HSS F362: Local Governance and Participation

Lecture 18 : 13-10-2022

Mohan Kumar Bera

BITS Pilani Goa Campus
• Impact of reservation in local bodies
 Introduction
• While the second half of the 20th century has witnessed an increased presence
of women in leadership positions, the raw numbers present a disturbing picture,
with women continuing to be severely under-represented.

• When given the opportunity, women leaders often make different policy
decisions. For example, firms with a greater proportion of women on their
boards are less likely to enact policies that result in workforce reductions even at
the cost of reduced short run profits

• Female leaders are more likely to prioritize spending on vulnerable sections of

the population including women in both developed and developing countries

• Increasing the level of representation of historically under-represented groups,

including women, is therefore not only a moral imperative, but has the potential
for substantial economic and social benefits.
 Introduction
• The preferred approach across the world has been to use affirmative action
policies for women (that has taken the form of quotas or reservation of seats
for women) in leadership positions.

• We find that in national parliamentary (or Lok Sabha) elections, assuming a

linear exposure effect, on average, 10 years of exposure to local-level
reservations results in a 5 percentage point (or 143%) increase in the
proportion of candidates that are women

• Concurrent with gender based reservation, a specific proportion of seats were

also reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), the two
most disadvantaged population groups in the country.

• Over time reservations were also introduced (at the PR level) to Other
Backward Classes (or OBCs).
 Introduction
• The proportion of seats reserved for SCs, STs and OBCs depended on the
relevant proportion of these groups in the district.

• The caste based reservations were orthogonal to gender based reservations.

• So in local government elections, seats could be categorized into the

following groups:

– Open for all caste and gender; Open for all caste but reserved for women; SC
Reserved; Female SC Reserved; ST Reserved; Female ST Reserved; OBC Reserved;
Female OBC Reserved. Again higher levels of legislature (national and state) were
exempt from OBC reservations, though seats have been reserved for SCs and STs in
both national and state elections, since the early 1950s.3
• OBC reservation in local body polls in
Maharashtra : A case study
 Post-Mandal OBC Politics
• OBCs are a highly stratified group of castes comprising peasantry, artisan
and service providing castes. These communities were regarded
predominantly as Shudras in Hindu scriptures.

• A section of them was part of the anti-caste movement in the form of the
Satyashodhak movement and subsequently non-Brahmin movement,
which later got subsumed in the Congress in 1930.

• In the post-independence era, Palshikar (1994) argues that by

appropriating the ideology of Bahujanvad, the Congress evolved non-
antagonistic relations with the lower castes.

• Owing to the dominance of the Congress, OBCs did not have an

independent mobilisation and politics in the state till the 1990s.
 Post-Mandal OBC Politics
• With the Mandal Commission’s recommendations, the concerns of OBCs
were thrust into the centre stage of Indian politics.

• This gave rise to a new surge of consciousness about caste discrimination

among the intermediate castes and provided a platform for their political
assertion leading to the emergence of OBC parties in North India.

• As a result of this, the proportion of OBC elected representatives in the

Hindi belt rose from 11% in 1984 to 25% in 1996, whereas that of the
upper-caste elected officials fell from 47% to 35% (Jaffrelot 2006).
 Post-Mandal OBC Politics
• As against the situation in North India, OBCs in Maharashtra constitute around
27% of the state’s population and are scattered in different regions of the
state.

• The numerically strong Maratha community, which constitutes 30% of the

state’s population, has historically dominated Maharashtra politics.

• Vora (2009) has studied the social background of the Maharashtra MLAs from
1962 to 2004; during this period, 50% of the MLAs were Marathas.

• Therefore, Marathas enjoy “reservation” over half of the assembly

constituencies in the state.

• In the Maharashtra assembly election of 2019, similar numerical dominance of

Marathas has been observed (Ghotale and Kulkarni 2019).
 Quota in local bodies
• The reservation to the OBCs in panchayati raj institutions was seen as a sign of
“democratic deepening,” decentralisation of governance and another step
towards the downward shift of political power through electoral politics.

• With this move two main processes took place.

– First, a new phase of politicisation of caste emerged where even a numerically small
OBC caste wanted their claim in power.

– Second, this helped OBCs to mobilise by increasing their bargaining power with the
dominant Marathas (Deshpande 2009).
 The Supreme Court judgment
• The Supreme Court ruled that the number of seats reserved for Other
Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes in local bodies
should not exceed 50% of the total seats, Bar and Bench reported.

• The Supreme Court read down a section of the Maharashtra Zilla

Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act, 1961, which made it mandatory for
the government to provide 27% reservation to OBCs in local bodies.

• It was hearing petitions seeking that the section be declared as ultra vires
to the Constitution.

• The court noted that reservation for OBCs was only a “statutory
dispensation to be provided by the State legislations” and not similar to
the “constitutional” reservation related to the SCs/STs.
• “The provision is being read down to mean that reservation in favour of
OBCs in the concerned local bodies can be notified to the extent that it
does not exceed aggregate 50 per cent of the total seats reserved in
favour of SCs/STs/OBCs taken together,”

• The court explained that OBCs could be given reservation up to 27%, but
subject to the limit of 50% total reservation for SCs/STs and OBCs.

• The Supreme Court quashed notifications issued by the Maharashtra

Election Commission, which provided more than 50% reservation to OBCs
and SC/STs in the Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis of Washim, Akola,
Nagpur and Bhandara districts.
• Transcending gender Reservation,
representation in local bodies