How a story challenged a witch-hunting narrative in Jharkhand

I work as a programme officer at Quest Alliance in Jharkhand’s East Singbhum district. My job involves supporting teachers on social–emotional learning (SEL), a teaching method that prioritises deep listening and sharing. I monitor and participate in the games and storytelling sessions that are part of the programme.  

In 2023, I was conducting a class with the students of standard 9 at the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya in my district. We were discussing Sumera Oraon (a pseudonym), whose story was part of the curriculum that we were teaching. Like many women in rural Jharkhand, Sumera was a survivor of witch-hunting; she spent her life fighting the stigma of being branded a witch and countering the superstitions associated with it.

Since it was an SEL class, the focus was on helping the students comprehend their emotions and cultivate empathy for others. The storytelling was followed by a customary reflection session, where students relayed their understanding of the story and how it impacted their life. I noticed a girl who was keenly observing the whole conversation. Once the session was over, she came up to me and asked, “You said this is a true story. Can you give me Sumera’s phone number?”

I replied, “Why do you need her number?” The child told me about her grandmother who was being called a witch in their village and had been ostracised by the people.

She said, “No one in our village comes close to my grandmother or talks to her. They say that she casts an evil eye on children. She is not even allowed to buy things from the shops in the village.”

I asked her to go home and tell her family what she had learned from Sumera’s story. She had to first make herself aware of what was happening and understand what the truth was, before taking the message to her family members—only then would she be able to convince her family that witches don’t exist and are a product of superstition.

Her grandmother had had enough and was ready to leave the village because the entire community was against her. But the young girl convinced her family to take the matter to the panchayat because she had been told at school that it is a punishable offence to call a person a witch and discriminate against them. At the panchayat meeting, the family members reasoned, “Our family has so many children who are all healthy. If her presence affected children, wouldn’t they too be suffering?” The panchayat ruled in favour of the family, and the villagers had to relent. It has been more than a year since that conversation, and the family is still living in the village.     

I later told the girl that this had only been possible because of her ability to apply the lessons from the story in her life. She responded by saying, “When I write down my reflections from a story, I become more confident and less scared to voice my opinions.”

Priti Mishra is a programme officer at Quest Alliance.

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Know more: Learn why social–emotional learning in India needs to be intersectional.

Do more: Connect with the author at priti@questalliance.net to learn more about and support her work.