Mail News Service
Saraikela: While the world salutes the Mother�s Tribe on International Women�s Day for great deeds in various fields of daily life, some are kept away from the spotlight but they continue to strive for the salvation of many defenseless souls. Such is the case of Chhutni Mahto, a crusader against the prevalent superstition of dubbing women of practically all ages as witches who supposedly are the Devil�s ambassadors spreading curse on mankind. When the world is honouring women for their multifarious gallantries, Chhutni remains unnoticed by even the district administration.
But Chhutni Mahto remains undeterred in her mission to fight for these women who are dubbed witches by practitioners of superstitious beliefs and bring them back to the mainstream of life. �I will continue to fight for the right of women and for gaining for them a decent way of life. I will fight till the last breath of my life,� said a determined Chhutni Mahto when the Saraikela-Kharsawan district RJD unit honoured her today for her boldness to confront almost singlehandedly the practitioners of superstitions who have accounted for the lives and given wretched social stigmas to innocent and helpless women by dubbing them as witches.
A local source lamented, �Last year, during a function the DC had stated that women tortured by their communities after being dubbed heretics and witches were actually to be revered as Devis but today, on the occasion of International Women�s Day he has absolutely forgotten what he had said about these socially devasted women.�
Chhutni Mahto is also up in arms against the rampantly prevalent practice of child marriage in rural communities. Honouring this social crusader with a shawl and bouquet, RJD leader Arjun Yadav said, �We have been advocating women�s empowerment since the inception of our party. We have been fighting to provide 80 percent share of the political arena to women.�
