India News: Witch Hunting Still Prevalent Despite Law Prohibiting the Act
Suspected witches in India continue to suffer at the hands of their accusers despite the presence of laws prohibiting witch-hunting.
According to a report by The Economist, witch-hunting is still common in India, specifically across the center of the country, including the big rural states of Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha. While five Indian states have passed laws that would penalize those making explicit accusations of witchcraft, Tara Ahluwalia, the head of an NGO in Bhilwara that defends women from violence, no one has been prosecuted yet.
"Now that we have one, why aren't they using the law? Because the police have no will to act," Ahluwalia, said.
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According to Ahluwalia, who has documented 86 witch-hunts in the past two decades in Bhilwara, a district in India with a population of two million, only three people who have been accused of witchcraft has died through witch-hunting. Despite surviving death, though, many of those suspected as witches ended up having a fate tantamount to death as they are forced to banish from society.
"The worst thing is the social stigma," Ahluwalia said, explaining that it is not only the suspected witches who suffer but their whole family, too.
Ramkanya Sen is one example of Indian women who were unfairly accused of being a witch after Pooja, a 16-year-old Jat girl, developed stomach pains. When the girl was brought to a shaman, it was quickly suggested that she had been a victim of witchcraft. While it is unclear whether it was Pooja who suggested Sen's name, as the old woman was seen sitting on a doorstep near the girl's school and acting weirdly after banging her head a few years ago, Sen was eventually accused of being a witch.
Pooja's family initially wanted Sen to be banished until the whole family beat her husband and threatened to burn down their house. However, Sen's three sons appeased the Jats by promising them that they would imprison their own mother.
"So who is the criminal? I am old and my children and grandchildren have to live here," Sen told The Economist.
In August, it was also reported that 40-year-old widow, Kanya Devi, from Rajasthan's Ajmer district was assaulted by two of her relatives and a neighbor after she was labeled a witch. According to reports, Devi was dragged by her hair, stripped, lashed, and made to eat feces. She was also forced to lie on a bed of embers that were later shoved into her eyes that made her blind.
Devi died a day after the assault.
"She was badly tortured. The accused have admitted to forcing her to eat feces, lashing and burning her," revealed Ajmer Superintendent of Police Rajendra Singh.
