As World Environment Day (5 June) approaches, we’ll be focussing on environmental issues and women’s role in sustainable development. In this week’s blog, Nisha Ghosh of SI Pune Metro East (India) writes about an inspiring example of eco-feminism in Rajasthan.

These last six months and more have brought the limelight onto to the darker sides of the condition of women and girls in India. The rape, the female foeticide, the bride burning for dowry, honour killing, the objectification of women in the media  and other forms of discrimination against the female gender have become hot talking points on news channels across the world.

For educated Indian women of 2013- it brings ignominy of a kind-where we question our values, doubt if education has really got us the change we aspire for, and ponder on the drowning  voices of optimism in the deluge of negativity.

But hope soars when we hear of  gold nuggets like this shining example of the invincible spirit of  Indian women. This time they rise to save the environment.

One 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 (village elders) 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 of a million trees on the village’s grazing commons – including neem, sheesham, mango and Amla among others.

On an average 60 girls are born here every year, according to the village’s former sarpanch (Village headman) 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 of these cases, parents are reluctant to accept the girl children.

Such families are identified by a village committee comprising the village school principal along with panchayat and Anganwadi (social workers) 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 village 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.

Images – Top: Girls taking part in a sustainable agriculture awareness programme by SI Pune Metro East. Below: Piplantri Village