{"id":123669,"date":"2021-08-05T18:41:20","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T13:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=123669"},"modified":"2021-08-11T15:38:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T10:08:57","slug":"collapse-of-adivasi-self-governance-system-in-jharkhand-need-to-implement-pesa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/collapse-of-adivasi-self-governance-system-in-jharkhand-need-to-implement-pesa\/","title":{"rendered":"Collapse of Adivasi self-governance system in Jharkhand: Need to implement PESA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/blog\/governance\/collapse-of-adivasi-self-governance-system-in-jharkhand-need-to-implement-pesa-in-letter-and-spirit-78260\">Down to Earth<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>: Reviving tribal self-governance system<\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong> The PESA Act is considered to be the backbone of tribal legislation in India. Proper implementation can rejuvenate self-governance system in Jharkhand.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>During most of the time in history, Adivasis had their own <strong>federal governance system<\/strong>. These decision-making processes were considered <strong>people-centric and democratic<\/strong>. The administrative systems during the colonial period and elected parliamentary democracy after independence affected this <strong>Adivasi governance system<\/strong> to a great extent.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For example, the introduction of the <strong>Bihar Panchayat Raj System<\/strong> (BPRS) in 1947 made Adivasi traditional governance systems weak.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This was aggravated by industrialization, displacement of Adivasis and urbanisation. As a result, the traditional system disappeared from most Adivasi areas. Also, <strong>the PESA Act<\/strong>, which was supposed to uphold the traditional decision-making process, has so far not been fully implemented in its true spirit.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Traditional governance system of Adivasis: Village Council<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>The Adivasis were not a part of the caste society. They had their own system of governance, which was, unlike the caste system, non-hierarchical.<\/li>\n<li>Every tribal village had a <strong>village council<\/strong> as the <strong>basic unit for self-governance<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The names are different in different tribes though. For example, \u2018<strong>Parha Raja System\u2019<\/strong> for Munda and Oraon tribe, \u2018<strong>Munda Manki System\u2019<\/strong> for Ho tribe.<\/li>\n<li>These forums used to act as the decision-making bodies for all matters related to administration, justice, law making (social Sanctions). <strong>Consent from the whole village<\/strong> was considered to be the main component of this decentralised decision-making process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Issues with traditional governance system<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Though this traditional system of self-governance helped make the Adivasi communities decide for themselves, it had several loopholes too.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Absence of women<\/strong> in this entire process of decision making.<\/li>\n<li>The chiefs of the traditional self-governance system of tribes in Jharkhand would be <strong>selected hereditarily.<\/strong> <strong>No woman was allowed to be the chief<\/strong> at any level.<\/li>\n<li>This system also<strong> denied women\u2019s right to own property.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Introduction of PESA<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>To promote local self-governance in rural India, the <strong>73rd constitutional amendment<\/strong> was made in 1992.<\/li>\n<li>Through this amendment, a three-tier Panchayati Raj Institution was made into a law.<\/li>\n<li>However, its application to the <strong>scheduled <\/strong>and <strong>tribal areas<\/strong> under <strong>Article 243(M)<\/strong> was restricted.<\/li>\n<li>After the <strong>Bhuria Committee <\/strong>recommendations in 1995, <strong>Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act 1996<\/strong> came into existence for ensuring <strong>tribal self-rule<\/strong> for people living in scheduled areas of India.<\/li>\n<li>The PESA Act conferred the <strong>absolute powers to Gram Sabha<\/strong>, whereas state legislature has given an advisory role to ensure the proper functioning of Panchayats and Gram Sabhas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>PESA violations<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Out of 22 provisions in the PESA, Jharkhand has taken only seven of them and replaced the fifteen provisions by the general administrative norms of the Panchayat system for non-Scheduled Areas.<\/li>\n<li>PESA in Jharkhand remained partial in terms of the special rights that the Adivasis of Scheduled Areas in Jharkhand should enjoy.<\/li>\n<li>The partially implemented PESA has worsened self-governance in Adivasi areas in Jharkhand.<\/li>\n<li>Ananth and Kalaivanan (2017) stated that PESA did not deliver due to the lack of clarity, legal infirmity, bureaucratic apathy, absence of a political will, resistance to change in the hierarchy of power, and so on.<\/li>\n<li>Social audits conducted across the state have also pointed out that in reality different developmental schemes were being approved on paper by Gram Sabha as a vetting entity without actually having any meeting for discussion and decision making.<\/li>\n<li>Hardly any regular meetings of Gram Sabha are conducted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Way forward<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>PESA recognises the traditional system of the decision-making process and stands for the peoples\u2019 self-governance.<\/li>\n<li>If it is implemented in letter and spirit, it will rejuvenate the dying self-governance system in the tribal area of Jharakhand.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Down to Earth Relevance: Reviving tribal self-governance system Synopsis: The PESA Act is considered to be the backbone of tribal legislation in India. Proper implementation can rejuvenate self-governance system in Jharkhand. Background During most of the time in history, Adivasis had their own federal governance system. These decision-making processes were considered people-centric and democratic.&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/collapse-of-adivasi-self-governance-system-in-jharkhand-need-to-implement-pesa\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Collapse of Adivasi self-governance system in Jharkhand: Need to implement PESA<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[8712,212,8898,8722,8899,8723,8724],"class_list":["post-123669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-devolution-of-powers-and-finances-up-to-local-levels","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-panchayati-raj","tag-pesa","tag-pesa-act","tag-tribal-self-governance","tag-tribal-welfare","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}