Targeting Women as Witches
Witch hunting is prevalent in 13 states of India. The number of murders on suspicion of women being witches is severely under-reported. The targets are mostly middle-aged and elderly women who are single (deserted, unmarried, divorced or widowed), own productive resources and belong to adivasi, dalit and lower caste communities.
It is generally found that rather than being a superstition, witch hunting is a gender based violence that is an outcome of patriarchy, severe underdevelopment, denial of education, neglect by law enforcement machinery, and the absence of access to justice.
- ‘Witch-hunting’ in India. Do we need special Laws? Economic and Political Weekly, March 26 2016
- Contemporary Practices of Witch Hunting: A Report on Social Trends and the Interface with Law (2015)
- Witch Hunting in Assam: Individual, Structural and Legal Dimensions (2014)
- Piecing Together Perspectives on Witch Hunting: A Review of Literature (2013)
- Targeting of Women as Witches: Trends, Prevalence and the Law in Northern, Western, Eastern, and Northeastern Regions of India (2012)
- India’s Witch Hunts, 11th May, 2018, Global Journalists
- Witches Beaten, Buried, Burned for Land in Princely Indian State, 3rd October, 2017, Place
- Inclusion of witch hunting under laws on domestic violence and sexual harassment favored, 30th November, 2013, The Hindu
- Study points to witch- hunt trauma, 24 December, 2014, The Telegraph
- Greed for property and power behind Jharkhand witch hunts, 16 September, 2015, Hindustan Times
- डायन शब्द और पहचान को हटाना होगा, Pathrika Rajasthan, June 20, 2017