Context: Coming delimitation exercise can increase the already present North-south divide of India.
North-South Divide
| Dimensions | Southern state | Northern state |
| Medium of Instruction (As per NSSO education survey of 2018) | English is the medium of teaching till Class 12 in a high percentage of schools in south India63% in Telangana, 60.7% in Kerala, 59% in Andhra Pradesh, 44% in Tamil Nadu, 35% in Karnataka etc. | In contrast, in Bihar it is 6% and for UP, it is 14%. |
| Gross Enrollment Ratio (As per the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2020–21 | Nearly 50% of the youth in the age-group 18–23 years are enrolled in a higher education institution which is higher than all-India average which is 27%. | Bihar with a GER of 16% and UP with 23% are the poorest performers in terms of GER. |
| Public Libraries | Three-fourths of the 27,682 public libraries in India are in the southern states. | These states have less than 1/4th of the public libraries. |
| Inequality of income | The per capita incomes of these states are higher e.g., Andhra Pradesh (Rs. 1,14,324), Karnataka (1,54,123), Maharashtra (1,33,356), Kerala (1,34,878) and Tamil Nadu (1,45,528) | Per capita incomes of these states are on the lower side e.g., Bihar (28,127), Chhattisgarh (72,236), Madhya Pradesh (58,334), Rajasthan (74,009) and Uttar Pradesh (39,371) |
| Population share | The share of the southern states in India’s population has drastically come down from 24.8% in 1971 to 19.9% in 2021 | In these states, for example in UP and Bihar, the population has gone up from 23 per cent to 26 per cent. |
| Poverty | In 2009-10, average (weighted) poverty rate (combined for rural and urban areas) in the southern states was 19 per cent. | It was higher (38%) in the northern states. |
| Governance | The decreased poverty, decreasing population, increasing literacy shows the improved governance in these states | Counter to southern states their governance parameters remained on the lower side. |
Implication delimitation on North-South divide:
- Political Implication
- Controlled population growth and emphasis on women’s education has contributed to a fall in the total fertility rates and put the south in the zone of less than replacement rate.
- Less population means less seat in Parliament so, the exercise of delimitation could reduce the political clout of the southern states.
- Political marginalisation of southern states: Uttar Pradesh is likely to get more seats while Kerala’s representation will remain unchanged and that of Tamil Nadu will increase only by a margin. This political marginalisation of the south for demographic reasons could create tensions.
- Reducing fund availability for southern states: Use of new population data by Finance Commission will decrease the devolution of taxes from the central government to the states in south.
- Issue with the migration
- Differences in standard of living will lead to interstate migrations, largely from northern states to the more prosperous southern states which combined with cultural threat and xenophobia can lead to eruption of many conflicts in the region.
Way Forward
Regional balance of power in a federal structure is essential and if not maintained it may lead to conflict between the federal units which in turn threatens the sovereignty, security and integrity of India.
- Indian can adopt USA model in which she has given the same number of seats to all the units in one chamber of their parliament.
- A new yardstick which has multiple factors like literacy level, government efforts to control population etc. can be deliberated to such that the issue of southern states can be addressed while northern states try to improve on the same.