Within
the country where women are worshipped like goddesses, there is
another India where the ghar ki Lakshmi is branded a witch and mercilessly
slaughtered
Maina
is a lovely 18-year-old. She lives with her widowed mother Shanichari.
Shy and innocent, she’s the typical village belle who wants a good
husband and beautiful children.The village drunkard Kallu - also the
headman’s son - has other ideas. He wants Maina for himself. Her mother
refuses, slapping and insulting Kallu. In the next few days, a villager
falls gravely ill and finally dies. The local ojha points a finger of
suspicion at Shanichari. The villagers take his word. Despite the mother-daughter’s
protests, Shanichari is branded a witch and burnt alive in front of
the whole village. Kallu now has Maina to himself.
This is the
story of Jeet, a docu-drama. But Maina’s story is repeated
in villages across India. Women who try and defy men are molested, raped
and killed after being branded witches. And the villagers agree, even
condone the practice of ‘dainpratha’
(witch hunting).
Sample this:
In 2004, Sakhi Devi of Sonahatu village in Ranchi was returning home
one evening when she was suddenly attacked by a man from her village.He
beat her mercilessly.. on her head, accusing her of practicing witchcraft,
leaving the 60-year-old woman un-conscious. It was only after the intervention
of villagers that Sakhi was brought to a hospital where she lived to
narrate her tale.
In 2005, Salge
Oraon, a resident of Ranikunder village in east Singbhum was hacked
to death by villagers for being the cause of illness. “Pay Rs 10,000
as fine,” Salge was told. When she failed to comply she was beheaded
before the family and burnt to destroy telltale evidence.
“I was
shocked when I found villagers thought nothing of brutally killing their
kin without batting an eyelid. Even children are hardened to this reality
and encourage witch-hunting,” says Jeet
director Lavlin Thadani.
The motive could be
anything - a personal slight, refusing advances, reluctance to sell
land or bearing girl children. A woman guilty of any of these ‘charges’
is likely to have her breasts chopped off, her teeth broken, limbs amputated,
blinded and finally killed. “Since the cops, ojha and few powerful
men in the village are hand-in glove, the procedure is carried out with
utmost precision. So much so that the villagers (including the women)
are thankful that the evil spirit has been exorcised,” says Thadani.
NATIONWIDE PROBLEM
There are endless
instances where women have been called witches, stripped, shaven
and made to make rounds of the village and even eat and drink their
own urine and excreta. In many parts of Rajasthan, particularly
Dungarpur, Banswara, Udaipur, Tonk, Chittorgarh, Kota and Bhilwara it
has been seen that women are branded witches. If not killed, such women
often commit suicide. Witch-hunting is prevalent in the tribal heart
land of central Gujarat, comprising Vadodara, Panchmahals and Dahod
districts. Branded as ‘dakan’, NGOs say about 100 cases are reported
in these three districts every year. “Most of these cases go unrecorded
or are registered under mental or physical harassment,” says activist
Kanu Brahmbhatt, who has worked extensively amongst tribals in Dahod.
Most villagers,
even members of the victim’s family; remain silent spectators. “We
have to follow our tradition. We can not go against what has been happening
down the ages. Even those who realise that this is wrong seldom
raise a voice as nobody dares go against tradition and the dictat of the ‘badva’ or witch doctor,” says Ratansinh Bilval
of Vanka village in Dahod district.
Activists
say cases abound, especially in tribal-dominated belts. In a recent
g case, a tribal woman working with her husband in Surat was branded
a witch after a relative of her husband fell ill in their native village
of Bhathiwada in Dahod. Her husband broke all ties with her and forced
her to leave the village. She is now working as a labourer in Vadodara and stays alone.
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A woman
guilty of refusing
advances, reluctance to sell land or bearing girl children is likely to be
branded a witch and have her breasts chopped off, teeth broken,limbs
amputated, eyes gouged out and then killed |
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In Andhra’s
Medak district, just’ a couple of weeks ago women branded as witches
were tied to a pole in the middle of the village and beaten up. The
police came to their rescue before any thing fatal happened. The districts
of Warrangal, Ranga Reddy, Medak and Nizamabad are most notorious for
witch hunt in AP.
The practice of
witch-hunting in Assam continues to rear its ugly head. At least 12 people were
killed till August this year alone after being branding witches. The
practice is mostly prevalent in the impoverished villages of Western Assam
districts along the Indo-Bhutan border.
Incidents
of witch-hunting are reported frequently in West Bengal. In the tea
gardens in north Bengal, killing women for allegedly practising witchcraft
is frequent. Janghrus and ojhas with their magic cures hold sway over
the tea labour community because of the miserable health of the garden
labourers. In the past, 13 years, more than 85 women have
been killed for practising ‘witchcraft’.
WHERE’S
THE LAW?
Ironically, though
a Prevention of Witch Practices Act was passed in undivided Bihar’
in 1999, a low literacy rate and an ailing public health structure has
made the law almost meaningless. “There are dozens of remote villages
in the state which are steeped In poverty and superstition where villagers
have never seen a school or even a doctor. How do you expect them to
comprehend the law,” asks Dayamani Balra, a social worker in Ranchi.
Gujarat has no separate
Act banning or preventing witchcraft. Says Gujarat law minister Ashok
Bhatt, “We are in the process of studying a Maharashtra Act against
witchcraft, and may consider enacting one for Gujarat after careful
consideration. Unlike other states, people in Gujarat are less superstitious.
Ever since poet-reformer Narmad campaigned against superstition, the
movement against witchcraft has been quite strong in the state.”
SOLUTIONS,
ANYONE?
Interestingly, a number
of victims of witch-hunting have now taken up cudgels for spreading
awareness about the ills of the practice. One such woman is Vaidehi
who is working silently in the villages of Jharkhand making women aware
of their rights. In Rajasthan, the grounds for introducing an Act for
Prevention of Witch Practices have been prepared. The state’s women’s
commission has submitted a detailed Bill to the state government for
introducing it in the Vidhan Sabha.
Activist
Ganesh Devy, who runs an academy in Tejgadh near Vadodara to educate
tribals, feels that only a sweeping social reform can uproot this system.
“Witch-hunting has its roots in gender injustice. One cannot expect
the situation of these woman to improve in a state where their ratio
in the total population is declining,” says Devy.
(Akhilesh Kumar Singh
in Kanpur,Prakash Bhandari in Jaipur, Sonali Das in Ranchi, Pinakpani Chowdhuri
in Ballurghat, Pinak Priya Bhattacharya in Jalpaiguri, Suvro Moita in Malda Sukumar Mahato
in Berhampore, Someswar Boral in Birbhum, Sachin Sharma in Vadodara, Rajiv Shah
in Gandhinagar, Mridula Chunduri in Hyderabad, Naresh Mitra in Guwahati)
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