Three months back, a 58-year-old woman was assaulted and forced to swallow excreta by her own relatives on the suspicion of being a witch at a village in Dumka district of the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.
However, she was lucky that no violence befell her. She plucked up enough courage to complain to the police where she revealed that nine of her relatives had been harassing her on the charge of practising witchcraft for several days.
Horrific tales of witch-hunting
During investigations, police determined that the real reason was that her relatives wanted to evict her and occupy her house.
In 2019, four people were lynched by a mob in Jharkhand. The victims, who were all over 60, were dragged out of their homes and beaten to death by masked men wielding sticks. Eight of the attackers were arrested by police.
Jharkhand, with 173 deaths in 5 years, reports most fatalities from witch-hunting in India. Our investigations across 2 districts show that it is a poor healthcare system that drives this crime, with villagers seeking cures from witch doctors https://t.co/ShoLKGQmdI #healthcare
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) March 3, 2020
At around the same time in Odisha, a tribal woman along with her two sons and two daughters were murdered and their bodies were dumped in a well close to their house. People believed her to be a witch.
Murder driven by the belief in black magic is common in Jharkhand. According to the latest National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data of 2020, 15 women were murdered on allegations of witchcraft.
The states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha – all with sizeable indigenous populations - together recorded 88 murders attributed to witch-hunting.
Beliefs
“Superstitious beliefs among the tribal population are habitually made out to be the reason," a senior police official told RFI. "But class and gender discrimination, as well as revenge, are often the real causes.
“Branding women as witches is particularly prevalent among tribal communities in the state.”
Though cases of witch-branding have been reported from 12 states in India, it is prevalent in just a handful of states.
About 2,300 murders of so-called witches were committed country-wide between 1999 and 2013.
In many cases that have been chronicled, innocent women are accused of being witches and held responsible for the deaths of children and livestock, spreading illness in the village, crop failure, and other mishaps.
Families of the women who have been branded witches are often ostracised from the village.
Because of poor development and health infrastructure in some of the impoverished areas of these states, villagers in distress find it easier to seek help from quacks and faith-healers, who wield influence over them.
“Single women who were widowed or separated were found to be the most vulnerable groups in witch-branding related crimes," said B N Durga of the NGO Action Aid Association. "Children of the victims also face the brunt of the stigma."
A recent study, Witch-Hunting in Odisha conducted by the State Commission for Women and Action Aid Association had some interesting revelations.
Poor development and health indicators
It pointed out, that 27 percent of witch-branding cases had occurred due to health issues in children, 43.5 percent followed health issues of an adult family member and 24.5 percent were due to misfortune or land grabbing. Another 5 percent were due to crop failure.
Witch-Hunting is still prevalent in most parts of India. As many as twelve states of India have seen instances of witch-hunting. According to National Crimes Record Bureau reports 2019, 102 reported cases in India where the murder was witch-hunting. https://t.co/bsta3AvC1V
— RestingWitchFacets (@restingwitches) May 30, 2021
One significant challenge while dealing with the study of the witch-hunting problem is unavailability of reliable adequate data.
In several cases, attacks and other punitive actions by community members are not documented.
However, researchers and NGOs have found that states with the highest number of witch-hunting murders are the ones with large tribal population and poor socio-economic infrastructure with gender disparity.
Though several states have passed the Prevention of Witch Practices Act, which empowers the state to punish those who brand women as witches, it has not proved to be a sufficient deterrent.
