The Vinitika Lal Award

Each year, on December 12th, Vinitika Lal’s birthday, EquiVoice Alliance Foundation will announce the award recipients: two individuals and one collective or institution that have significantly contributed to preventing witch hunting. The selection will be made through a participatory and transparent process by a selection committee consisting of representatives from the community, survivors, academicians, and the Foundation.

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Celebrate Courage, Support Change: The Vinitika Lal Award

The Vinitika Lal Award on Prevention of Witch-Hunting salutes the work of late Vinitika Lal, a psychologist and gender justice campaigner who took on one of the most horrible forms of violence against women, tirelessly. You become a part of this process and effort through this award program, made by unsung heroes fighting such grave injustice.

EquiVoice Alliance Foundation: Creating Change

At the EquiVoice Alliance Foundation, we stand against witch hunting for the justice of survivors. During the time that the Foundation has been in operation, its ongoing work to prevent this crime should identify and recognize resource persons and champions emerging from such processes. Champion Survivors: Our interventions rehabilitate the survivors and also equip them to become resource persons who champion their communities in prevention from witch hunting.

The Dark Reality of Witch-Hunting

Witch-hunting is a brutal crime, quite inhuman, where most times, completely innocent women have become the targeted sport because of superstition or just to satisfy somebody's greed and urge to exert their authority upon them. The rural parts of India, especially the states like Jharkhand in India, record torture, social ostracism, and even murder of such labeled "witches" in rituals.

These victims are usually married women who have been accused of witchcraft. The accused reason behind such accusations is due to personal grudges, disputed lands, and even sometimes the assertiveness of a woman in society.

Entire families are destroyed, leaving survivors traumatized and socially isolated.

Witch hunting is one of those manifestations that keep a culture of fear, ignorance, and deeprooted gender inequality alive.

But owing to a lack of awareness and grassroots-level intervention, this practice continues unabated in rural pockets despite laws to prevent it.