Jaipur: It’s been over a year since minimum qualifications for contesting local body polls were made mandatory in Rajasthan. Though the law did give a chance to the educated youth to replace seasoned local leaders, it has also barred a major section of the rural population from contesting the polls.
In December 2014, Rajasthan promulgated the ordinance, which became the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Act, 2015 on April 1 this year, making it mandatory for individuals contesting Zila Parishad or Panchayat Samiti elections to have a minimum educational qualification of Class X. In case of a sarpanch, the minimum qualification was set at Class VIII and, in the Scheduled Areas, it was Class V.
However, the law has been termed as “undemocratic” by activists and the Congress party as it excluded about 94 per cent of the rural population, especially women, from contesting the local body polls this year.
Kavita Srivastava of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), who called the legislation “the most exclusionary law”, said, “We applaud the fact that the law makes education mandatory, but how can the people, especially women, in tribal areas go to school when they don’t have schools and teachers.”
Congress leader and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said, “I don’t oppose the norm because it makes educational qualification necessary… but instead of making the already marginalised people victims of this law, it should have first been applied to MLAs and MPs.”
Mr. Gehlot and Ms. Srivastava also pointed out the allegedly high number of fake mark sheet cases that emerged during the polls. However, in the ongoing police investigations, only 32 persons have been arrested and 45 suspended for using fake mark sheets to win the local body polls held on 1.25 lakh seats.