Ranchi, March 4: Seven year-old Pushpa and Savita (9) Kujur hid in the fields at night while their parents were slaughtered by villagers who alleged they were practising witchcraft.

Today, a little less than a year later, the two sisters (names changed by this paper to protect their identity) were smiling when they were told that they had got admission to Kasturba Gandhi Girls School in Gumla and handed over a cheque of Rs 2 lakh, courtesy Jharkhand State Legal Services Authority (Jhalsa).

The day after that horrific night in April last year, police arrived and registered a case. The culprits who killed Kujurs' parents were arrested and convicted.

The Gumla District Legal Services Authority, along with the district administration, worked in tandem to ensure the girls were looked after and that their future was secured. The boarding school admission and the cheque happened under the aegis of Jhalsa's victim emancipation programme, the third a state level colloquium, which was held at Nyay Sadan here today.

According to Jharkhand High Court judge and Jhalsa executive chairman D.N. Patel, as many as 600 people were given compensation in cash or in the form of jobs with the state government helping out with a grant of Rs 2.5 crore.

Reema Kumari, an acid attack victim, received Rs 3 lakh , while Santosh Tirkey of Khunti and Ram Chandra Naik of Gumla got appointment letters to become police constables. Both Tirkey and Naik lost their fathe8rs in Naxalite violence.

"Now that I have a government job of a police constable, I will be able to look after my family," Tirkey later told The Telegraph.

Supreme Court Justice S.A. Bobde lauded the initiative.

"The sorrow of the victim ought to be acknowledged by the state as well. Punishing the accused is only one part of the justice delivery system. Judges are also vested with the responsibility of providing just compensation to victims," he said.

Chief minister Raghubar Das pledged his commitment to the Jhalsa initiative and said that funds for compensating victims would be doubled to Rs 5 crore next year.