01/01/2018 - Polity

KEY POINTS

Haryana and Rajasthan are the states who mandate to ‘fix minimum education qualification for those contesting in Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRI’s)

Minimum educational requirements for contesting elections

·        It ensures that candidate with basic education enables to more effectively discharge various duties which befall the elected representatives.

·        To promote and spread  the literacy level in the society  specially women education giving greater importance and this situation leads to creation of better consensus among people.

·        This new norms have help to reinforce the gender imbalance in the Grass root level of the society.

·        It meant to elect model representatives for local self government for better administrative efficiency. By setting example to others one who aspires to get elected in civic bodies and administration can get the education and learning benefits to rule the smooth and effective functioning of the offices with much of responsibility

·        Rural India is reeling under agrarian debts and farmers are committing suicide to escape the debt trap. Somehow this qualification may be stand as resolving the debt burden and debt trap.

·        According to Ministry of Rural Development, 600 million people practicing open defecation in India, approximately 70% of the villagers practice it willfully or under any circumstances are ineligible to context in local bodies’ election which gives a message to improving access to sanitation and help indirectly to proposed indicator for the sustainable development goal.

Criticism of minimum educational requirements incontesting local body elections

·        More than half of the women and 68% of the Schedule cast/ST women and 41% of the Schedule  Cast/ ST men cannot contest in these local elections.

·        Goes against the spirit of constitution as educational qualifications denies the person right to contest elections.Experience has shown that wisdom plays a greater role than education at local governance level, especially villages.

·        Educational qualifications for contesting local body elections completely ignores the outstanding work done by many uneducated leaders, despite having the illiterate they played the major role in bringing the developmental procedure with the effective implementation based on the local resources and local common and cultural knowledge and experience and are closely connected with their constituents. 

·        It defeated the very purpose of the panchayati raj institutions, to include citizens in multi-tier local governance from all sections of society. These requirements had the effect of excluding the marginalised.

In a liberal democracy, governments must desist from putting bars on who may contest, except in exceptional circumstances, such as when a candidate is in breach of particular laws. To mandate  what makes a person a ‘good’ candidate goes against the spirit of the attempt to deepen democracy by taking self-government to the grassroots.

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