Piplantri: A village where every girl child is blessing

Shreya shaurya May 26, 2022 406 0

Losing a child is so devastating for any parent and this father Shyam Sundar Paliwal from Piplantri village in Rajsamand district of Rajasthan turned his grief into movement when she died of dehydration by keeping in mind that no child should die from water scarcity.

How it started?

In 2007, Paliwal's 17-year-old daughter Kiran died following a bout of dehydration. Heart-broken but eager to honour her memory, his family planted a tree near the entrance of the village in her name. As Piplantri's leader, Paliwal thought, why not turn this one-off event into a wider programme? Soon, other villagers began to follow his lead.

There was a time when the barren village of Rajasthan had no source of pure water but now they have a rich level of ground water when it had fallen almost 800 feet below, vast biodiversity and source of clean air makes the village beautiful and fresh

Piplantri has become a model village of rajasthan for sustainability, this village connects to nature. Everyone in the village supports the movement and takes part in planting 111 trees for every child birth and every year on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan girls tie Rakhi on branches of the trees.

The movement

Piplantri is a village in rajasthan. The villagers plant 111 trees for every one girl child born in the village. They strictly take care and ensure that the trees survive. Shyam Sundar Paliwal, former chief of Piplantri village in Rajsamand district of Rajasthan and a known crusader of eco feminism in the country. The village is considered as eco feminism village in india.

The community of the village is supportive and very helpful. They have already planted more than 2.3 million of trees including neem, sheesham, mango, Indian gooseberry, banyan, peepal, arjun and bamboo in the last 15 years and many of those are now well-grown trees.

To ensure the financial security of the girl child, the village community collects 21000/- and including parents 10000/- and deposits the collected amount as an investment in a local bank or post office. The amount could be withdrawn only when the girl turned 18.

111 is an auspicious number in Hindu religion. For the reason that, they plant 111 trees for every birth of a girl to honour her, planting trees are the best alternative for celebrationg the child birth.