PESA or Panchayats (Extension to Schedule Areas) Act, 1996 is an Act of central government for enforcing and implementing the provisions of Panchayati Raj Institution (Part IX of the Constitution) in the schedule areas which are not covered in the 73rd Amendment Act.

The salient features of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA):

• Legislation on Panchayats shall be in conformity with the customary law, social and religious practices and traditional management practices of community resources.
• Habitation or a group of habitations or a hamlet or a group of hamlets comprising a community and managing its affairs in accordance with traditions and customs shall have a separate Gram Sabha.
• Every Gram Sabha should be empowered to safeguard and preserve the traditions and customs of their people, their cultural identity, community resources and the customary mode of dispute resolution.
• The Gram Sabhas have roles and responsibilities in approving all developmental works in the village such as identifying beneficiaries, issuing certificates of utilization of funds, powers to control institutions and its functionaries in all social sectors and local plans.
• Gram Sabhas or Panchayats at appropriate level shall also have powers to manage minor water bodies; mandatory consultation in matters of land acquisition; resettlement and rehabilitation and prospecting licenses/mining leases for minor minerals; power to prevent alienation of land and restore alienated land; regulate and restrict the sale/ consumption of liquor; manage village markets, control money lending to STs; and ownership of minor forest produce.
• The provisions of Panchayats with certain modification and exceptions have been extended to the Schedule V areas viz. the ten States where the Panchayats exists in the country including Andhra Pradesh. A list of ten States has been annexed.
• Gram Sabhas have been constituted in every State as per the Panchayat Raj Act/PESA Rule of the concerned State. Only four States have framed their Rules for implementation of PESA. These are, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

Issues with PESA :

• The 1996 PESA or Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act implemented only in 5th schedule areas should have been a landmark for the tribal communities which mandates the state to devolve certain political, administrative and fiscal powers to local governments elected by the communities. But, it has not been implemented properly. Tribal communities have progressively been denied self-government and their rights on natural resources that should have been provided to them under the legislation. On the other hand The Sixth Schedule gives tribal communities considerable autonomy; The role of the Governors and the States are subject to significant limitations, with greater powers devolved locally. The District Council and the Regional Council under the Sixth Schedule have real power to make laws, possibility on the various legislative subjects, receiving grants-in-aids from the Consolidated Fund of India to meet the costs of schemes for development, health care, education, roads and regulatory powers to state control.
• Ambiguous definition-within PESA - definition of many provisions is ambiguous for example there is no clear cut definition of terms like minor water bodies, minerals in the statue, which leads to denial of rights of the tribal's.
• Lack of coordination and overlapping jurisdiction - Both ministry of tribal affairs and Panchayti Raj have overlapping jurisdiction in PESA and Both of them functions in silos without any coordination which creates confusion and weakens PESA.
• PESA diluted at State level - A comparative analysis of PESA and the legislations enacted by the States on this subject reveals that the provisions of PESA have been highly diluted in the process of ratification by the States and most of the powers of the Gram Sabha have been given to the district administration or to the Zilla Parishad.
• Gram Sabhas constituted at Revenue Village Level instead of Hamlet level : One major impediment in implementation of PESA is the absence of a proper administrative definition of the village that is in consonance with the Act. All States, without exception, have continued with their earlier revenue definitions of the village. Thereby, not only does a village at times consist of 10 to 12 scattered hamlets, but several revenue villages are clubbed together to form a Gram Panchayat. This effectively precludes the functioning of a 'face to face' community as envisaged in PESA.

How can we make PESA effective in addressing the needs of Tribal areas?

• There is urgent need to amend Indian forest Act and other related Acts so that ownership on minor forest produce, water bodies and land resources are explicitely handed over to gram sabha of PESA areas.
• No state government should have any power to overrule any recommendation of the gram sabha.
• Gram sabha should have direct access to funds so that they can exercise these powers independently and spend funds according to the needs and requirements of the tribal society, Since local bureaucracy is generally consisted of non-tribal outsiders who are neither aware nor sensitized about the needs of the tribal village which leads to ineffective implementation of the provisions of PESA.
• Looking at the performance of State governments in implementation of PESA and their tendency to by-pass it, the Central government should issue a notification that all other laws will be subordinate to PESA in the fifth schedule (or PESA) areas.
• Certain Features of sixth schedule areas should be introduced in 5th schedule like An autonomous district council should be established which will provide greater role in directing administrative requirements without depending on the Central-State structure.

Thus PESA ,though was established to empower the tribal communities in tribal areas has failed to do the same and therefore certain changes as suggested above should be incorporated in PESA so that it could in reality become an engine of tribal empowerment.