Finest Rajhistani Tradition
Posted by Unknown in India, Tree Plantation on Sunday 12 May 2013
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- inlcuding 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.
This entry was posted on Sunday 12 May 2013 at 00:41 and is filed under India, Tree Plantation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.
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