Essay on Achievements and Failures of Indian Democracy for Class 10, 12, Mains Exam (UPSC, PSC, SSC)
India is the world’s largest democratic where the president is the head of the State and the prime minister is the head of the government. It is formed on the federal structure of government wherein the constitution divides the power between the center and the states. With the adoption of the Constitution in 1950, India was declared as the sovereign, democratic and republic state. India has an indirect democracy as the people of the country elect the representative by means of casting vote in elections. In a democratic country the power lies in the hands of the people. Democracy means a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Indian democracy is not only confined to the political elections but also it focuses on the social and the economic rights and aspirations of the people.
Achievements of Indian democracy:
Some of the important achievements of the Indian democracy are stated below:
- The democratic base of India has widened as a working federal union.
- The members of the parliaments and that of the legislatures have improved their educational qualifications.
- The size of the electorate increased to 814 million and the percentage of voters increased to 66.4% in 2014.
- Electronic voting machines are used to record votes in India since 2004. These EVM’s are manufactured in India.
- First-Past-The-Post-System is the electoral system of India where the voters cast a single vote in favor of the candidate either in the Lok Sabha or in the Rajya Sabha elections. The candidate wining the maximum votes gets elected to represent the constituency.
- Any citizen of India, on attaining the age of 18 years gets the right to vote and this has come into existence since the year 1989.
- There is reservation of seats for the ST and SC in the local self-governing bodies such as panchayats and municipalities.
- India is called a quasi-federal state as the distribution of powers between the Centre and the state is not equal.
- The political powers are now enjoyed by the backward classes due to their reservations in the legislature. Also, they enjoy the privilege of studying and working in government institutionsdue to their reserved quota.
- The Uniform Civil code ensures that India is country based on the rule of law.
- The democracy ensured centralized planning. Employments were created for the educated youths and many got the opportunity to get higher education.
- The Gross National income and the per capita income has increased substantially.
- With the advancement in agricultural technology the food grain production has increased.
Failures of Indian democracy:
Despite the multifarious achievements, Indian democracy also suffers from certain shortcomings. These are:
- Poverty is one of the main drawbacks of Indian democracy. The government still cannot curb this problem in a large scale. Unemployment, overpopulation and illiteracy contribute to this problem.
- Gender discrimination still exists in some parts of India in the form of child marriage, female foeticide and infanticide. In the parliament the women reservation bill is still pending.
- School dropouts due to poverty and extreme distance of house from schools in remote areas results in illiteracy.
- Communalism affects the concept of secularism to agreat extent. It creates riots and conflicts between religious groups.
- Corruption is deeply rooted in all the fields such as education, employment, health, agriculture, trade and religious institutions.
- Many politicians resort to violence and other unfair means to win political elections, leading to criminalization of politics.
Conclusion:
The Preamble of the Constitution has laid down Directive principles of state policy, fundamental rights and duties for the benefit of the Indian citizens. The people should be more aware than usual in deciding the representative that will represent the constituency. Though India is the world’s largest democracy, yet there are many shortcomings of the democracy that have to be relinquished at the earliest.
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