Barbil: A week-long awareness campaign to eradicate superstition from the society has received warm response from local communities. The programme designed through street plays in nearby seven villages of Deojhar gram panchayat in Keonjhar district, was organised by JSPL Foundation, the CSR arm of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL).
The villages in which as many as 12 plays were performed during the campaign are Sialijoda, Kuldum, Gobardhanpur, Mahadebnasa, Deojhar, Murga and Thakurani.
During the awareness creation programme, short plays were performed by a professional street play troupe on themes based on traditional age old beliefs like witchcraft, animal sacrifice to get rid of health issues and witch-hunting. Locals in large numbers including men, women, elderly people and village health practitioners were seen enjoying the plays. Interestingly, in some villages people were seen enquiring from the troupe about consequences for not following the superstitious beliefs.
Through plays, around 2000 locals were educated about myths, superstitions, rituals and beliefs. They were also informed about the nature of common diseases and their remedies with the help of ASHA workers.
Praising the initiative of JSPL Foundation, Shri Mangal Munda, Sarpanch, Deojhar GP said, “It is a praiseworthy step by JSPL Foundation. We all need to advocate the need for generating these awareness events so that society could be empowered to prevent recurrence of incidents based on superstitions in future”.
Shri Janardan Naik, former Sarpanch, Deojhar GP said, “Such campaigns on a regular basis will certainly put a deep impact on the society resulting in gradual eradication of superstition”.
A month ago a similar motivational programme was organised involving health workers and traditional healers to bring the latter to mainstream medical practice system. JSPL Foundation has been doing such awareness programmes in the tribal dominated district to uproot the evil superstitious practices from the region.
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