Witch-Hunting survivors demand ‘Garima’ restoration

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.