No more witch-hunting in this Gumla block

GUMLA: The novel idea of taking written oaths from villagers against witch-hunting is doing wonders in containing the social evil in the remote Chainpur block of Gumla, an aspirational district of Jharkhand. Functionaries of the Chainpur Garima Kendra, which works to end the social menace in the district, said the undertaking or 'satyapan patra' signed by the gram pradhan, the mukhiya and the villagers has a cautionary provision which said they could be punished under the law if such cases come to fore from their village.
The move was appreciated by the central 'prabhari' officer of the Gumla Aspirational District, Rahul Sharma, who is also the current joint secretary in the ministry of Ayush. Sharma, accompanied by Gumla DC Sushant Gaurav, visited the Garima Kendra, Chainpur, on Friday to oversee the work to end the menace. The officers appreciated the women para-legal volunteers and other women functionaries of the Garima Kendra for managing the office well. The kendra comes under the Garima project, which is being run by the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society Limited (JSLPSL) in 25 blocks of seven districts in the state, and aims to protect women from being branded as a witch and make the state free from this superstitious and evil belief.
Talking to TOI, the central 'prabhari' officer, said, "It's a good sign that through awareness and dedication on the part of the Garima Kendra functionaries among others, one of the major social menaces prevailing in the rural areas is eradicated."
JSLPSL's block programme manager Alpana Khalkho said, "We started this project in the Chainpur block which has 83 villages one-and-half years ago. So far, 51 cases of witch-hunting have come up before the office and of them, we have sorted out 48. We have resolved some cases of domestic violence through counselling sessions."
According to the police, 20 cases of witch-hunting were registered in Gumla in 2021 and 2022. The cases have been reported in 2023 so far.