using that census.
• Step 3: reservation starts and lasts 15 years. Parliament can extend it by law.

• Step 4: reserved seats rotate after each later delimitation.

• Not covered: the Rajya Sabha and state Legislative Councils. There is no separate quota for OBC women.

The failed attempt to start it sooner (2026)

• The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 16 April 2026. It came with the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 [2].
• It would have raised the maximum size of the Lok Sabha to 850: up to 815 members from states and up to 35 from UTs [2].
• It would have removed the rule that women's reservation must wait for the first census after 2023 [2].

• The Delimitation Bill would have used the latest published census. In practice that meant Census 2011 [2].

• Outcome: the Bill was negatived (defeated) on 17 April 2026. A constitutional amendment needs a special majority under Article 368: a majority of the total membership of the House and two-thirds of the members present and voting. The Bill did not get it.

• The other two Bills became infructuous (they lost their purpose), because they depended on the amendment passing [2].

• Present position: the quota still waits for Census 2027 and the delimitation after it. Check for later changes.

• Current representation: women hold about 13.6% of seats in the 18th Lok Sabha (2024), which is 74 MPs.

Prelims Hooks

• Art. 243D reserves seats for women in panchayats; Art. 243T does the same in municipalities. Both require at least one-third, not 50%. The 50% figure comes from state laws.
• 21 states + 2 UTs give 50% reservation to women in panchayats. Bihar was first, in 2006 [4].
• 106th Amendment, 2023 (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam) added Arts. 330A, 332A and 334A and amended 239AA. It does not cover the Rajya Sabha or Legislative Councils.
• Art. 334A: women's reservation starts only after delimitation based on the first census after 2023, and lasts 15 years, which Parliament can extend.
• Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026: it proposed a Lok Sabha cap of 850 and delimitation on the 2011 census. It was negatived on 17 April 2026 [2].
• Women got the vote: New Zealand 1893; UK 1918/1928; USA 1920; Switzerland 1971; India 1950 (Art. 326).
• PESA 1996 applies to Fifth Schedule areas. Autonomous District Councils come under the Sixth Schedule (Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram). Trap: options that swap the two.
• Electors in the 2024 Lok Sabha election: 96.88 crore, the world's largest electorate [3].
• Advisory Committee on proxy representation of women pradhans: set up September 2023, reported February 2025 [5].
• Jethipura (Gujarat): Nanaji Deshmukh Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar 2019. South Manubankul (Tripura): "women-friendly panchayat".

Mains Points

• Universal franchise from day one versus a lag in representation: Indian women got the vote in 1950 without a struggle. Yet they held only about 13.6% of the 18th Lok Sabha. This is a strong example of the gap between formal and real political equality.
• Linking women's reservation to delimitation: tying the quota to the census delays it for years.
• The defeat of the 131st Amendment Bill (2026) shows the conflict involved. Faster delimitation would also change how seats are shared between states, for example southern states with slower population growth compared with northern states.

• One reform option is to separate the women's quota from delimitation.

• Local reservation: real gains, but proxy rule remains: about 1.4 million women, 46% of PRI representatives, have entered local politics [6].

• "Sarpanch pati" practice still undercuts this. Possible fixes are the Advisory Committee's ideas: ombudspersons, social audits and penalties [5]. Training, and money and powers actually handed over to panchayats, also matter.

• Participatory democracy deepens legitimacy: active gram sabhas (Jethipura), PESA and Sixth Schedule councils bring decisions closer to people, especially tribal communities. Weak gram sabha quorum and weak powers handed down to panchayats are the main problems.