Women's Day Special: Why India Still Hunts ‘Witches’

While the government promises Viksit Bharat at every step, the very prevalent and gendered issue of witch hunting continues in India even 79 years after Independence, but it is quite astonishing that it has remained invisible in India so far. On International Women’s Day, when India celebrates women’s rights and their achievement, it is very important that we face this harsh reality too.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, more than 2,500 women have been killed on accusations of witchcraft since 2000. The fact that these murders continue to happen is symptomatic of the pervasive patriarchal culture that has resulted in the complete callousness of the state towards these crimes. In fact, the numbers may be much more than that. Witch hunting is, in fact, a war against women – an extreme expression of the oppression that continues to exist in India against women.

A study conducted by Nirantar Trust in Bihar, where 145 women from 114 villages were interviewed, shows the social profile of the victims of the violence. Seventy-five per cent of the women who experienced violence after being accused of practicing witchcraft were between 46 and 66 years of age. An overwhelming 97 per cent of the victims of violence after being accused of practicing witchcraft belonged to the Dalit, Backward, or Extremely Backward Castes. The majority of the victims of violence after being accused of practicing witchcraft came from landless households.

In Outlook Magazine’s March 11, 2023 issue “Every Woman Is A Potential Witch”, we highlighted how violence against, and the murder of, women deemed witches is a regular part of life in various parts of India. (https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/265869)

Abhik Bhattacharya and Md Asghar Khan shed light on the deep roots of misogyny that still persist in our society. They share the story of Holo Devi, 65, who was found in a sack at the foothill of Dhardhariya pahad (hill)—located between the Lohardaga and Gumla districts of Jharkhand—on June 10, 2022, brutally murdered.  (https://www.outlookindia.com/national/the-deep-roots-of-misogyny-magazine-265249)

Most analyses of the persecution of women as witches focus on economistic perspective and tries to attribute it to political economy; the cultural origins of it are undermined, writes S Bosu Mullick in The Land Where Every Woman Is A Witch And Every Man Is A Witch Finder. (https://www.outlookindia.com/national/the-land-where-every-woman-is-a-witch-and-every-man-is-a-witch-finder-magazine-265273)

Govin Kelkar and Dev Nathan enumerate the ways of raising consciousness about the negative aspects of culture and the impact of witch hunting on a sustained basis. They mention the violence inflicted on them includes humiliation, banishment from home and killings along with the seizure of land and properties.  (https://www.outlookindia.com/national/understanding-the-social-basis-of-witch-hunting-is-key-to-ending-it-magazine-265284)

What happens ‘When A ‘Witch’ Fights Back?’ In an interview with Abhik Bhattacharya and Md Asghar, Padma Shri awardee Chutni Mahato talks about her travails after she was branded a witch and became a saviour to 140 victims of witch hunting in Jharkhand. (https://www.outlookindia.com/national/when-a-witch-fights-back-magazine-265326)

Lack of access to healthcare is a major factor that leads to the branding of women as ‘witches’, writes Ajitha Susan George. (https://www.outlookindia.com/national/an-activist-against-witch-hunting-shares-her-insights-magazine-265334) In a study she conducted, she found that the immediate causes of accusations of being a witch and the violence that follows are always health-related.

Six States—Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Assam—have laws criminalising witchcraft, while Maharashtra and Karnataka have laws against black magic and superstition, though they do not specifically address witchcraft.

Headlines like ‘Woman branded as witch, burnt alive’ or ‘Woman forced to eat excreta, paraded naked’ are common in Jharkhand, as well as in other parts of the country. Most of these stories don’t make it to the mainstream media. But data on witch hunting show that this is a consistent under-the-radar part of a genocidal culture against women.