Think witch-hunting is a thing of the past? Think again.
"They forced me to eat human faeces and beat my children, calling them ‘children of a witch.’ I had nowhere to escape. They tortured me mercilessly.”
Unfortunately, this horrific narrative is not unheard for the Dalit and Adivasi residents in Jharkhand's hinterland, where witch-hunting is a common practice. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 2,097 murders were committed between 2000 and 2012, where the motive was "witch hunting". People, mostly women, are targeted and branded witches whenever a calamity befalls the village – be it death, disease or drought. Witch doctors known as Ojhas, mostly men are called upon to undo the supposedly evil influences of a witch. Many a times, victims and survivors of witch hunting are also women suffering from mental illnesses.
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’, usually a weak, lower-caste woman, and bring her to ‘justice’.
In 2015, five women were brutally murdered after a youth’s untimely death in Jharkhand -- an entire mob of villagers attacked them after an ojha accused them of practising witchcraft and causing his death. The women were jolted awake from their sleep, dragged out of their home and bludgeoned to death. It isn’t just men who victimise them either; women can be just as brutal.
