Challenges faced by Indian Democracy

• Democracy is a continuous living process and mere adoption of democracy does not bring democracy into practice.
• Alert and conscious efforts are required to sustain democracy.
• It is necessary to understand threats to democracy in time and deal with them in a democratic manner.
• In this chapter, we will primarily focus on challenges before democracy in India.
• Today, every nation in the world claims to be democratic, but in reality, very few nations in the world have democracy that protects the rights and freedom of people and gives priority to the welfare of people.
• Many democracies are facing the challenge of military takeover.
• Spread of democratic values at the global level and adoption of true democracy by all nations is a major challenge at global level.
• Criminalisation of politics can lead to corruption and undermine the democratic process.
• Terrorism in India is a complex problem that requires a multi-pronged approach, including law enforcement, intelligence gathering, and community engagement.
• Addiction is a complex problem that requires a multi-pronged approach, including awareness campaigns, support groups, and access to treatment.
• Factors required for the success of democracy in India include a well-informed citizenry, an independent judiciary, and a vibrant civil society.
• Measures to control corruption can include strengthening anti-corruption laws, increasing transparency in government decision-making, and promoting public awareness.
• Efforts to bring transparency in the political process include the Right to Information Act and the Election Commission.
• Inclusion of all social components, autonomy to social institutions, empowerment of citizens, protection of human values need to be adopted for real cultivation of democracy.
• To make Indian democracy truly successful, it is essential to increase participation of people at all levels.
• If such participation increases especially at the level of the government it will help in changing public policies.
• Public policies are made through interaction with the people.
• To increase political participation of women, 50% seats are kept reserved in local self-governing institutions.
• Everyone at social and individual level should make conscious efforts towards education.
• Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Gram Samruddhi Yojana, Self-help Groups, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and such other projects are undertaken at the level of Government and Administration.
• For the success of democracy, everyone should keep in mind that we are responsible citizens of the nation.
• Interaction with those who are not in power is also important for the success of democracy.
• The values of equality, liberty, social justice, secularism should be respected and implemented even in our personal life.
• Another challenge before democratic nations is to ensure that democracy becomes deep rooted.
• Freedom, equality, fraternity and justice, peace, development and humanitarianism are the values that should be practiced at all levels of the society.
• The mass support for this purpose can be gathered only through democratic means.
• To make democracy more meaningful, the government of India decentralised power and adopted the policy of reservation for women and weaker sections of the society.
• Political parties often give candidature to people with a criminal background, facing criminal allegations, and allegations of corruption, which increases the role of money and muscle power in politics and may lead to violence during elections.
• Indian democracy faces other social challenges such as unemployment, unequal distribution of resources, increasing gap between rich and poor, caste-based issues, which need to be resolved.
• Judiciary in India is seen to be making conscious efforts to make political process transparent to prevent criminalisation of politics, and has adopted measures like strict punishment.
• Family monopoly in politics is a major problem before democracy in India and monopoly of just one family in politics reduces democratic space, making it difficult for common people to participate in the public sector.
• Increased participation of criminals in politics and prohibiting criminals from participating in political process are measures to combat criminalisation of politics.
• All religious, linguistic, ethnic and caste groups should get equal opportunity to participate in the decision-making process.
• In a democracy, the political party getting majority of votes comes to power and all decisions are taken by majority.
• Democracy aims at the welfare of majority of people and when the importance is given to majority, it is possible that injustice may be done to those who are marginal and who are in minority.
• To make democracy successful in India, it is not just sufficient to make efforts at the level of government, administration and judiciary.
• In a democratic government, everyone’s opinion should be considered important and majority government should not be the government of majority community.
• China adopted economic reforms and also became a member of the World Trade Organisation, but China continues to have a one party system.
• Is China a democratic nation?
• This is only a political form of democracy.