Witch-hunting in India: A persistent plague claiming women’s lives

Despite legal interventions, witch-hunting remains a grim reality in parts of India, targeting marginalised women

In 2014, Partners for Law in Development (PLD), a legal resource group working on social justice and women’s rights, carried out a study to understand the reasons behind rising violence against women in the name of witch hunting in Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. They found that women were blamed for illness, death and even a bad crop and branded as witches.

The targets of this belief system were largely middle-aged married women with little formal education, from lower economic strata and marginalised castes and communities. Moreover, victims and perpetrators were, more often than not, closely related to each other and, there was complicity in the community.

Their study also revealed that although laws in Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh criminalising acts/offences particular to witch hunting, such as ‘identifying’ any person as a witch along with the mental and physical torture accompanying such identification existed, the apathy of the state led to the continuation of witch hunting practices. Ten years later, nothing seems to have changed. Witch hunting continues to claim women’s lives even in 2024. Over 663 were killed for allegedly practising witchcraft during 2015 and 2021 according to the National Crime Research Bureau (NCRB).

Worryingly, the main perpetrators of this violence also remain the same, says Nirantar Trust, a NGO working on gender and education, Findings of the Trust’s recent survey on witch hunting in 114 villages across 10 districts in Bihar showed 43 per cent of the victims were targetted by members from their own family. Their study, released earlier this month, also found a significant proportion of the women victimised as witches were between the age group 45 to 60. Moreover, 73 per cent of the victims had never been to school. Nirantar also found that more than single women or widows, it was married women who were branded as witches, corroborating the findings of the 2014 PLD study.

In many instances, perpetrators were related to the male kin of the husband and thus negated the traditional belief that married women were safer than single women.Another grave concern raised in the 2024 study is the targeting of women from marginalised backgrounds who have shown agency and the courage to raise their voices against the deeply entrenched patriarchy.

The inability of the government to sensitise men while pushing for women’s empowerment has endangered many women in leadership roles. One of the easiest ways to show the woman her place has been to brand her as a witch.  Of the 44 per cent of women who faced accusations of witchcraft from castes other than their own, the majority were from the upper caste. Nirantar found that most women preferred not to report this mental and physical assault as they were afraid it would lead to increased violence, greater social ostracisation and humiliation.

They also lacked trust in the sincerity and efficacy of law enforcement agencies. The inability to provide timely justice can be fatal was found by Action Aid Association. The NGO, which detailed 102 case studies from Odisha’s 12 districts reporting maximum witch-hunting incidents in 2021, found that despite the law, more than 30 per cent of the total cases had led to the death of the woman branded as a witch.

Chhutni Mahto, the firebrand social activist from Jharkhand, who received the Padma Shri in 2021 for her role in rescuing over 100 women accused of witchcraft, knows the pain because she too, was targetted as a witch. She survived and embarked on a mission to help others.

But why is the onus only on survivors? NCRB data shows that since 2000, over 2,500 women have been killed for being witches. How many more women need to die before action against such inhuman acts is given the priority it deserves?

(The author is a journalist writing on development and gender. The views expressed are personal)