Dalit Women and the “Witches”

The nose of a Dalit woman — Janaki Bai — was chopped off on August 17 at Raza village in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh. Janaki and her husband were attacked because she refused to spray pesticides in the agricultural fields of a landlord, Narendra Singh.

This is hardly a stray incident of violence on Dalit women. One of the most common weapons wielded by dominant forces in villages to persecute a Dalit woman is to brand her a “daayan” (witch).

On August 2, a 62-year-old Dalit woman named Maan Devi was killed in Dauki near Agra in Uttar Pradesh over rumours of her being a ‘witch’, who was responsible for the mysterious chopping off of women’s hair. Her son said Maan had gone to answer nature’s call in the fields — a common practice in villages. While she was returning, the villagers attacked her saying she was the witch. The son pleaded with the villagers, but they did not listen.

On August 3, a 40-year-old Dalit woman named Kanya Devi was brutally killed on the pretext of being a witch in Ajmer district of Rajasthan. Her husband had died, and her relatives connived with the members of the village panchayat to grab her property. She was dragged from her house along with her 15-year-old son. She was made to eat human excreta. After that she was made to walk on embers and then blinded.

On July 20, a 65-year-old Dalit woman named Dhankunwar Bai at Hussainpur village in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh was killed after she confronted some men bullying her son.

It turns out that such reports of violence against Dalits and Dalit women are an hourly affair.

According to National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights, every hour two Dalits are assaulted, while every day three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits are murdered, and two Dalit homes are torched.

Reported cases of Murders in the name of Witchcraft

Tara Ahluwalia, a Bhilwara-based activist working for women’s rights in Rajasthan, says that in 33 years of her work in Bhilwara, she has come across nearly 86 cases of women being branded as “daayan” (witch).

“More than 80% of these women belong to the Dalit community. They are usually widows who have no sons or they live in far-off places,” says Tara.

She says this crime is perpetrated mostly by the “prabhavshaali” – dominant – persons of the village. The women branded as witches are either killed or are brutally tortured and ostracised from the village. Tara says this can happen within families as well in order to grab the land that widows own.

The activist adds that she is yet to come across a single case of “a Brahmin or a Mahajan woman” who was branded a “daayan”.

On April 24, 2015, the Rajasthan Prevention of Witch Hunting Act came into force. Till September 30, 2016, the total cases registered under the Act were 50, as revealed by an RTI query.

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