Adivasis and Harijans worst victim of witchhunting : Survey

Jamshedpur, Oct 29: Adivasis, harijans and other depressed classes are the worst victims of witch-hunting in the tribal-dominated areas in Jharkhand.

The recent killings in West Signhbhum and Palamau districts bore ample testimony to the grave situation in the tribal-dominated areas in the state.

In one incident, four members, including two minors of a poor tribal family at Monaharpur, were butchered on the night of August 24 last for allegedly practising witchcraft. The killers then threw the bodies in nearby Karwao river.

Police recovered the bodies after a few days.

Three days after the Monaharpur killings, an identical incident took place in Shivdigha village in Palamau district but this time a hapless harijan family was at the receiving end.

The villagers brutally killed six members, including four minors, after branding them witches.

Their bodies were found floating in river Sone.

Expressing concern over the killings of innocent people, branding them as witch under the pretext of property dispute and sexual abuse, Chairman of Free Legal Aid Committee (FLAC), a non-governmental organisation, Premchand said in most of the incidents the tribals and the harijans were victims of such supersition and urged for a cohesive effort on the part of the government, the NGOs and the media to eliminate the social menace.

FLAC was instrumental in bringing Witch-Hunting Prevention Law, which was passed by the then Bihar government in 1999 and was adopted by Jharkhand government in 2001.

FLAC, fighting the superstitious practices for more than 15 years, celebrated the seventh anniversary of formation of laws on October 20.

Mr Premchand, advocating for constitution of a central witch- hunting prevention law, however, lauded the initiatives taken by the Centre, the Legal Authority of India and the National Women's Commission to formulate a central law for the prevention of witch- hunting.

He also deamaded to chalk out a minimum 20 years planning package that included a massive awareness programme to eradicate the problem.

He said the social menace like witch-hunting was found in as many as 12 states, including seven Hindi-speaking states, across the country.

Introduction of such national legislation on witch-hunting will certainly, if not totally, eradicate the problem and help subside superstitions considerably, Mr Premchand opined.

The FLAC chairman also expressed concern over the telecast of serials on ghosts, withcraft and other superstitious programmes by the electronic media and demanded imposition of a blanket ban over telecast of such programme. He appealed to the Centre, National Human Rights Commission and National Women's Commission to take action to debar such news channels from telecasting such programmes mainly in those states, where superstitions were prevalent.

Mr Premchand also suggested to introduce literature in the primary schools that educate the students about the adeverse effects of superstitious practice like witchcraft.

He, however, said inspite of increase of the number of killings in the name of witchcraft practice in recent time, in some cases actions were taken against the guilty by the custodians of law.

''Thanks to the prevailing laws and reports published in the meida,'' he said.

He said Jharkhand women's commissioner Laxmi Singh ordered an inquiry into an incident at Kapali here on October 7 in which the slum dwellers beat up an old woman following the death of a child.

They branded the woman as witch and forced her to consume cow dung in the presence of hundreds of people.

Police swung into action and the culprits were booked.

In another incident, a 13-year-old standard Eight tribal student, Jobna Tieu of a government undertaken school in West Singhbhum district was dubbed a witch and the students allegedly at the behest of the school authorities harassed the girl and tortured her mentally.

Tired of accusations and abuses, the girl left the school but the West Singhbhum district authorities initiated a prompt action and ordered a probe against the school authorities and helped the girl return to her school.

Providing statistics, Mr Premchand said according to a recent survey, 106 branded witches were reportedly killed till September this year in the tribal and harijan-dominated areas in Jharkhand, surpassing the previous record of 100 people being killed in a year in the then Bihar in 1992.

However, there was no record before 1992, he informed.

Mr Premchand said FLAC had launched an awareness programme-cum-random survey in 2000 in the four districts in Jharkhand - East Signbhum, Ranchi, Bokaro and Deoghar, considered to be well developed districts in the state.

It also conducted survey in the 191 Gram Panchayats in 332 villages in which 176 living branded victims (so called witch) were traced.

The survey also revealed that out of 32,615 villages in the state, 20,000 women were reportedly branded as 'witch' and thousands of families were affected.

UNI