A widow of Kaliga village of Ranchi ... was beaten up by women of her village with sandals and broomsticks. Then her head was shaved and face smeared with lime powder. She was stripped and forced to wear a dhoti and a pagri and paraded through the streets. Her crime: She had broken the taboo on women tilling the land and violated the firm belief of the ... adivasis, that this resulted in famine. But Shankhani Devi couldn't have just sat back and watched (when) her 20-year-old son ... refused to do the job, she picked up the yoke and tilled her land with the help of a bull. ... The village priest ... recalled: "I had objected and even tried to stop her from tilling the land, but she did it.                    (Source: The Indian Express, 15 August, 1998)