The Witch Trials Of India- Death By Superstition

India is the land of customs and traditions. India is known for preserving its ancient cultural, religious, and mythical ideology, which is still revered and followed in most parts of the nation. These primitive ideologies don’t bode well in the current modern environment which thrives on science and technological advancement which renders certain ancient practices bizarre and irrational. Witch hunting is one such phenomenon that is taking a deadly turn leaving thousands of people across the country victimized. 

Illiteracy coupled with poverty is an endemic which still thrives in this country. This renders people in villages and rural areas susceptible to irrational practices and the threats and dangers they pose. Since long Indians have believed in praising God for every good deed and blaming man for its opposite. This sort of blind faith or blind superstition is taking an evil turn in our society. One such practice which has its roots deep in superstition is the practice of blaming widows or women and branding them as witches performing black magic and ostracizing them. This outbreak is not concentrated only in villages but also spreading into towns and cities. 

There can be numerous reasons for branding a woman a witch, from a harvest gone bad due to insufficient rain, to the death of a child in a family, to the spreading of an infectious disease or for purposes of land grabbing etc. The bizarre and irrational nature of these accusations can be blamed on rampant poverty and lack of proper education. Serious accusations such as these spread like wildfire throughout an entire village and more often than not, end in murder of the so called witches. For the past decade, around 2,000 women have died as a result of these baseless accusations. Witch hunting in India dates back to a hundred years. The victims who are branded as witches face numerous amounts of torture, beatings, forced to eat excrement, death. The reason this practice still persists is due to the patriarchal model of society as well as the sloppy attitude of the society towards women’s rights. 

The more illiterate and ignorant the people are, the more this evil will spread. Therefore it is important to raise awareness against this social evil so that it can be curbed. The tribal areas need special attention. Our only shot at real progress is if we leave our primitive beliefs and superstitions behind an embrace rational thinking. Many Non-Government Organizations have been established that provide shelter and assistance to the victimized women and help them fight for justice. There is a Rational Association of India that tries to appeal to the common sense of the people and try to resolve such issues and prevent vulnerable innocent women from being victimized. 

The first step that needs to be taken is to ensure that people in rural areas are educated enough to understand the difference between right and wrong and not to fall prey to any superstition and make informed decisions. Lakshyam has already taken this step with providing primary education to lakhs of kids spanning multiple states in India along with volunteer programs to help garner support for this cause so that everyone can join hands to create an educated and a well informed society.

Beggary: A Peril To Society

People who are in extreme situation of need and poverty are called beggars. The state of being a beggar is called beggary. Beggary is a serious threat to the development of a nation, one of the dark faces of the Indian economy, this issue needs serious and urgent reform. 

CAUSES

The main cause of beggary is poverty. Lack of money to sustain their livelihood drives these helpless disenfranchised people to go out on the streets and beg for money. As per the Census 2011, there are 3.7 lakh beggars in the country. Lack of proper education and adequate skills are also strategic contributors to poor people resorting to beggary. This also has a dangerous impact as these beggars completely rely on begging as a source of income and remain uninterested in finding alternative sources of income. This has grave consequences for a developing nation such as India as instead of engaging in meaningful productive work, millions of people of all gender and ages are being wasted away with untapped resources which can derail a country’s progress in many ways. Beggars have become a menace to the society and now they have begun forcing their kids to do the same. A cruel aspect of begging is that they sometimes even resort to mutilating body parts to garner sympathy to earn more. It hinders the development of the country as well as its women and children. 

CHILD BEGGING

Nowadays child beggars have become very conspicuous. We see hundreds of children out on the streets every day begging for money. This is a part of a very dangerous racket run by unscrupulous men that use unsuspecting vulnerable children to fulfill their greed. This has now turned into a very profitable money minting business by drug cartels that kidnap little kids and force them to go out on the streets and beg for them only to pocket all the pennies they spent all day out in the sun begging for. These children are becoming victims of a heinous crime. These kids are starved, beaten, tortured and sometimes their limbs are cut off to garner the sympathy of passersby. The only way this can stop is if we all just stop handing out money. There is also the herculean task of changing attitudes towards begging, which is often accepted as a way of life for the poor and worthless. 

The government needs to ban the practice of begging on the streets. There should be an initiative by the government to provide these homeless people with homes and meaningful jobs. Under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 child labor and child begging are prohibited, child cruelty is also a punishable offence under this act. 

Lakshyam NGO- Our purpose of existence is to enhance the lives of disadvantaged children and women, and to offer a positive direction and a healthier approach towards life. Lakshyam continues to vow a credible, honest, transparent and accountable organization that devotes itself towards a privileged future.

