Witchcraft Practice a is Big Blot on our modern society and being practiced widely in tribal belt of our country. But authorities have failed to check this
Plz go thru the fo;;owing News item,
WITCH HUNTING: HAPLESS WOMEN MURDERED ON THE ALTAR OF COVETOUSNESS
On 6th September, 2010, a tribal, Hemabram Soma, was bludgeoned to death by villagers, in a tribal village, Tilana in western Dinajpur. He was done to death for being the husband of an alleged witch, Malo Hansda. Actually, sometime ago, three villagers died in suspicious circumstances. The local soothsayer ascribed it to a witch and declared Malo as the witch. A bit later the local leader, who had led the people to the soothsayer, suffered the loss of his son. This proved to be the last straw, and the local congregation of villagers pronounced a punishment on Hansda and her husband, Soma. The verdict entailed transferring a bigha of land to the leader and a pecuniary fine of Rs. 5934. Soma paid the cash but declined to transfer the land. In anger, the villagers beat the whole family black and blue and Soma succumbed to his injuries later. The police made a short work of the incident and ascribing the crime to superstition registered a much diluted FIR.
According to the findings of an NGO, Rural Litigation and Entitlement Centre, 150-200 females are branded as witches or demons and killed in India. In this respect, Jharkahand tops the charts and is followed by Andhra Pradesh while Orissa and Haryana follow close on heels. As a result in the last fifteen years, about 2500 females have been killed on the altar of superstition. And these figures are based upon the cases that could get registered in FIRs while the actual figures will be much high given the fact that the police is averse to registering FIR in the remote areas.
These cases are just projected as based upon superstitions but the real story is always something more than this. Branding a witch is just a ploy to cover up many dark conspiracies. Sometimes it is a matter of coveting property or inspired by revenge or even invoked by the local strongmen to prove their power and pelf. The last case happened in Tilana village. Even the president of the NGO, Rural Litigation and Entitlement Centre, Avadhesh Kaushal avers to the fact that in most of the cases such females are targeted that are single widows or divorcees. They are targeted for property and possessions. Also in many cases those females are targeted who resist s*xual advances from the powerful men. They are then declared witches, paraded naked, forced to eat foul matter, have hair plucked out etc. In most cases after being put to this shameful treatment females commit suicide.
Noteworthy is the fact that witches come only from the dalit or depressed classes. None has heard ever of witches coming from the upper castes. Tribals do have a traditional acceptance for this concept. The reason is that in the absence of modern medical facilities, they cure their diseased in this way with the help of spirits they believe in. but the practice of this superstitious evil by the educated and prosperous sections of society depict the malaise of greed and covetousness. We do not say that this practice is defensible in case of tribals but they need to be taught that witches are not the culprits of their plight but those who have shorn them of their legitimate and legal rights to roads, health and education and other basic human amenities. The educated section cannot even be told anything as they are not sleeping and it is impossible to wake up an already wide awake person.
The situation needs serious intervention from the governments. In Bihar, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh laws have been passed to put paid to this but they have not been strictly enforced. In the hoopla of ‘honour killings’, not even the NGOs and civil society institutions are paying any attention. We need also to look at ‘witch-killings’.
