Witch Hunting On The Rise Across Several Indian States
The practice of witch-hunting in India, which includes extreme violence and deep rooted beliefs have led to the torture and murder of alleged witches. State Governments and rationalists have been trying to address the issue but have failed on several counts. Presently 4 states in India-Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Odisha have laws to tackle the social evil of witch hunts. Chhattisgarh’s Tonahi Pratadna Nivaran Act of 2005, Bihar’s Prevention of Witch (Daain) Practices Act (1999) and the Witchcraft Prevention Act, 2001, in Jharkhand. Rajasthan government has came up with a draft legislation that lays down stringent punishment for those who harass or assault women by accusing them of being witches.
The practice of witch-hunting in India, which includes extreme violence and deep rooted beliefs have led to the torture and murder of alleged witches. State Governments and rationalists have been trying to address the issue but have failed on several counts. Presently 4 states in India-Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Odisha have laws to tackle the social evil of witch hunts. Chhattisgarh’s Tonahi Pratadna Nivaran Act of 2005, Bihar’s Prevention of Witch (Daain) Practices Act (1999) and the Witchcraft Prevention Act, 2001, in Jharkhand. Rajasthan government has came up with a draft legislation that lays down stringent punishment for those who harass or assault women by accusing them of being witches.
The National Crime Records Bureau says 2,097 murders were committed between 2000 and 2012 where witch hunting was the motive. Out of these, 363 were reported from Jharkhand and this figure does not include the murders in 2000, when Jharkhand was a part of Bihar. The Jharkhand Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office puts the total number of such murders from 2001 to October 2013 at 414 and cases registered for witchcraft at 2,854. Apart from Jharkhand, at least 11 other states - Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Assam and Bihar - still report cases of witch hunting.
National Crime Records Bureau Report 2010 says Haryana contributed 32.0% of murders due to ‘Witchcraft’, and the bureau’s 2012 report Crimes in India says Odisha accounted for 26.9% of murders due to ‘witchcraft’. Under culpable homicide not amounting to murder Odisha accounted for 75.0% cases due to 'Witchcraft’.
Sixteen of the 27 Assam districts have reported witch-hunt attacks, in which over 150 people have died since 2002.
In 2015: In Mayangi village of Odisha’s Ganjam ,35-year-old Mitu Swain was assaulted and fed with human excreta by villagers after being accused of practicing witchcraft.
A middle-aged woman, Kati Taro, was allegedly branded a witch and physically assaulted in her village on the outskirts of Guwahati, Assam. Some villagers, who allegedly took pity, intervened and saved her from getting killed.
In 2014: Last year, in the month of October, police arrested two villagers at Dokmoka in Karbi Anglong district, Guwahati for leading hundreds to torture Debojani, an athlete, after branding her a witch. The athlete was tied up with a fishing net and then brutally beaten up in the presence of villagers. Suffering from grave injuries she was later admitted to a hospital by family members. Debojani, 35, had represented Assam in several national meets, had won a gold medal in javelin throw.
In August, in the same place, villagers pounded a 60-year-old woman on the suspicion of her being a witch.
An elderly woman was beaten, stripped and tied to an electricity pole for about 12 hours in a village in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj after she was accused of being a witch. Police later arrested 10 people in the case and charged them with various offences including attempt to murder.
In 2013: Bihurama Ganju, a resident of Gurunjuli village was beaten to death by villagers for allegedly practicing witchcraft.
According to Crime Branch (CB) sources, at least 56 persons were killed in 2013, 35 in 2012, 39 in 2011 and 31 in 2010 in the name of witchcraft and according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, 54 women were murdered in Jharkhand alone in 2013, the highest in the country, with witch-hunting as motive.
In 2012: Three women of a family in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district were killed after a kangaroo court held them guilty of practising witchcraft.
Women aren’t the only victims of witch hunt. An elderly man and his wife were forced to ingest human urine and excrement in Jharkhand.
In 2011: In Assam, a mother-daughter duo were accused of being witches, but police later found out that the accusations were used as a pretext for their rape.
In 2010: A local court in Odisha’s Sambalpur, awarded death sentence to a 53-year-old Rajesh Hembram who had axed his 10-year-old granddaughter under the superstition that her death will fetch him a good harvest.
In another, a case was reported from Cuttack, in which three tribal youths allegedly cut off 60-year old Bajru Hembram’s head, believing him to be a witch doctor and holding him responsible for the death of a villager who had succumbed to brain malaria. They even kept his severed head for display in the village.
