Shyam Sundar Paliwal – Father of Eco-Feminism

Is it said that – “बेटे भाग्य से होते हैं, पर बेटियाँ सौभाग्य से होती हैं”

Still we get to hear that some villages in our country are not considering birth of girl-child has a curse or liability for them and are practicing unacceptable practice like make a girl-child “Dudh-piti, killing the baby by poison, throwing them in garbage.” it sounds really strange but all these are still practiced and many social workers are working on it to stop this evil practice.

Today, we are going to share the story of one the social activist, Mr Shyam Sundar Paliwal who is been entitled the tag of Father of Eco-Feminism. Shyam Sundar is a social activist from Piplantri village, Rajasthan. He is born on 9th July 1964, in Piplantri. He did his academics till class 10th and then he didn’t study further and started his professional life by joining a marble company.

Moving towards his family, his father name was Late. Shri Bhanwar Lal Paliwal and mother name was Navali Bhanwar Lal Paliwal also known hai Navali Bai. When Shyam just 6 years old, his mother died because of snakebite. He is having 7 siblings, 5 brothers and 2 sisters. In 1987, 30th November Shyam Sundar got married to Mrs Anita Paliwal and the couple got blessed with 3 children 2 daughter Kiran and Himashi and a son Rahul.

But as the misfortune knocked his door one day, and he lost his elder daughter Kiran, she was just 16 years old. The death cause of Kiran was due dehydration, it was the time of 2006 when Piplantri village caught in the problem of drought due to excessive mining, and shortage of water and vegetation. And on the other hand, there was a problem seems to be arising of killing girl child, which resulted in disturbing the sex-ratio of the village. So, to prevent this evil practice Shyam Sundar started a very impressive activity, which was planting a Kadam Tree (Burflower Tree) in loving memories of his daughter, as it indicates the sublime love.

The day after he became the Sarpanch of the village, he started this “Kiran Nidhi Yojna.” In this Yojna, whenever a girl-child is born in the village, 111 trees are planted and 31000 Rs. are made as fixed deposit, which made in split of two i.e; 10,000rs are contributed by girl’s family and rest amount is been contributed by the villagers.

He and peoples of his village have also planted plants of aloe vera and rose and are making products from it, so it helps them to generate employment for the people of Piplantri village. He also started “Swajaldhara Yojana” with the purpose to preserve and converse water and constructed around 1800 dams in the village. Also, he promoted “Open Defecation Free India” project in his village.

Motivated from Shyam Sundar, our government introduced a policy in 2016, for saving the girl child, a government official Dr Pankaj Guar said in his interview in Rajasthan, that under this policy the family will receive rs.2500 on birth of girl child and the same amount will be given on her 1st Birthday. The amount will be doubled to rs.5000 has she completes her primary education and when the girl will complete her high school education I.e; 12th Class, rs. 35000 will be received and it total of about rs.50,000. So the girl child will not be seen as a liability for the family.

On the birth of every single girl child, Shyam Sundar gather the village peoples and celebrate with joy of being blessed by the girl child. For his noble deed, he is been honoured with “Karamveer Chakra” by the government.

Many people are shaking hands to help and contribute with him for this noble cause. Recently, he appeared in tv show Kaun Banega Crorepati and whatever amount he won, he is going to utilize for betterment of girl child.

He is also helping families of girls during the time of their marriage as well. Not all are having the same courage as Shyam Sundar, he is doing a great job. We wish him Goodluck and salute him for the work he is doing.