witch hunting

The practice of Witch – hunting:

This is a very cruel and barbaric form of violence against women seen in Chhattisgarh and some other states like Bihar and Jharkhand. Inthis practice, a woman is branded as a witch who is then consideredresponsible for all the ill luck and is considered as a bad omen forthe village. If any child is suffering from illness, or the cattle isaffected due to any reason, or any other adverse situation comes, theblame for all this is put on the witch or the "tonhi" of the village.To identify a "tonhi" a man who is known as a "baiga" is called and herandomly identifies the witch. Thereafter the whole village turnsagainst her, subjecting her to the most cruel and inhuman forms ofphysical and mental assault. Generally, the women who are identifiedas "tonhi" are often single and to children involved in cases ofproperty disputes. Too often, the accusations of witchcraft areprompted by the relatives wanting to get hold of the property andother assets of the "Tonhi".The concept of Tonhi (Witch) is part of the state of Chhattisgarh. Awoman is declared "Tonhi" and is accused of spreading disease andbringing disaster to the village by performing Jadu-Tona (Witchcraft). These women are insulted and humiliated publicly. Often it is
accompanied by physical torture and they are ostracized from thecommunity. In many cases the torture is so severe that they sufferfrom the wounds for months. Within the village it is not possible toget treatment. The psychological wounds due to public insult anddishonor stay for life. The influence of the powerful groups in thevillage is so great that the news does not reach the cities and thewomen and her family lives a hellish life. In some cases the womenthus accused commit suicide.In witch hunting cases often the village representatives and thegovernment officials do not come forward in opposition on the pretextthat this is an indigenous belief that is best left undisturbed. Sothe news does not reach the world beyond the village and the rule ofthe "Baigas" (Witch Doctors) gets established. These Baigas declareall disasters in the village tobe due to Jadu-Tona. They charge anyamount for catching a Tonhi, branding her and bringing the wholevillage under his protection (Gaon Bandhava). These Baigas demandimpossible tests from these women to prove that they are not Tonhi.When the whole village is against the Tonhi, it is impossible for herto prove herself innocent There are rampart incidences of myth like witchcraft, black magic,ghosts in the society due to illiteracy and lack of social awareness,and lack of scientific temperament. We are a group of doctors,scientists, engineers & experts of various fields voluntarily workingsince 1995 under our Organization A.S.N.S for eradication ofsuperstitions and social evils. Due to illiteracy and lack of healthawareness people believe in various superstitions particularly inrural areas.The intensity is a bit lower in urban area. They also have blind faithin ghost, spirit, black magic, witches, and astrologers and so called
god men. This resulted in growth of numerous fake astrologers,palmist, and foreteller. Many cases reported in Chhattisgarh where thevillagers tortured and killed the innocent women in belief that shepractices evil spirits and it causes misfortune and illness ofvillagers. This type of cases also happened in Bihar, Jharkhand,Orissa, Maharashtra, Assam, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradeshand some other states of India. We are working for those innocentwomen. We help them and provide treatment facilities; moral supportand security and rehabilitation of such innocent women.Since forming of our unit we have successfully worked against thesesocial evils existing in society and now the people believe in ourlogical explanations given during our field work we have beensuccessful to give a boost to scientific thinking and temperamentamong public. We have arranged lecturers, seminars, village meeting,scientific experiments illustrating the reality of so called miraclesand mysterious events to educate the public, in the interiors tribaland rural areas of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh,Bihar and many more other states of India.
your views and comments are invited .
dr.dinesh mishra