Patna: Villagers in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand are naming streets and lanes after educated girls from the community, in what is being described as a unique initiative to promote girls’ education.

This is the first time that any such village in the twin states of Bihar and Jharkhand has taken up such a project.

The rare initiative has been launched by Judi, a tribal-dominated village located in East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand.

Villagers cited, for their decision to extend this honour, the rare dedication among the women to pursue higher education despite many handicaps.

The village, home to some 600 families, has no high schools as the children have to trek three kilometres on foot to reach the nearest high school while a college is located some 30 km away.

Yet many girls were able to pursue higher studies and have brought glory to their village.

This was no mean achievement and the villagers felt the girls deserved an honour for their rare grit.

So far four lanes and streets have been named after these girls who include Sumita Bhattacharya, Mani Mala Sikdar, Baishakhi Gope and Sunita Gope. Among all, Sumita is highly qualified. She is doing post graduation in history from a women’s college. The rest are undergraduates.

“The idea is to encourage girls for educations. We hope our village will turn as a model village for other parts of the state,” the local elected village council chief Savitri Sardar said on Wednesday. According to her, the move has prompted many more girls to pursue higher education.

The women are happy at getting the lanes named after them, instead of prominent persons or in most of the case politicians.

“I never thought that the village lane would be named after me as I have done nothing remarkable for the society. This has given me encouragement and confidence to pursue higher education despite all odds,” says 23-year-old Sumita who wants to become a teacher.

The move has pushed up the literacy rate in the village, too. As per an official report, the village currently has the literacy rate of 68.39 percent against the state average of 66.41 percent. Likewise, the female literacy rate at this village stands at 57.26—which is around 2 percent more than the state average of 55.42. The local authorities have lauded the move of the villagers and announced to provide all support to them.

The idea is a reminder to a similar initiate launched by the villagers from Dharhara village in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district. Here at this village, the families have been planting at least 10 fruit-bearing trees to celebrate the birth of a girl child, prompting chief minister Nitish Kumar to personally visit the hamlet more than twice and thank the rare initiate of the villagers.

The idea has been in practice at this Bihar village much before Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched for “Selfie with daughters” campaign in his “Maan Ki Baat” programme in June 2015 for better gender ratio.