Women Empowerment: Social and national profit

Women in the society have remained under the veils of culture for a longer than they should . They have been agreed or they have been forced to agree to remain has such. But it is high time they understand their true value and potential. To bring out the change they want first they must be the change. 

The topic of women empowerment is possibly one of the most controversial one because it is often misunderstood by both men and women. India is famous for having patriarchal society where women have been denied their rights since the ancient times. And they have deliberately agreed to this submission. Even in this generation the passive agents of patriarchy are also women. 

Women empowerment refers to the creation of an environment where they can make their decisions and have the freedom to do it without having any fear of judgement. It refers to increasing and improving the social, economic, political and legal strength to the women and to make sure they live as 

• Freely live their lives with the sense of self-worth, dignity and respect. 
• Have complete control of their lives both within their home and outside. 
• To make their own choice and decision.
• Have equal rights to participate in social and public activities 
• Have equal social status in the society. 
• Equal right for social justice 
• Economic and financial choices determination. 
• Equal right in work place and right to education. 
• Right to choose the spouse. 

Improving education for women helps raise their levels of health and nutrition , and self confidence. It enables them to find a job, engage in public activities such as debates and make demands to the Government. In short education empowers women to make choices that improve their own standard of the family. Women these days have started realising their importance of themselves and are already take a step ahead for example from grass root level to the highest top. In rural settings large number of Self Help Groups can be seen. Apart from them ASHA workers ICDS workers GNMs ANMs are the areas where women are solely required.

The barriers to women empowerment are mainly cultural and social norms that prevent them to take adequate measurement for their development. Many women feel these pressures while others become accustomed to being treated inferior to men. Apart from this, gender discrimination, harassment (physical, mental & psychological) and violence are major barriers. According to ILO 52% of women have received some form of sexual violence.

In different stages of 5 year plans many schemes have been taken up for the purpose of women empowerment and development such as, 

• Beti bachao beti padhao. 
• One stop centre scheme. 
• UJJAWALA : for prevention of trafficking and rescue and rehabilitation. 
• Working women hostel. 
• Swadhar Greh 
• Nari shakti purashkar etc 

Women empowerment isn’t something that can be given to a person but it is them who have to realise their self worth and importance. Even with all the facilities provided a woman can be withheld from being independent. The goal is to bring change in the mentality of the victims and to make them realise that they should seek their rights. Because an educated boy will take care of a family, educated girls brings change to the nation. One of the major and most empowering things in recent days has to be the abolition of teen-talak. It is not only disgraceful but also inhuman. This ritual has been going on for hundreds of years and women have finally raiser their voice against it this marks as a historical change in the history of development and empowerment of women.

Woman and Child Development by Lakshyam NGO in Delhi

The condition of women in India as well the rest of the world personifies pitiful. Lakshyam NGO in Delhi is working for Woman and Child Development. Give your exceptional support to us so we can work together for the most vulnerable and make the big difference to the life of a poor women and children.

Please contribute for the upliftment & empowerment of poor women in India. 

Contact us LAKSHYAM SCHOOL
Add: A 53 , Ground Floor,Near Kaushambi Metro Station,
Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh,
India
Ph: 9540780002
Email: support@lakshyam.co.in
Website: http://www.lakshyam.co.in/rooh-women-welfare-program/

Lakshyam NGO - A Non-governmental Organization in Delhi

Established in 2012, Lakshyam is an NGO that uplifts children and women of at-risk communities through education & employment. Currently functional in 11 states of India with 13 centers, Lakshyam’s Butterfly: Child Welfare & Education’ program offers holistic education to children,‘Lakshyam Toy Library’ is a need based approach and ‘Rooh: Awakening Women’s Soul' is designed to empower women via awareness,initiation and action. Lakshyam's purpose of existence is to enhance the lives of disadvantaged children and women, and to offer a positive direction and a healthier approach towards life.Lakshyam continues to vow a credible,honest,transparent and account able organization that devotes itself towards a privileged future.

Social Welfare in Delhi: NGO for children

There are an enormous number of NGOs for children coming up in the metropolitan city of Delhi; NGOs that tackle different kinds of problems and are trying to make our earth a better place to live in from different fronts, but a majority of them with children as their major stakeholders. There are quite a number of adversities that the world is facing today: global poverty, climate change, terrorism, rising inequalities etc.; and there are attempts being made to deal with them as well. But global problems need global solutions where the whole world works together for a long-term goal of a better and sustainable environment. Now, if we are talking about the future, today’s children have a major role to play. It is the love, values and nurturing we give today that will determine if they would also become global citizens.

