Why did the makers of the Constitution feel that the weaker not sections might not able to win elections in an open electoral competition? How did they solve this problem?

(a) The makers of the Constitution felt that the weaker sections such as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes may not be able to contest and win elections against others because they do not have the required resources, education and contacts like upeer classes. They have been discriminated for a long time. Thus they will not be able to send their representatives to parliament and Legislative Assemblies. That would make our democracy less representative and less democratic.
(b) To solve the above problem, a special system of reserved constituencies has been adopted for the weaker sections i.e., scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST). In these constituencies, only candidates of these castes can stand for election. At present in Lok Sabha, 79 seats for SC and 41 for ST have been reserved. This number is in proportion to their share in the total population.
This system of reservations has been extended to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in panchayats, municipalities, and corporations in many states. However; proportion of seats reserved varies from state to state. Similarly, one-third of seats are reserved in rural and urban local bodies for women candidates.