Tradition

The issue of skewed sex ratio has been persistent all across the nation and at its peak in
Rajasthan,even after the enforcement of the Anti-Sex Determination Law, also known as the
Pre-Conception andPre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT Act) in 1994. On the
contrary, under the panchayat ofthe village of Piplantri, the sarpanch Shri Shyam Sundar
Paliwal led a movement of change to preventfemale infanticide. The unfortunate and sudden
demise of his daughter Kiran encouraged Paliwal to stepup and channel his grief into bringing
about a positive change under his panchayat. After the loss of hisdaughter, Paliwal realized that
an extremely negative and backward ideology of girls being considered aliability was deeprooted
in the minds of the villagers which led many of them to commit the heinouscrimes or female
intanticide and foeticide. Thus in the vear 2006. Paliwal sowed the first tree of arevolutionary
tradition.

As explained by Shrimati Anita Devi Paliwal who is the presiding sarpanch "under this
traditionwhenever a girl child is born in the village, Ill trees are planted and an FD of
INR.31,000 is created.Additionally, the parents are made to sign an affidavit that clearly states
that they would educate theirdaughters and would not marry them off before the legal age of
18." (A. Paliwal, personal communication,February 14, 2020) with the emergence of this
tradition, Paliwal sought to eradicate any form of injusticetowards the young girls of the
village.Many questions that usually arise in the minds of people who read about this tradition
revolvearound the process of planting trees.

The process of planting trees has been headed by Shri Shyam SundarPaliwal with the help of the
villagers and the government since the onset of this tradition. Moreover, eventhough Paliwal
lost the panchayat in the consecutive term, he continued to have control over this traditionand
took the responsibility of managing this process. In an interview, Shri Shyam Sundar Paliwal
statedthat "the government allots every panchayat with a significant area of land, which can be
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used up by thepanchayat for the purpose of community development. Many a time, this land is
occupied by encroacherswho then solely enjoy the benefit of this land. In order to get land for
the purpose of planting these trees,the encroached land was claimed back by the panchayat and
the trees were planted." (S. Paliwal, personalcommunication, February 12, 2020). A nursery was
created where the trees were planted. This nurseryalso had cottages that are being used by the
panchayat as offices, via which they are able to maintain andmonitor this process of tree
plantation. Recently, as the first nursery got well repleted, two more nurserieswere constructed
in various parts of the village.Furthermore, this procedure also involved a selection of plants
that need to be planted, making adecision on when they should be planted, where the seeds
should be supplied from and finally who should24plant the trees. The selection of trees relies
on when the trees are to be planted and based on the season, anumber of fruit-bearing trees are
chosen. The seeds of these trees are then ordered by the panchayat. Postthe order is made,
these seeds are supplied by the government at subsidized rates or free of cost dependingon the
government scheme that the order is made under. Subsequently, the land near the nursery is
dug upbased on the number of trees that are to be planted. Once the land is ready and the seeds
are supplied theprocess of planting the trees begins. Since not all the trees can be planted on
the very first day, three treesare planted by the mother, father and the girl child. As a part of
this ceremony, the infant is wrapped in ared cloth and is put in a basket. This basket is carried
by the mother on her head to the location where thetrees are to be planted. Following this
ceremony, the remaining 108 trees are then planted by the dailywage workers in the village over
a period of time.

no the trees are planted by the daily wage workers the trees are looked after by the panchayat.to
protect the trees from any form of infestation, aloe vera plants have been plantedesides,
planting trees on the birth of a girl child, seeds of 11 plants are sown on the25demise of any
person. On special occasions such as Raksha Bandhan, girls tie rakhis to the trees tosymbolize
how the trees protect them as their brothers would.Moving on to the subject of the Fixed
Deposits, Shrimati Anita Devi Paliwal, the presidingSarpanch of piplantri disclosed in an
interview that "The fixed deposit comprises funds that are taken fromboth the parents and the
panchayat. A fixed deposit of 31,000 rupees is created, as a part of which 10,000rupees are
contributed by the parents and the remaining 21,000 rupees are contributed by the villagers asa
part of "Jahnsayog". This money can only be withdrawn from the FD once the girl turns 18 years
oldand can be used for her marriage or as a provision for her further education." (A. Paliwal,
personalcommunication, February 14, 2020). Additionally, the panchayat acts as the means of
depositing themoney as it assists the villagers to get the money deposited in an FD. Prior to the
emergence of thegovernment's scheme known as the "Pradhan Mantri Sukanya Yojana", this
money was deposited throughpost offices in schemes that were chosen by the sarpanch every
year based on the interest rates of thescheme. Once the Pradhan Mantri Sukanya Yojana (also
known as the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana) wasintroduced, the fixed deposits were made under
this scheme.