The ‘Witches’ of Jharkhand

Witch Hunting, also known as Dayan Pratha (डायन प्रथा) is a practice in India, where women are treated as symbols and are considered as a token of their community. On one hand, people worship them as Goddesses, and on the other, kill them thinking them to be a witch. This practice of killing is not new for Indian society. Rather, it’s deep rooted in history.

Witch denotes women who acquire supernatural powers and are indulged in evil practices. They are believed to be associated with negative energy. It is said that they kill innocent people for their betterment and for enhancing their powers. The different names they are referred as, are ‘Chudail’, ‘Dayan’, Tohni’, etc. but the belief is that they possess supernatural powers which are used to hamper other lives. Therefore, Witch Hunting is a process of killing these people in order to protect the society from being harmed by them. In the name of ‘Witch hunting’, people kill or rape innocent women to acquire their property. Sometimes it is used as a tool for vengeance and to target others in local politics.

Victims are mostly widowed women, women who don’t have children, and old women of lower caste. It has been witnessed in rural and tribal areas that if wide-spread diseases or famine occurs, it leads to death of animals as well as human beings. The most vulnerable people of the society are chosen for witch craft. Jharkhand leads in the number of witch-hunt murders, at 523 women who were lynched between 2001-2016.

Why a Woman is declared a Dayan?

Most of these women come from backward areas. They are either adivasees or belong to the Dalit community. There are many reasons why she could be declared a Dayan, including if the cow or buffalo stops giving milk, if the well dries up, if there is scarcity of water or at times even bigger reasons like if a child dies while giving birth. All in all, if any kind of bad fate falls upon a family, the women who had come there from a different family, are considered evil and a symbol of bad luck. Hence, they are perceived as someone with evil powers. In most of the cases that I’ve personally come across, the main reasons are land and property disputes.

Witch doctors known as Ojhas, usually men, are called upon to undo the supposedly evil influences of a witch. Unable to cure or heal people, Ojhas evade responsibility by claiming the existence of a witch somewhere in the vicinity. One word from an Ojha is enough to turn local residents into a frenzied mob out to seek blood-thirsty vengeance and hunt a witch who is usually a weak, lower-caste woman. They claim to do ‘justice’ with her. Many a times, victims and survivors of witch hunting are also the ones suffering from mental illnesses.

Here are some of the cases:

1. In 2015, five women were brutally murdered after a death of a young boy. An entire mob of villagers attacked them because an Ojha had accused them of practicing witchcraft and causing child’s death. The women were jolted awake from their sleep, dragged out of their home and bludgeoned to death. It would be wrong to say that only men victimize them because women can be just as brutal.
2. 50-year-old Phoolbani was branded as a witch by people of Nuwa Gaon village in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. This was in 2005, and it continued for almost 6 months. One morning when her husband was in the washroom, and her son out at school, a group of villagers including 3 people from her in-law’s family barged in her house and dragged her out by her hair. She was forced to drink urine and animal excreta. Her husband, who was an Ojha, was also called a witch. The couple, along with their teenage daughter, were paraded and taken forcibly to another Ojha in a village close to Jamshedpur. On the way, the husband was pushed from a moving train, which was later called an accident by the accused. Phoolbani and her two children were taken out of their village and they now live in an adjoining village close to Chaibasa.
3. In September 2009, an unmarried 37-year-old woman and her 60-year-old mother were killed by a mob of villagers on suspicion that they were dayans, or witches. The mother’s body was discovered with ligature marks on her neck, indicating she had been hanged. The daughter’s body hasn’t been found till date. These are women who are seen as unsupported, either because they are single or widows, and the story is primarily connected to land that belongs to women who are economically well-off or self-sustaining.

Other factors that lead to Witch-hunting

Given that India has a shortage of 83% specialist medical professionals in community health centers and that the levels of education are relatively low in all these areas, people’s belief in Ojhas, the medicine-men, is strong. The lack of such infrastructure is partly responsible for the myriad atrocities, including physical and psychological torture, inflicted on vulnerable women across remote areas of the country. The ‘punishment’ ranges from banishment to death. More often than not, these conflicts arise out of jealousy or conflict, and a tension between the victim and their relatives, friends or acquaintances.

Brain malaria, TB (tuberculosis), diarrhoea, malnutrition and anaemia are common in the villages here. Whenever someone dies because of an illness or lack of healthcare centers or for inability to reach the hospital because of distance or bad roads, someone somewhere is branded as a witch and held responsible for the death.

Although the practice is prevalent in 12 states of India, only 7 state laws have criminalized it. Jharkhand is one of them. However, a large number of perpetrators are still let out on bail, and there is no system to re-arrest them. After talking to a little girl in my village, she told me “I still see my mother’s murderers roaming freely in front of me. I feel scared while going to school.” Her mother was murdered after being branded a witch. There is no guarantee that the girl will not suffer the same fate as her mother. If the perpetrators escaped once, will the second time be any different?

Condition of Jharkhand

Jharkhand ranks highest in “witchcraft” crimes against women (and in certain cases, also men and children).  An analysis of NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) data between 2010 and 2012 reveals that while there were 77 instances of death here, only 9 cases were registered in Jharkhand. The numbers don’t take into account instances like forcing the victim to parade naked in the village square, to eat faeces, banishment and ostracisation; none of which results in a police warrant.

In most cases, the reason is not only superstition. It’s can be a land or financial dispute, a personal grudge or just caste discrimination. A victim’s husband tells that jealousy can be an important factor contributing to lynching. When immediate family members protect the victims, they do so at great danger to themselves.

Legislative Approach to Witch-hunting 

There is no specific national level legislation that penalizes witch hunting. The provisions under Indian Penal Code 1860 can be used as an alternative, and the other sections invoked in such cases are Sec 302 – charge for murder, Sec 307 – attempt for murder, Sec 323 – hurt, Sec 376 – rape and Sec 354 – outraging a woman’s modesty. It is also punishable if due to torture, a woman commits suicide.

Other than that, Partner for Law in Development (PLD) 1998 is a group of legal resource working for social justice and women’s right in India. Many NGOs are working for preventing and protecting women from social evil of witch-hunting. One of them is Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra, which had also filled a PIL in Supreme Court relating to abuse in the name of witch hunting, on behalf of 1000 women in rural Jharkhand.

In addition to UDHR and ICCPR, India has signed Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1993 and had agreed to eliminate discrimination as well as social cruelty against women.

Why is Witch Hunting still being continued?

Evidence – In order to punish one for practicing witch hunting, the court needs proof. In case of a socially manifested crime, people remain silent either out of fear or acknowledgement of the practice, which becomes a hurdle in collecting evidences. Hence, justice is not achieved. Apart from that, usually people who indulge in witch-hunting are influential people and due to fear or threat, no one speaks against them. A case in Jharkhand High Court was dismissed on the basis that the victim failed to prove that she was accused of being a witch and was harmed on that basis.

Delay in reporting – Due to geographical reasons and societal pressure, only a few incidents are reported, that too after a long gap. Hence, it makes the witness testimony unreliable, a ground for not convicting the accused. The ineffectiveness of state legislation is seen through increasing number of witch-hunting incidents after its implementation across states. Also, the quantum of punishment granted to accused is lesser than the gravity of crime they have committed, as the punishment extends merely up to one year with a fine of Rs. 1000, which fails to set deterrence in society.

I hope that while some people are attempting to hunt down ‘witches’, offering them nothing but pain and distress, others can step forward to stop this tradition forever. In a country that looks towards a bright future, how long can we allow such inhuman acts to continue?

Read more: The Prevention of Witch Hunting Bill, 2016