TREE OF LIFE
SHYAM SUNDER PALIWAL 54 PERSUADED THE PEOPLE OF PIPLANTRI VILLAGE, RAJASTHAN, TO PLANT A SAPLING FOR EVERY GIRL BORN
Shyam Sunder Paliwal was just elected sarpanch of Piplantri village, 10 kilometres away from the Rajasamand headquarters in 2005, when he lost his daughter Kiran, 17, to dehydration and heat stroke. The tragedy gave him a new perspective on how to save the girl child. He decided to plant 111 saplings at the birth of each girl in the village. With an average of 50 girls born in a year, close to 300,000 trees have come up in a decade. The birth of a daughter has become an occasion for community celebration. Saplings came from different sources, such as the government’s greening schemes, corporate social responsibility initiatives and even donations. To give the girls a sense of ownership, he asked them to tie a rakhi to the saplings. Gradually, he made tending to the trees a source of employment, including under MNREGA.
Simultaneously, he motivated the families of girl children to create a fixed deposit of Rs 10,000 to which he would add Rs 21,000 raised through the village panchayat and other prominent persons. The efforts that he began became part of the system and continue even after he ceased to be sarpanch in 2010. “We all support this because it is very good for our society and environment,’’ says Suresh Bheel, the new sarpanch of the village. This year, the village panchayat has opened 45 fixed deposits for the girls. The girls get the money only once they turn 21 and are not married before that, thus pre-empting child or teen marriages.
There is also a proposal to hold community marriages around the trees planted at the birth of the bride. It will help curb unnecessary expenditure. The parents are also being encouraged to educate their daughters rather than marry them off at a young age. The Union Bank of India has given Rs 60 lakh for 300 girls to get an education in the 6,500-strong village.
“We encourage the girls to take care of the saplings planted after them and tie rakhis. This has also helped us involve the community with the greening efforts of the government” Shyam Sundar Paliwal