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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Reservations Can Take The Disadvantaged To Parliament, But Not In Key Positions -Ambar Sharma

Reservations Can Take The Disadvantaged To Parliament, But Not In Key Positions -Ambar Sharma

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published Published on Jun 15, 2021   modified Modified on Jun 19, 2021

-IndiaSpend.com

Lawmakers from the Scheduled Castes and Tribes are confined mostly to the lower house's social justice committee, in which they have had more than 50% representation since 2009. Just eight of 27 Parliamentary committees meet or surpass the 25.4% representation of SC/ST members of parliament in the current Lok Sabha, our analysis shows.

New Delhi: Few lawmakers from the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the Lok Sabha are appointed to the various committees that discuss and analyse proposed laws, scrutinise expenditure and policies, and generally hold the government of the day accountable, our analysis of parliamentary data shows.

Reservation for the SC and ST communities in the Lok Sabha has existed for seven decades. We find that SC/ST members' proportional share in the Lok Sabha is not reflected in their presence in various committees, implying that SC/ST parliamentarians have limited influence and authority inside the country's highest legislative body.

In India's first general election in 1951-52, one-fifth (20.04% of 489 seats) were reserved for SC (72) and ST (26) communities. Seven decades on, it is vital to examine if reservation--now at 24.13% or 131 of 543 Lok Sabha seats--has affected SC/ST lawmakers' influence in parliament; whether they have the opportunity to raise issues within parliament; whether they have access to important decision-making positions as committee chairpersons; whether they are members of diverse parliamentary committees, and so on.

All committees must provide equal representation for SC/ST MPs, said Maansi Verma, founder of Maadhyam, an organisation that reports on legislative matters. "Lack of representation across committees can ghettoise SC/ST MPs in two ways," she told IndiaSpend. "One, by ensuring that they continue to represent reserved seats only. Second, they can only raise a narrow set of issues as members of limited standing committees."

Committees and memberships

Parliament has 24 departmentally-related standing committees (DRSCs)--panels that deal with corresponding ministries. For instance, the committee on agriculture will deal with matters pertaining to the agriculture ministry. Of the 24 DRSCs, 16 are handled by the Lok Sabha secretariat and eight by the Rajya Sabha.

Besides the 24 DRSCs, there are three financial committees--estimates, public accounts and public undertakings--that scrutinise public finances. These are distinct from the finance committee, which scrutinises the expenditure of the ministry of finance.

The Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairperson appoint members to DRSCs for their respective houses. The appointments are made based on the Speaker's/Chairperson's nomination of members of parliament (MPs) for committees in their respective houses. Only the members to three financial committees are elected by MPs of both the houses.

Committees have a term of one year. Members are usually re-nominated to the same committee to leverage their knowledge and experience on the subject matter, said Verma.

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IndiaSpend.com, 15 June, 2021, https://www.indiaspend.com/governance/reservation-scheduled-castes-tribes-representation-social-justice-755256


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