In the village, it is mandatory to plant 111 saplings every time a girl is born. The Piplantri community ensures these trees survive, attaining fruition as the girls grow up. The initiative is tackling two major social issues - empowerment of girl child and afforestation. It has helped the village increase its green cover, and they have been doing this for 15 years.
This brand of eco-feminism is a great way for the villagers to understand and appreciate the importance of both girls and trees. Which is why simply planting the saplings is not enough. The family has to look after the trees as they would of their daughters.
Not just that, 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.
Over the last six years, people in the village 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 years ago.
Source: India Times