In an ever-expanding city like Delhi with people from all backgrounds living together, it becomes easier to merge different groups of people and help them empathize and work for each other. One can often see children as young as four years of age begging in the streets with clothes that are torn from every visible point, while at the other end there are children who have the luxury of having different kinds of food every day and have matching shoes for every dress they own. If one spends some time with the former lot, it becomes evident that poverty cannot be eradicated in one day or with just one kid becoming a millionaire; it is a step-by-step process; the many NGOs that operate in the city are in this process. There are various things that are being done:

• Catering to the educational needs of children
• Eradicating the evils of child-abuse, trafficking and child labor
• Providing vocational training to develop skills to be able to be self-dependent and self-sustainable
• Providing with a conducive and progressive environment for their development without any short comings
• Providing a forum for the exchange of ideas on the social, cultural and educational conditions of society because children, especially those who are under-privileged and exploited cannot by themselves bring themselves out of their miserable conditions; NGOs act as the voice of these children.
• Influencing the laws of the country to protect the rights of children
• Taking care of the health of the under-privileged and under-nourished children by providing for nutritional food

Among all such NGOs, Lakshyam is one that is engaged in a number of social welfare activities, child welfare being one of its major frontiers. It is registered as trust under the Indian Trust Act 1882 with amalgamation of Lakshyam, a society; registered under Societies Registration Act 1860. Since its inception in 2004, it has established itself for mankind at large, catering to the impoverished sections of the society and fighting for their rights, so as to one day bring about a more egalitarian world. Based in Delhi itself, it has two centers in Vasant Kunj and Ghaziabad. But with an aim to offer every child their fundamental right to education, Lakshyam has slowly grown into a larger organisation covering 11 states of India. At the onset of its journey, Lakshyam set up free-of-cost remedial schools to provide basic education to children by instilling in them a new interest in studying. In areas that lack basic habitable conditions, it set up sustainable sources of energy and electricity.

So as some person once said, indeed: ‘the children of today are the future of tomorrow’. Sometimes it may seem like it is taking forever for a change to come about or it may take an era for just a minor change to come about, but what is most important is the courage to empathize rather than sympathize and indeed take whatever action one can take to keep moving forward; even the thought counts. For us to bear witness to the changes that the NGOs are striving to bring about by working for the children of tomorrow, we must take our little steps in that path as well.

Child Welfare Programmes in India

A country with a population of more than 1.2 Billion, of which more than 27 percent lies below 14 years of age, significance of education and future employability is something that several government and non government organizations have picked up. Many Child Welfare Programmes catering to education, health and hygiene, income generation and inclusive growth like Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Right to free and compulsory Education, mid day meal and so on and so forth have been rolled out by the government of India. However the enrolment and retention are the two major drawbacks that these programmes are currently facing. Owing to dependency ratio as high as 52 percent, children are forced to drop out of schools to financially support their families by begging, working as domestic help or at times working in environment as hazardous as cracker manufacturing. This is the major lacuna that NGOs like Lakshyam are targeting at; by providing holistic development of children. Lakshyam is working religiously to provide basic education to student in order to get them enrolled in formal schools. Apart from proving basic education in subjects like Hindi, English and Mathematics; they are providing various skill development trainings like Bottle decoration, diya decoration, handicrafts made out of waste material and so on so forth. This part time source of income let this underprivileged section to continue with their education. Biases in enrolment are another issue that has not been given enough substance. State of female enrolment and retention is all the more dismal due to the societal biases and high masculinity index of the country. Welfare schemes like beti bachao beti padhao have been initiated by the government; however a lot of work needs to be done at the ground level to change the mindset of people. 

With India set to become the country with largest population in working age, instead of reaping the benefits of demographic dividend, it may fall is the vicious circle of unemployment and lowering demand due to high proportion of jobs in unorganized sector. Hence it is imperative to take immediate steps to restructure the Child welfare programmes in India, as any thoughtful measure taken to improve the life of children at this stage would have impact on the generations to follow. Also under the UNDP Millennium development goal 2 and 3 primary education and gender equality & women empowerment respectively are the two issues that India as a country is committed to. Hence programmes needs to be (re)structured after rigorous in-sighting, one needs to know all the stakeholders and their role in decision making process. Programme touching all the decision making point is essential to (re)structure the welfare programmes in India as decision making is collaborative. Last but not the least is effective implementation, which is not meagre creating awareness but continuously, improving the system based on the 360 degree feedback that you get. 

With its outreach programme across different states of the country, Laksyam intends to involve all the stakeholders from children to parents to society at large. It has brought together the strata which are far from each other in terms of opportunities and resources with its Toy Library Programme. This has been a perfect example of uplifting the JJ Bastis of Vasant Kunj; which are right in the middle of cities yet so far. Seeking a society with equitable resources and opportunities is essential for reaping demographic dividend and in order to attain equitable society, the need of the hour is effective Child welfare schemes in developing countries like India.