Piplantri village in Rajasthan is making news for initiatives that encourage empowerment of women and environment conservation, along with increasing employment opportunities. All this, thanks to one man who dreamt big for his village.
Sociologists, political analysts and intellectuals have for long been concerned about the constantly declining sex ratio in many parts of India in the last few decades. At a time when even stringent legal provisions have not been able to end female infanticide and foeticide, one man’s mission in a village has set an example of reformation.
For the people of Piplantri in the Rajsamand district of Rajasthan, the birth of a girl child meant bad news. Female foeticide and infanticide were not unheard of. This was mainly due to the hefty dowry system prevalent in the village. Enters social campaigner and ex-sarpanch of Piplantri village, Shyam Sunder Paliwal who envisioned a bright future for the girls. He believed that if the parents of newborn girls planted trees and nurtured them for 18 years, they could arrange enough money for the girl’s wedding when she comes of age.
He made a good start by collaborating with the government. Initially, Paliwal faced hurdles in the implementation of this plan. But the Piplantri village panchayat had received many awards for the execution of various government schemes and this motivated the villagers to try out this idea too.
To celebrate the birth of a girl child, 111 trees are planted by her parents, grandparents and relatives. The village panchayat takes care of these plants so that the efforts of the relatives do not go waste. Women self-help groups, elderly ladies, grandmothers, aunts etc. take care of its maintenance from time to time. This invaluable work is being done under the Kiran Nidhi Yojna, adopted by Paliwal.
Paliwal also made use of the Panchayat at your doorstep programmes to tour the villages and speak to women on empowerment. He got the women self-help groups and Bhamashahs to consider this scheme as unique from the perspective of the safety of girls. As the idea took off, the villagers realised that there was no need to worry about dowry because the trees they plant when a girl child is born will take care of her expenses in the future. (The Bhamashah scheme was started with the objective of bringing financial inclusion and empowerment of women. It is a family-based programme in which a bank account and a Bhamashah card are made in the name of the lady of the house. This empowers her to become the decision-maker in the family.)
Paliwal says, “Analysing the statistics of the village for many years, I have observed that on an average, there are about 120 child births during a year, out of which half or 60 are girls. It has been our effort that our daughters become self-reliant so that parents do not consider them a burden.”
Planting trees is just one part of Paliwal’s plan to empower girls and women in his village. At the time of the birth of a girl child, Rs 10,000 from the girl’s parents and Rs 31,000 from donors and Bhamashahs are collected and put in a fixed deposit (FD) account. The village panchayat keeps an account of this and on completion of the term, the FD is revised. The panchayat registers the information of the birth of the girl with the registrar. Along with this, all official formalities are completed for the Janani Suraksha Scheme and other beneficial government bond schemes.
There is also a letter of oath, known as the Kiran Nidhi Scheme, started by social worker Anna Hazare which Paliwal adopted in his village. Paliwal made many inclusions to the scheme to reflect the changing needs of the times and to ensure the comprehensive development of the girl child, not just at school, but at home as well.
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