Discover Gumla’s first book fair, organized by the Gumla district administration and the Jharkhand Education Project Council. Join renowned authors and academicians in this two-day event from December 8.
For centuries, the branding of witches was driven largely by superstition. A crop would fail, a well would run dry, or a family member would fall ill, and villagers would find someone almost always a woman to blame for a misfortune whose cause they did not understand.
Witchcraft accusations are now often simply a tool to oppress women, victims’ advocates say. The motives can be to grab land, to ostracize a woman to settle a score, or to justify violence.