Witch-hunting survivors fight battle to restore 'Garima' in Jharkhand

Forty-year-old Bhikhni was stripped and dragged by hair after a neighbour saw her practicing 'sorcery' in his dreams.

She was tortured and humiliated beyond measure, scars that remain even two years after the incident.

The woman still has sleepless nights dreading about what will happen to her when her tormentor, who is behind bars now, gets out of prison after completion of jail term.

"He will kill me… he will not spare me," said Bhikhni while undergoing counselling by 'didis' of state government's Project Garima, an initiative to restore the lost dignity of such witch-hunting survivors in Jharkhand.

Bhikhni is among the many witch-hunting victims of Gumla, one of the most backward districts and is also Maoist-affected. These survivors still get haunted by the trauma of the nightmare they went through.

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Forty-five-year-old Rebecca Tirkey of Rampur village recalls with horror how she was branded a witch, which followed with abuse and socially boycott, after a neighbour's daughter fell ill.

Shanti Khalkho says she still feels shivers down her spine recalling how she was dragged out of her house and was about to be burnt alive.

An official said that the number of witch-hunting survivors in Gumla stand at a whopping 476, while a campaign to prevent such incidents has covered 265 villages in the district.

Deputy Commissioner Sushant Gaurav said initiatives aimed at bringing about a behavioural change through planned campaigns are being undertaken against the social evil.

Gaurav, who was felicitated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April for his work towards development of the district, told PTI that whenever a case surfaces, stern action is taken against the accused besides campaigns and street plays under Project Garima to prevent recurrence and to restore the dignity of the survivors.

"In one particular case, 19 women were arrested and sent to jail. The female population of an entire locality dipped due to this," he said.

He said the problem is deep-rooted and often a woman was branded a witch by relatives to usurp her property or due to other ulterior motives.

The tribal-dominated state has launched Project Garima, which means honour, through which it aims to uproot the evil practice of branding women as witches and rehabilitate the survivors.

The project aims to reach out to 2,068 villages in 342 gram panchayats in 25 selected blocks in Bokaro, Gumla, Khunti, Lohardaga, Simdega and West Singhbhum and Latehar districts, where such incidents are reported.

"Witch-hunting shows how our society is still in the darkness. But we are creating awareness and will arrest the problem within a few years," the DC said.

In Chainpur, around 50 km from the Gumla district headquarters, witch-hunting survivors congregate at Garima Centre, where they undergo counseling to overcome past experiences.

"As many as 253 survivors in the district have been given psychological counselling while 385 have been enrolled with self help groups (SHGs)," said Avinash Kumar, Mahatma Gandhi National Fellow, Ministry of Skill Development.

Gumla District Social Welfare Officer Sita Pushpa said, "To battle the menace, special campaigns are being run in 13 panchayats of the district in association with district legal service authorities. Clinics have been set up at panchayats to uproot this social evil by creating awareness among people."

Rinki Devi, who works as a paralegal worker in Chainpur block, said that gradually local police have started helping them to combat the menace.

"Previously victims did not come forward but after street plays were enacted, they gradually opened up," she said.

Chainpur block programme manager of Project Garima, Alpana Khalkho said that police assisted them to visit Maoist-affected areas in the block to rescue victims.

Ravikant Mishra, district manager of Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society, said the victims are engaged in various livelihood programmes under Project Garima to start a dignified life.

Witch hunting remains a major problem in Jharkhand, with an estimated 60 to 70 killings committed over suspicion of practicing witchcraft every year.

An elderly couple was beaten to death allegedly for practising black magic in Latehar district earlier this month. The couple Sibal Ganju (70) and his wife Bavni Devi (65) were dragged by some people to a panchayat in Hesla village and beaten to death with lathis.

Earlier, 40-year-old Surajmani Devi's throat was slit with an axe by a group of villagers while she was fast asleep with her five-year-old son by her side in Palamu.

In another instance, three women were allegedly stripped and thrashed by a mob of around 50 people who accused them of practising witchcraft in Garhwa.

Those who survive the trauma of mob accusations and lynching and of neighbours and relatives turning against them are often at their wits end to cope with the crisis.