Mere legislation by the government will not
tackle the problem of witchcraft, which afflicts tribal societies. Some
rehabilitation measures need to be put in place.
Thuhari Oraoin of Bero in Ranchi district is defeated and dejected
today. Having been ostracised, she is having a hard time trying to lead
a dignified life and provide for her children. Every untimely death in
the village invites the wrath of her co-villagers. The reason? She is
suspected to be a sorceress and is responsible for jaadu-tona
(voodoo spell) in the village.
Bhagia Devi ‘s plight was worse. Belonging to Saroni Kala village of
Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh district, she was leading a wretched life as her
husband suspected her to be practising kaala jadoo (black magic). In a
bizarre incident, he killed Devi in February last year, believing that
her death would only provide him succour from chronic illness.
Hair-raising is the story of a 60-year-old widow, Saniaro, a resident
of Champai Badka Toli village in Ranchi district who was killed.
Obeying a witch-doctor’s instructions, her nephew Samuel barged into
Saniaro's hut and drove a nail through her chest into the ground. She
bled to death. Poor Saniaro was suspected to be practising witchcraft.
Here is another pathetic incident. Identified as Bomaya Kisku and Nanka
Hembrom, the two tribal women hardly had an inkling that the death of a
three-year-old baby would prove to be their nemesis. Accusing the two
women of practising witchcraft and voodoo, they were roasted alive by a
mob at Auratand village under Pathalgon police station in Godda
district.
There are many instances. Call it sheer superstition rooted deep in
society or degradation and dehumanisation of womenfolk, a spate of news
and statistics underscore the terrible truth that evils of sorcery
continue to weave its spell in Jharkhand.
Worse, with 242 killings of women being registered in Ranchi district
alone, followed by 178 from West Singhbhum, 127 from Lohardaga, 100
from Gumla, 60 from Palamau, 39 from Simdega, 18 from Garhwa, 20 East
Singhbhum, 12 from Bokaro, 11 from Dumka, 16 from Koderma, 34 from
Saraikela-Kharswa, 14 from Sahebganj, 11 from Godda and other
districts, at least 984 women have lost their lives so far in
witchcraft-related incidents since 1991. However, social workers reveal
higher figures.
Why are such murders related to sorcery rampant in Jharkhand? Says Dr.
Ashok Kumar Prasad, a Psychiatrist attached to Ranchi Institute of
Neuro Psychiatry and Allied Sciences (RINPAS): “Sorcery and evils are
the products of superstitious beliefs in the first place.
Notwithstanding the fact that medical sciences have advanced over
the years, the acceptance of the modern health care is still ignored.
Instead villagers in remote areas are practitioners of old beliefs and
superstitious modes of treatment. Disease might cause deaths in
villages but when there is no possible explanation they think it is a
witchcraft case and take it out on suspected women who could be totally
innocent.”
However, Sajay Basu Mallick, social activist and the author of Dain
Gatha, a book on witchcraft released recently, believes that women
especially in tribal society were victimised in many cases to usurp
their properties and also to break the matriarchal structure of family.
“In the course of my study on witchcraft over the last decade, I have
found that right from the Neolithic Age, matriarchal society has been
in vogue in tribal-dominated areas. In many cases, I found the
tormentor was the victim’s husband, son or nephew as he (male) could
not stand the dominance of a matriarch. There are also several
instances when widows or old women were killed after branding them
`witches’ but the motive behind the killing was to usurp their
properties,” said Mr. Mallick, on the occasion of the book’s release
recently.
It is here that social worker Faisal Anurag blames witchdoctors for
providing ammunition to superstitious beliefs in society. “Being closer
to nature, the tribal women often perform their rituals after sunset.
But when a widow performs such rituals, they are mistaken for
practising black magic. Rubbing salt to wounds, it is witchdoctors who
launch the witch-hunt when somebody falls sick or dies an untimely
death. In a number of cases, the motive behind such murders was to grab
the properties as part of the conspiracy also,” said Faisal Anurag. He
added that the problem would be partially solved, if the total number
of witchdoctors were enlisted and they were under survelliance.
Whatever be the reality, now the situation has come to such a sorry
pass that incidents of ostracism and witchcraft-related killings hardly
offend human sensibilities. But worse, even after the creation of
Jharkhand as a separate state, the role of government has only
been confined to the adoption of the erstwhile Bihar’s Anti-witchcraft
Act, which has no provision for the rehabilitation of such women.
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Mar292009/editpage20090328126772.asp
