Unfazed by his recent brush with the sand mafia, Nalagarh SDM Yunus Khan is moving ahead to change the problem of poor girl child sex ratio and vanishing green cover in this subdivision of Himachal Pradesh with a twin-pronged approach.
To tackle these two key issues, he has come up with a plan of depositing a fixed amount in the name of any girl child born in the area after January 1, 2013, as well as planting green trees and naming these after female newborns.
His is not the first instance of a young officer finding local solutions to tricky issues. Armstrong Pame, the 28-year-old SDM of Tousem subdivision of Manipur, changed the fortunes of hundreds of villagers by the opening of 100km-long road built entirely by the people in February 2013.
When Khan took over he was appalled by the gender ratio of 624:1000 in Solan district. He announced the "Kanya Chhaya Sabki Bhagidari" programme in the subdivision on August 15 to motivate and educate people about the importance of girl child and trees in their lives.
Nalagarh has only 10% green cover against the mandatory 27% forested area.
"We have decided to deposit Rs 1,100 in the name of every female baby born in Nalagarh after January 1, 2013, and to plant a tree in her name. The initial amount has been kept low as it is people's initiative and so would the amount. A bank account of the society would be opened once donations flow in. To begin with I have decided to deposit the money for five girls from my salary," he said.
"We are going to launch this programme after 10 days and hope that other districts would think on similar lines," he added.
To ensure public participation to steer and nurture the project, he has decided to rope in different organisations to form a society.
Yunus said Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Industrial Association, Nalagarh Transport Union, Jain Sudhar Sabha, a local nursing college and Senior Citizen Forum had agreed to join the noble cause. "Now we have decided to register a society to ensure this programme continues in future too. Our responsibility does not end by depositing money in the name of girl child and planting a tree. The society would ensure that if a girl belongs to an economically weaker section, it would fund its education until she gets a job."
Yunus said 40 babies born after January 1 this year have been identified and fast-growing varieties of trees would be planted in the area soon. These would be nurtured by local panchayats and municipal committees. The society would meet every three months to analyse the data on girl child births.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Himachal-IAS-officer-leads-drive-to-save-girl-child/articleshow/21907254.cms
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