Bengaluru: The message of female empowerment and equality can come in any form and one such exemplar of woman power undoubtedly is a 105-year-old woman from India who has worked with perseverance and dedication toward her cause.

The life of Saalumarada Thimmakka, an environmentalist from Karnataka, who has earned a spot in the prestigious ‘BBC’s 100 Most Influential Women’ list, is a testimony to the ideal that women must challenge the status quo in order to be the change that they want to see.

“Saalumarada”- which means rows of trees in Kannada- is known for growing close to 400 Banyan trees, and nurturing them as her children, on a 4km stretch between Hulikal and Kudur.

According to the BBC, she has planted over 8,000 trees in 80 years.

Thimmakka was born to a poor family in Gubbi in Tumakuru district. She could never attend school and at the age of 10, she began working as a coolie. Some years later, she was married off to Bekal Chikkayya from Ramanagar district, who too hailed from a modest background. She was ostracised by her relatives and neighbours for not being able to bear children.

Thimmakka has had to endure many hardships — such as extra work, starvation, and generally heinous behaviour meted out by her husband’s family.

But throughout the ordeal, her husband, a simple farmer, was her greatest support.

To escape from the daily hardships and snide comments, the couple decided to find solace in nature.She told CNN: “It was my fate to not have any children. Because of that, we planned to plant trees and raise them and get blessings. We have treated the trees as our children.”

Thimmakka is a recipient of numerous awards for her contributions to the environment including the National Citizens Award (1996) and the Godfrey Phillips Award (2006).

In 2015, Thimmakka said she’d return all the awards that were conferred on her by the Karnataka government after her demands for a maternity clinic to be set up in her village in Magadi taluk was given no heed to.

“How we planted and took care of the trees, everyone from children to the elderly should plant and grow trees. It will be beneficial for all of us,” Thimmakka told CNN.

The 2016 list of influential women by the BBC has a mix of entrepreneurs, engineers, sportspeople, business women, fashion icons and artists from all around the world.

 

(source: BBC,Huffington Post)