Educate Girls’ Team Balika plants 6000 saplings: Ek Pedh Balika Shiksha initiative

By Kush Sharma*
Educate Girls, a non-profit organisation committed to working for girls' education in rural India, organised a Plantation Drive as part of its initiative 'Ek Pedh Balika Shiksha ke Liye' to mark International Youth Day on August 12. The event witnessed over 4,700 volunteers, from Team Balik come together to plant 6,000 tree saplings across 3 states.
Undertaken by Educate Girl' devoted team of community volunteers, known as Team Balika, the theme of this impactful initiative was ‘Ek Pedh Balika Shiksha ke Liye’ translating to ‘A Tree for Girls’ Education’, aligning seamlessly with this year’s overarching theme of "Green Skills for Youth: Towards a Sustainable World”.
The plantation drive saw over 4,700 Team Balika members planting over 6000 tree saplings across the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. In addition to highlighting the importance of girls’ education, this initiative by Educate Girls also aimed at drawing focus towards its role in fostering sustainability and combating climate change.
As part of the event, volunteers not only planted trees but also engaged in informative sessions about the importance of green practices, encouraging sustainable behaviour in local communities. The drive aimed to sensitise young minds about the environment's fragility and the critical role they play in its preservation.
The "Ek Pedh Balika Shiksha ke Liye" initiative highlights how the connection between girls’ education and the promotion of sustainability and climate change mitigation is unequivocal, and how educated girls rise as formidable catalysts for tackling these issues. With access to quality education, these girls can go on to attain a heightened capacity to propel innovation and promote eco-friendly practices, thereby bringing about transformation within their communities.
"Our Ek Pedh Balika Shiksha ke Liye initiative goes beyond the act of planting trees. It aims to instil environmental sensitivity in young people, promote green skills and draw attention to how education and sustainability are interdependent. Our Team Balika firmly believes that an educated girl signifies more than just an empowered individual; she is a catalyst for positive transformation within her community and the world at large," stated Vikram Singh Solanki, Head of Field Operations, Educate Girls. “Embracing the profound theme of Green Skills For Youth on this year's International Youth Day, this drive strongly resonates with our commitment to driving change, as we collectively contribute to a better world for generations ahead," he further added.
Sunita Devi, Team Balika, Prayagraj District, shared her motivation for the initiative “Every individual has a duty to plant a tree in their life and take care of it. By planting trees in larger numbers, we can conserve the environment. Due to continuous deforestation, environmental pollution is increasing. Through this initiative, we will create awareness in society for both girls’ education and a greener future.
Founded by visionary leader Safeena Husain in 2007, Educate Girls is a non-profit organisation committed to bridging the gender gap and mobilising communities for girls’ education in India’s rural and educationally backward areas. Working in partnership with the government, Educate Girls currently operates in over 21,000 villages of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
---
*Junior Consultant, Educate Girls

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Search This Blog