India is entering a consequential political-administrative cycle. After six years of delay, the government is set to begin the house-listing phase of the next census in 2026. This process bears significance well beyond the vital data about India’s population that it will generate.
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It also has a direct bearing on women’s representation in Indian politics since it is the first step toward implementing the constitutional amendment, passed in September 2023, reserving one-third of seats for women in national and state legislatures. That key piece of legislation was designed to take effect only after a delimitation exercise, referring to the redrawing of legislative constituencies based on official Census data. This makes the coming Census cycle the hinge moment when the reform becomes electorally actionable.
It is a good moment to revisit the considerable literature on the gap between descriptive representation (more women in seats, which is what the quota sets out to achieve) and substantive representation (women exercising real influence). Research shows that quotas can change the formal rules of entry, but they do not automatically transform the terms of authority under which women govern.
As the reservation pipeline moves from constitutional promise toward implementation, the key bottlenecks will lie in who enters and under what conditions –...