By Pushpika Sapna Bara
The recently published NCRB reports that place Jharkhand once again at the top of witch-hunting crimes call for deliberation, as they concern the fate of hundreds of Adivasi women. Globally recognised as a human rights issue perpetuating structural violence, it mostly claims victims among Adivasi and other lower-caste populations. In India, there is no centralised legislation on witch-hunting. Some states have enacted laws and policies on the issue. However, the practice continues. Despite being commonly associated with superstitions, it is rooted in patriarchal structures and must be read as a systemic form of violence against women. In states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Assam, it often intersects with indigeneity.
Witch-hunting is used as a tool for alienating Adivasi women’s land rights, punishing them for unwanted behaviours, and marginalising them in familial and other disputes. They are subjected to humiliation and gruesome physical violence, including the chopping off of body parts, rape, and violent killings. Relatives and land mafias use this practice to grab their properties and land. This is exacerbated in the cases of single and widowed Adivasi women, who are considered easy targets.
In 2002, in Dumka, Jharkhand, an Adivasi woman was forced to swallow excreta by her relatives on the accusation of witchcraft. Upon investigation, it was revealed that they wanted her property. Reports by ActionAid (2022) and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (2017) also identify factors like non-conformity, transgressions, assertion of agency/rights, jealousy, and unconventional religious practices as major causes leading to witch-hunting. Traditional healers like the Ojhas, primarily men, often play major roles in such crimes, holding Adivasi women responsible for their failure to cure any illness.
This practice also targets women who resist and show socially unsanctioned behaviours. In 2013, a 35-year-old single Adivasi woman from West Bengal was raped by two men for practising witchcraft. Reportedly, one of them had made sexual advances in the past, which she resisted. Her independent life allegedly led to accusations of witchcraft. It was unfathomable in her society that a “normal woman” was living by herself, taking care of her children, deep in the forest.
The prevalence of witch-hunting depicts the insufficiency of laws, policies, and state interventions. In states where there are laws to prevent it — like Jharkhand — implementation is weak. The police often dismiss cases that do not involve murder or attempted murder. Poor investigations lacking gender-sensitive approaches, absence of accountability, apathy, and indifferent prosecution are still prevalent. However, relief and assistance often come from other survivors, organisations, and social activists. Policies and laws providing compensation, livelihood support, protection, and knowledge of legal provisions/rights are either absent or insufficient.
Further, the absence of central legislation creates a gap in comprehensive legal and policy frameworks to combat the issue. The lack of an intersectional perspective and the absence of efforts to create awareness, address trauma among survivors, provide them shelter, strengthen institutional mechanisms give impunity to the perpetrators.
Eliminating this crime requires robust state laws and policies combining gender and Adivasi concerns. Allocating or increasing funds to combat the issue is crucial. An inclusive, gender-sensitive policy framework based on four Ps — Prevention, protection, prosecution, and participation — is required.
Prevention refers to initiatives and programmes that promote gender equality, counter superstitions, and conduct impactful awareness campaigns. These should be co-designed with stakeholders and local communities, using local languages and gender-sensitive approaches.
Protection includes mechanisms for supporting survivors, such as providing shelters, economic aid, counselling, and relocation; and the potential use of digital innovations for reporting incidents in real time.
Prosecution refers to the disbursal of fair and timely justice in all witch-hunting crimes. Hence, reforms in laws and legal mechanisms, fast-track courts, and training police in gender-sensitive investigations are needed.
Participation implies engaging stakeholders, community leaders, and organisations for the prevention of and protection from witch-hunting.
For centuries, Adivasi women have lived as land and property owners, primary breadwinners, agriculturists, forest protectors, and have used unconventional means to earn livelihoods, like selling hadiya. Witch-hunting has become a tool to control them. Addressing it is a crucial policy requirement, not only in Jharkhand but also in other states.
The writer is a political scientist. She used to teach at TISS and AUD
