An awardee of one of India’s highest civilian awards this year was once forced to parade around her village semi-naked and made to drink her own urine. Her property was also seized. But Chutni Devi, 2021 Padma Shri awardee for social work, not only overcame her “punishment“ for supposedly being a witch. For almost 20 years now, she has also been helping witch-hunt survivors like her rebuild their lives and create awareness against the practice.
“If a woman is branded as dayan (witch), we first try to resolve the matter through mediation,“ says Devi, who runs a rehabilitation center for witch-hunt survivors in Jharkhand State, in the Indian east. “But if that fails, then we provide legal aid to the victims.“
India may be known as the land of gifted IT engineers, but much of this South Asian nation remains steeped in old traditions and practices, which include some not-so-good ones. Witch hunting, for instance, is still prevalent in India’s rural and tribal areas. Statistics reveal that witch hunting is rampant in Assam, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Many of these states have substantial tribal populations.
In these poor tribal belts, people often rely on the services of ojhas or sorcerers to either cure or point to the source of their miseries. In many cases, the ojhas blame the ailment or bad incident on witchcraft. Next comes identifying the source of that witchcraft, inevitably resulting in a witch hunt. (It is interesting to note that ojhas are always men and there has yet to be a hunt for warlocks.)
Devi herself was branded a witch some 26 years ago after the daughter of her elder brother-in-law fell ill. More recently, Jasmina Tete, 40, says that she suffered physical and verbal abuse from her in-laws when an ojha pointed to her as the reason why her daughter died. According to Tete, her daughter died of tetanus.
Comments Reshma Singh from AALI, or the Association of Advocacy and Legal Initiatives, which provides legal aid and support to witch-hunting survivors in Jharkhand: “We need to strengthen the health services in the state. In the absence of vital public health services, the ojhas will continue leading people astray.“
But Neelesh Kumar Singh, social development program manager at the Jharkhand State Livelihoods Promotion Society (JSLPS), remarks, “There are no easy answers (to this problem). The community targets powerless women under the garb of witch hunting. The underlying reasons may range from illness to personal rivalry to property disputes.“
He adds, “It is a gruesome crime where women are made to eat human excreta, paraded naked, beaten up ruthlessly, threatened, and murdered.“
It takes a village
Indeed, in Jharkhand, at least 15 murders in 2019 were the result of witch hunts. But nongovernmental organizations in the state say that the actual figure could be far higher than that.
“Many times, either the cases are not registered, or are booked under other crimes, not witch hunting,“ says Reshma Singh.
She explains as well, “The cases of witch hunting go unreported because of the collective nature of violence perpetrated by the community. In addition, the victims and witnesses often avoid making a complaint to the police, fearing reprisal from fellow villagers.“
Police authorities also often turn a blind eye to the incidents of witch hunting. Ajay Jaiswal, secretary at the Association for Social and Human Awareness (ASHA) in Jharkhand, recounts, “The other day, a woman ran away from her house after being branded as a witch. Subsequently, she approached the police to file a complaint. However, none of them was willing to register the complaint. So, after she contacted ASHA, we made a phone call to the senior official, the Director-General of Police (DGP), for filing the FIR (First Information Report).“
JSLPS’s Singh, meanwhile, points out, “Even if the FIR is registered, the conviction rate in such cases is meager. The incidents are dismissed due to a lack of proper investigation and the absence of prime witnesses.“
For sure, many state governments have enacted special laws aimed at curbing, if not stopping, witch hunting. For instance, the Prevention of Witch (Daain) Practices Act 1999 was enacted in Bihar and adopted subsequently by Jharkhand as the Prevention of Witch-hunting (Dayan Pratha) Act 2001 and by Chhattisgarh as the Tonahi Pratadna Nivaran Act 2005 (also called the Witchcraft Atrocities Prevention Act 2005). Odisha has its Prevention of Witch-hunting Act, 2013. In early 2015, the Rajasthan Prevention of Witch-hunting Act was passed.
The problem, however, is so deep-rooted and difficult to handle precisely because the entire community is usually involved in the act. It also does not help that many of the laws on witch hunting impose punishments that seem too little given the kind of abuse endured by most of the victims and may not be seen as deterrents. The law in Jharkhand, for example, says that those found guilty of identifying someone as a witch are to pay a fine of INR 1,000-2,000 (US$13.46-26.93) or be imprisoned for three months to one year. One study says, “Criminalization of witch hunting through special laws is an inadequate response to the problem, which has much in common with other forms of violence.“
From legal aid to dance therapy
The good news is that local governments and civic organizations have stepped up their efforts to heighten awareness about the evils of witch hunting, empower women to raise their voices, and help witch-hunt survivors not only with legal and psychosocial assistance but also with livelihood programs.
ASHA itself conducts a week-long workshop using dance therapy for witch-hunting survivors every year with the help of therapists, aside from providing them legal aid, rehabilitation, and psychological support.
One of ASHA’s “graduates,“ in fact, is Chutni Devi, now 62, who still campaigns against witch hunting even as she continues to help rescue women in precarious situations after they were labeled as witches.
For its part, the Jharkhand State, under the Rural Development Department, initiated in 2020 the ambitious Garima project to provide livelihood and social security to survivors of witch hunting. Garima proposes to start one-stop centers for witch-hunt survivors at the block level where women can receive medical, legal, and psychological support in one place.
“The project aims to reach 2,068 villages of 342 gram panchayats (village councils) in 25 selected blocks,“ says JSLPS Chief Executive Officer Nancy Sahay. “So far, more than 1,000 victims of witch hunts in Jharkhand have been identified under the project.“
Pending the building of its one-stop centers, Garima has been running mental-health programs for witch-hunt survivors, using creative mediums like art therapy. Its awareness-raising component, meanwhile, is employing street theater to get its messages across.
“Till now, 270 women have been trained under the program,“ Neelesh Singh says. “These women travel to villages using songs and theater, raising awareness on witch-hunting evil in impacted villages. The troupe stays in each village for two days, recording the case histories of impacted women. Along with this, the women practice slogan writing with children to create awareness among the younger population. In the end, these women conduct rallies to conclude the campaign.“
Women helping women
Garima is also slowly building a community-based network through women’s groups to assist witch-hunt survivors. JSLPS field staffer Reshma Khatun recounts the experience of Vimla Devi, whose relatives branded her as a witch after her brother-in-law’s son became sick: “The family threatened to kill her. The women’s group (tola) raised this issue in the panchayat, attended by 115 people. After that, in September last year, the group conducted a rally to create awareness around the issue. Since then, the family has stopped targeting Vimla. They even started including Vimla in the family social gatherings.“
“I feel stronger after joining the women’s group,“ says Vimla, who now runs her own business with the financial support she received from Garima. “Participating in women’s group activities helps me raise my voice.“
Inspired by these activities, some 48,000 women participated in a signature campaign demanding stricter laws, which was submitted to the Jharkhand Chief Minister. Moreover, to strengthen accountability, a joint review committee has been formed, with 33 members representing government and non-government organizations, as well as UN bodies, to address witch hunting at the state level.
Sahay also reports, “Due to the advocacy efforts of the women’s groups, the community members are now felicitating the women victims and survivors with garlands and clothes. In December 2020, 400 women from 20 villages participated in a felicitation program.“
She says, “I view this as a positive change.“ ●
Dr. Minakshi Dewan is a freelance writer and researcher based in Gurgaon, India.