Context: The residents of a village in Assam allegedly killed two people after a kangaroo court found a 50-year-old widow to be a witch.
What is Witch-Hunting?

• Witch denotes women who acquire supernatural powers and are indulged in evil practices.
• Witch hunting is stigmatization of specific groups of people, which mostly contains widowed women, women who are childless, old couples, women of lower caste.
• It is a process of killing these people in order to protect the society from being harmed by them.
• However, in the name of witch-hunting people kill innocent women, rape them, to acquire their property or as a tool for revenge.

Witch-hunting in India

• It has been witnessed in tribal and rural areas that if wild spread diseases or famine occurs which causes death of animals as well as human the allegation is on the most vulnerable people of the society for witch craft and then violence.
• Witch hunting is more prevalent in 12 states of India which are situated in like Jharkhand, Bihar, Haryana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Rajasthan and U.P.
• It is prevalent in the areas which are tribal and rural, where literacy rate is low and where people are guided by blind faith and superstition.

Legislative Approach to Witch-Hunting

• There is no specific and particular national level legislation that penalises Witch hunting.
• The provisions under the Indian Penal Code 1860 can be used as an alternative for the victim.
• The different sections invoked in such cases are Sec. 302 which charge for murder, Sec307 attempt for murder, Sec 323 hurt, Sec 376 which penalises for rape and Sec. 354 which deals with outraging a woman’s modesty.
• Different states have come up with different legislation to tackle the problem of witch-hunting.
• Bihar was the first state in India to pass a law against witch-hunting in the year 1999 named Prevention of Witch (Dayan) Practices Act.
• Jharkhand followed it and established Anti Witchcraft Act in 2001 to protect women from inhuman treatment as well to provide victim legal recourse to abuse.
• Partner for Law in Development (PLD) 1998 considers women’s rights as an integral part of the society and protects women’s right from getting violated through families, on basis of sexuality, culture, caste, etc.

International laws

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948, which being international law provides protection against any discrimination and promotes equality before law & confirms right to life and liberty to every human being.
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), India associated with it in 1979, which being an international body promotes equality between men and women by ensuring equal rights to men and women in civil as well as political sphere and prohibits others from subsuming anyone’s basic rights.
• It explicitly mentions prohibition of cruelty, inhuman or degrading treatment and by associating with the covenant it is obligatory for Indian government to implement these rules.
• India has signed Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on 1993 and had agreed to eliminate discrimination and social cruelty against women.
• The convention explicitly provides that the states should take appropriate measures to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women.

Road Ahead

• The absence of any Central Act to address the issue, lack of responsibility on part of police officials and orthodox mindsets of people have led to an alarming increase in the number of witch-hunting.
• Legislation can alone never bring a change in society without adequate support from the people, desire to positively reform the society.
• The problem can be solved by strict enforcement as well as the implementation of Anti-witchcraft law, including sensitizing of police.
• There is a need to establish welfare department and NGO’s who will work for generating awareness and knowledge among people.