The Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) or PESA Act, 1996 extends the provisions of Part IX of the Indian Constitution to the Fifth Schedule areas of the country. It not only accepts the validity of “customary law, social and religious practices, and traditional management practices of community resources”, but also directs the state government not to make any law, which is inconsistent with these.

Challenges associated with the implementation of the PESA Act, 1996 include:

• Implementation of the law has been severely hampered by the reluctance of most State Governments to make laws and rules that conform to the spirit of the law.
• The State Governments have argued that the power of Gram Sabhas can extend only to forest located within the revenue boundaries of a village. This provision has severely diluted the Act as reserved forest in most States is not located within a revenue boundary of a village.
• The wordings of some sections of the PESA Act have been interpreted against the spirit of the Act. For example, the States in many cases have taken advantage of the flexible provision of ‘Gram Sabha or Panchayats at the appropriate level’ in PESA and used the discretion in favour of Panchayats, which goes against basic tenets of PESA.
• The practice has been to not provide Gram Sabha the right to take any decisions related to stewardship, management or sustainable harvesting of MFPs as this leads to destruction of forests (contrary to evidence).
• Different ministries, including the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, have an overlapping influence on the implementation of PESA and they function almost without any coordination.
• The sale of tribal lands to the non-tribals in the Scheduled areas is prohibited. The acquisition of individual’s and community’s resources for industry in violation of these provisions is leading to conflicts in several PESA areas.
• Further, continuing bureaucratic control, resistant attitude of Forest Department officials to give ownership to the communities and inadequate efforts on awareness have led to slow implementation of the Act.

Measures to ensure its implementation in both letter and spirit

• Ensuring autonomy of Gram Sabha by making certain that the structures above do not encroach into the powers of the structures below.
• Inter-ministerial coordination among concerned ministries should be achieved through review of roles of each ministries.
• There is a need to harmonise various legislations and government policies, such as Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, Land Acquisition Act, 2013, National Minerals Policy, 2003, National Forest Policy, 1988 etc., with the provisions of PESA.
• Awareness campaigns should be organised in order to make the tribal population aware of the provisions of PESA.
• Capacity building by developing and using training modules for administrative support for Gram Sabha in collaboration with the relevant Ministries and Departments, PRIs and institutions.