Bhopal. A big step was taken about two years ago for the protection of tribal cultural traditions and by giving information about the rights of people, water, forest, land and workers to the tribes residing in the scheduled areas of Madhya Pradesh. On the birth anniversary of Lord Birsa Munda, the symbol of the ancient pride of the tribal community, the Provisions of Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Rules-2022 or PESA Act was implemented in Madhya Pradesh on 15 November 2022.
11 thousand 596 villages of 5133 gram panchayat areas of 88 development blocks of 20 districts of Madhya Pradesh come under PESA area. Alirajpur, Jhabua, Mandla, Anuppur and Barwani of the state are full PESA districts. On the other hand, Balaghat, Betul, Burhanpur, Chhindwara, Dhar, Khandwa, Narmadapuram, Khargone, Seoni, Shahdol, Sheopur, Sidhi, Umaria and Ratlam fall in the category of partial PESA districts.
With the implementation of PESA Act, positive changes are visible in the environment of rural areas of Anuppur district. Here, by providing information to the villagers about their rights and employment, they are being provided the benefits of employment and beneficiary-oriented schemes in the village itself. The positive impact of PESA Act is clearly visible in the village panchayat Damehdi of Janpad Panchayat Pushparajgarh of Anuppur district. The tribal community here has understood the rights to water, forest and land and are progressing on the path of their progress with the PESA Act as per the intention of the government. The villagers here are living together in mutual brotherhood. Here the companionship of the people with their forest and wildlife has also become very cordial.
Before the implementation of PESA Act, there used to be very adverse conditions in this Gram Panchayat. People were always caught up in mutual fights and court cases. The situation of the village has changed due to PESA Act. Now, small disputes of the village are resolved in the village itself by sitting together. The villagers here say that earlier there used to be a police case, after that, after going to lawyers and courts, the last option was to compromise, till then we had to face a lot of trouble. Now we have got rid of these troubles.
The people of village Damehdi say that ever since the PESA Act has been implemented, there is an atmosphere of peace, development, progress and mutual brotherhood in the village. Now the dispute of the village is easily resolved by the Dispute Resolution Committee. Even if a person goes to the police station, the police of the local police station informs the members of the Peace and Dispute Resolution Committee. As soon as it comes to notice, the Gram Sabha convinces that person and settles the matter in the village itself. Where after the implementation of PESA Act, about 25-30 fights in the village have been settled by the Peace and Dispute Resolution Committee.
