PESA Rules in Jharkhand

A law that promised tribal India control over its own villages sat half-built for a generation. The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, or PESA, was passed in 1996 to make the Gram Sabha the master of resources and governance in Fifth Schedule tribal areas. But a state cannot enforce PESA until it frames rules to operationalise it, and in January 2026 Jharkhand, one of the country's most tribal states, finally did so, about a quarter-century after it was carved out in 2000. The notification hands real powers to more than 2,000 panchayats and over 16,000 villages, and turns a spotlight on the states that still have not caught up.