WUNRN
INDIA – CELEBRATING GIRLS IN PIPLANTRI VILLAGE - FUNDS
DEPOSIT & PLANTING TREES – FOR EDUCATION, AGAINST CHILD MARRIAGE
http://www.folomojo.com/indias-other-daughters/ - March 2015
“We
make these parents sign an affidavit promising that they would not marry her
off before the legal age, send her to school regularly and take care of the
trees planted in her name,” says Mr. Paliwal.
By Mahim Pratap Singh
In
an atmosphere where every morning, our newspapers greet us with stories of
girls being tormented, raped, killed or treated like a doormat in one way or
another, trust India's “village republics” to bring in some good news from time
to time.
One
such village in southern Rajasthan's Rajsamand district is quietly practicing
its own, homegrown brand of Eco-feminism and achieving spectacular results.
For
the last several years, Piplantri village panchayat has been saving girl
children and increasing the green cover in and around it at the same time.
Here,
villagers plant 111 trees every time a girl is born and the community ensures
these trees survive, attaining fruition as the girls grow up.
Over
the last six years, people here have managed to plant over a quarter million
trees on the village's grazing commons- including neem, sheesham, mango, Amla among
others.
On
an average 60 girls are born here every year, according to the village's former
sarpanch Shyam Sundar Paliwal, who was instrumental in starting this initiative
in the memory of his daughter Kiran, who died a few years ago.
In
about half these cases, parents are reluctant to accept the girl children, he
says.
Such
families are identified by a village committee comprising the village school
principal along with panchayat and Anganwadi members.
Rs.
21,000 is collected from the village residents and Rs.10,000 from the girl's
father and this sum of Rs. 31,000 is made into a fixed deposit for the girl,
with a maturity period of 20 years.
But
here's the best part.
“We
make these parents sign an affidavit promising that they would not marry her
off before the legal age, send her to school regularly and take care of the
trees planted in her name,” says Mr. Paliwal.
People
also plant 11 trees whenever a family member dies.
But
this village of 8,000 did not just stop at planting trees and greening their
commons. To prevent these trees from being infested with termite, the residents
planted over two and a half million Aloevera plants around them. Now these
trees, especially the Aloevera, are a source of livelihood for several
residents.
“Gradually,
we realized that aloevera could be processed and marketed in a variety of ways.
So we invited some experts and asked them to train our women. Now residents
make and market aloevera products like juice, gel, pickle etc,” he says.
The
village panchayat, which has a studio-recorded anthem and a website of
its own, has completely banned alcohol, open grazing of animals and cutting of
trees. Villagers claim there has not been any police case here for the last 7-8
years.
Mr.
Paliwal recalls the visit of social activist Anna Hazare, who was very happy
with the progress made by the village, he says.
“But
Rajasthan is quite backward in terms of village development compared to
panchayats in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra etc. So we need to work hard towards
creating more and more empowered villages,” says the former sarpanch, hoping
the government listens to him.