Context

• Recently five family members in Bihar were allegedly killed and accused burnt there bodies in a bush of suspicion of practicing witchcraft.

Issues of Superstitious Practices in India

• Kerala Issue:
  • Two women were allegedly abducted, beheaded and buried as part of a “witchcraft ritual”.
• Incidences of witchcraft in India:
  • According to the 2021 National Crime Records Bureau report, three states in India – Chhattisgarh (20), Madhya Pradesh (18) and Telangana (11) – accounted for 49 out of the 68 registered cases of witchcraft in the country.
• What do the laws against witchcraft target?
  • Apart from curbing superstitious beliefs, such laws have been introduced mainly to protect women, who are identified as “witches” by local people. 
  • Many such incidents have been reported, usually after the spread of an illness or unusual circumstances in a community that spreads panic among people. 

About Witchcraft and Witchhunting

• Witchcraft:
  • Witchcraft is a practice of magic skills, spells, and abilities that are believed to influence a person’s body, mind, or property.
  • Females who practice this craft are often portrayed and attributed as ominous, wicked, and scary.
• Witch-hunting:
  • Witch-hunting was initiated due to the superstitious beliefs and customs for eliminating the so-called witches residing in the society. 
  • Even today it is continued and practiced as a custom in different parts of the world. 
  • Women are specifically targeted, tortured ruthlessly, and called a “Witch.”

Legal Safeguards in India

• Bihar: Bihar was the first State to enact a law to prevent witchcraft, identification of a woman as a witch and “eliminate torture, humiliation and killing of women.” The Prevention of Witch (Daain) Practices Act came into force in October 1999.
• Anyone who identifies a person as a “witch” and acts to aid this identification can face a jail term of up to three months, or a fine of ₹1,000, or both.
• Jharkhand: A similar law was passed in Jharkhand in 2001 — the Prevention of Witch (Daain) Practices Act.
• Chhattisgarh: The State enacted the Chhattisgarh Tonahi (witch) Pratadna Nivaran Act in 2005.
• Odisha: The Odisha Prevention of Witch-Hunting Bill was passed by the Assembly in 2013. The bill provides penalties for a witch doctor, or a person claiming to be a black magician.
• Maharashtra: In Maharashtra, the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013 was passed after the murder of anti-superstition activist Dr. Narendra Dabholkar.
• Rajasthan: Rajasthan enacted the Rajasthan Prevention of Witch-Hunting Act in 2015 to “provide for effective measures to tackle the menace of witch-hunting and prevent the practice of witchcraft.”
• Assam: The Assam Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act, 2015, which received the President’s assent in 2018, prohibits witch hunting completely.
• Karnataka: The latest law was passed in Karnataka where the Karnataka Prevention and Eradication of Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic Act, 2017 came into effect in January 2020.
• The law bans several practices related to black magic and superstition, like forcing a person to walk on fire at religious festivals and the practice of piercing rods from one side of the jaw to the other.

Major Challenges

• Violation of fundamental rights: Witch-hunting and broader superstition related crimes violate basic fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14, 15, and 21 of the Indian Constitution. 
• Violation of various conventions: Such acts also violate several provisions of various International legislations to which India is a signatory, such as the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948’, ‘International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966’, and ‘Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 1979’.
• Bad implementation: Law and order is a State subject, so States are free to enact specific criminal laws. In the same way, States are also free to make amendments to Union laws.
• Lack of effective governance: If the executive is serious about curbing such practices, active implementation and enforcement of existing laws need to be made more effective.
• Certainty of punishment: Studies in criminology have established that certainty of punishment curbs the rate of crime and not the type or the quantum of punishment.
• Bad implementation: We already have a reputation of having good laws but bad implementation. In legal parlance, it is known as ‘over-criminalisation’ — more laws but less ‘rule of law’.
• Religions are aware that faith is vulnerable to improper use: stories of fake sadhus and deceitful sanyasis have long been around.  

Way Forward

• Need of sensitisation: Every superstition cannot be removed by the force of law. For that, a mental sensitisation is necessary.
• The anti-superstition law also makes it possible to curtail activities of so-called godmen before they become too powerful.
• Accessible criminal justice: The enforcement machinery needs a major overhaul to make criminal justice more accessible.
• Article 51A (h) of the Indian Constitution makes it a fundamental duty for Indian citizens to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.
• Provisions under the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act of 1954 also aim to tackle the debilitating impact of various superstitious activities prevalent in India.