The success of the South Indian states in implementing family planning measures must not be penalised and should not reduce the region’s representation in Parliament, the Congress said on Monday.
Jairam Ramesh, the party general secretary, said that the southern states were pioneers in introducing family planning measures. “First to reach replacement levels of fertility was Kerala in 1988, followed by Tamil Nadu in 1993, Andhra Pradesh in 2001 and Karnataka in 2005,” he said on social media.
There are concerns that the success of these southern states would “end up reducing” their political representation in Parliament, he said.
The Lok Sabha currently has 543 constituencies.
The number of parliamentary constituencies each state gets is decided by their population. The proportion of a state’s population to its constituencies should be roughly the same across all states.
There are apprehensions that as a result of higher birth rates, the Hindi belt would see its proportion of seats in the expanded Lok Sabha rise significantly, at the expense of other states, especially in South India, which have better implemented family planning measures.
Also read: Modi’s new parliament could see Hindi belt gain, South lose power at the Centre
Ramesh said that the constitutional amendment made by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2001 made the redistribution of the Lok Sabha seats based on the first census conducted after 2026.
“Normally, the first census after 2026 would have meant the census of 2031,” the Congress leader said. “But the entire decennial census schedule has been disrupted and even the census scheduled for 2021 has not been conducted.”
Ramesh added: “We now keep hearing that the long-delayed census will start soon. Will this be used for allocation of seats in the Lok Sabha?”
Suitable formulae can be worked out to ensure that the success of the southern states in implementing family planning measures is not penalised in the form of reduced representation in the Lower House of Parliament, the Congress leader said.
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