Community elders, police must join hands
At a time when India has embarked on the path of high economic growth and is seeking its rightful place in the global comity of nations, it is unimaginable that barbaric practises such as witch-hunting, are still being carried out with impunity. Worse still, these are not isolated cases that occur among a few backward communities in far-flung areas. In recent years, witch-hunting has been reported from all over the country, and while they do mostly happen in rural communities, the latter are hardly cut off from civilisation.
Most recently, over this past weekend, a tribal couple in Jharkhand's Khunti district was lynched to death, following rumours that the husband and wife were practising witchcraft. Khunti, which made headlines for its solar powered district court, has a dark record of such killings. On September 13, a middle-aged woman and her teenaged daughter, who had been previously ostracised by the village, were discovered with their throats slit in Khunti district's Murhu area. On September 11, five members of a latehar family were brutally attacked for practising black magic. On August 14, a 60-year-old tribal widow was killed in Khunti district’s Jamhar village because she was believed to be a witch. On August 7, in Ranchi district, five women were lynched to death after being dubbed similarly.
And this is just a short list of recent cases in one State — Jharkhand. In neighbouring Chhattisgarh's Bemetara district, Dukalheen Bai was tortured for hours and then killed by her brother-in-law for practising witchcraft on her son this October. The situation is hardly any better in the North-East. last month, Debjani Bora, a national-level javelin thrower with gold medals to her credit, was tied up and beaten in her village in the Karbi Anglong district. In July, 63-year-old Purni Orang was beheaded by villagers in Assam’s Sonitpur district, after she was blamed for brining misfortune to the community. Down south in Andhra Pradesh, a four-year-old boy was snatched less than a week ago and beheaded by a so-called witch doctor, who was then set on fire by an angry mob. This list can go on.
It is important to acknowledge that while ignorance and mob mentality often facilitate these gruesome acts (and must be addressed at the socio-political level), superstition or dated beliefs are rarely the main cause. Instead, most such cases are motivated by land-grab aims, property disputes, family disagreements etc. Witch-hunting is just a ruse, with a certain amount of social sanction, to get rid of inconvenient persons. The most important step that needs to be taken to curb this menace is to improve the law and order situation — better policing, better prosecution etc. Some States like Rajasthan, Odisha and Assam now have laws against witch-hunting. But laws are only as good as their implementation. Meanwhile, village elders have a major role to play in addressing the practice. Very often, they turn a blind eye or are complicit in the act.