Deepening Democracy

Emphasizing the immense value of having women in leadership roles in village bodies, this article laments the restrictive steps being taken by governments to impose mandatory criteria such as having a bathroom in the house or being able to read and write on candidates wishing to contest elections

T his article has been written against the backdrop of a petition that is currently being heard in the Supreme Court of India. The petition challenges the move made by the Haryana Government prescribing a minimum educational qualification as a pre-requisite for contesting the panchayat polls.1 Such disqualification criteria for contesting the panchayat elections are not the first of their kind, and the deep concern is that these will not be the last.

Ominous Signs

Lately, the state governments of Rajasthan and Bihar have introduced additional disqualification measures in their respective Panchayati Raj Acts, leading to the systematic denial of opportunities for the rural electorate. Let me illustrate this further by citing specific instances. In Bihar, the recently amended Bihar Panchayati Raj Act (August 2015) now has a clause wherein the candidates contesting the forthcoming panchayat elections in April/May 2016 need to have toilets in their households. In Odisha, apart from the two-child norm in the State Panchayati Raj Act, the candidates are also required to read and write in Odiya. In Rajasthan, along with the existing two-child norm as well as the toilet criteria, the recently introduced educational qualifications measure in December 2014 has severely restricted the space for women and other marginalized groups to participate in local politics actively.