PESA at 30 Years: Gram Sabha Powers Remain Nominal Across Scheduled Areas

Nearly three decades after its enactment, the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 remains unevenly implemented across India's tenth states and 77,564 villages in Fifth Schedule Areas, with Gram Sabha authority undermined by departmental control, legal non-harmonisation, and confusion between consultation and consent. Odisha has yet to finalise its PESA rules, while Jharkhand only notified rules in January 2026.

PESA covers 45 fully covered districts, 63 partially covered districts, 663 blocks, 22,141 Gram Panchayats and 77,564 villages across ten states: Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jharkhand. Despite providing for community control over minor forest produce, minor minerals, minor water bodies and community forest resources, line departments frequently bypass mandatory Gram Sabha consultations. Development planning continues to be driven by departments rather than communities, and Gram Sabha resolutions are routinely treated as procedural formalities rather than binding decisions.

A recurring problem is the confusion between consultation and consent in matters such as land acquisition, forest diversion for non-forestry activities, and excavation of minor minerals. Administrative authorities often do not obtain Gram Sabha consent and sometimes treat the process as requiring only paperwork, allowing decisions to proceed even when Gram Sabhas object. None of the ten PESA states has incorporated Section 4(o)'s provision requiring a Sixth Schedule-pattern district-level administrative arrangement — an omission that legal analysts say renders Gram Sabhas effectively ornamental, similar to non-functional Gram Sabhas outside Scheduled Areas.

State laws related to land, forests, mining, excise and revenue frequently conflict with or dilute Gram Sabha authority. The Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj has renewed focus on PESA through national workshops, training manuals, PESA Utsavs and the e-GramSwaraj portal. However, analysts say these initiatives will succeed only with sustained political commitment, legal harmonisation across departmental mandates, and grassroots capacity-building. They note that PESA is the forerunner to extending community self-governance beyond Scheduled Areas into forested regions across India, making its effective implementation a matter of constitutional and ecological importance.

Key figure — 77,564 villages across 10 states covered under PESA's Fifth Schedule Areas