Question

explain reserved constituency 50 to 80 words

Answer 1

A reserved constituency, as I understand it, is when a certain segment of the population is guaranteed a certain minimum representation or number of seats in government.

Sometimes this is done to address a situation where an under-represented segment of a country’s population have been historically mistreated or ignored by the majority, or who are too outnumbered, poor, or otherwise marginalized. India’s actual constitution includes provisions for ensuring that otherwise excluded minorities get a say in government, and I believe that’s been so since the beginning of Indian independence after the British Raj.

A different kind of example would be when a particular political party or group is given a certain number of seats in government, based on some agreement or legal compromise. For instance, part of the peace accord between the government of Columbia and the FARC rebels, was that FARC would be guaranteed at least five seats in each chamber of their parliament. If I recall correctly, there have been similar agreements with the Taliban in Afghanistan and possibly elsewhere (agree to stop shooting each other, and the rebels get a seat at the table).

As for an example from here in the U.S., it could be argued that the guarantee of two senators per state in the U.S., or the population-based count of representatives in Congress, are a form of reserved constituency - only geographic rather than social. The people of each state in the union are guaranteed a certain amount of representation in the federal government which makes decisions that affect the whole republic.

The reasons for and outcomes from the practice of reserved constituencies are varied, but at the core, it’s a guarantee of a certain amount of representation in government by specified groups