OdishaPlus Bureau
This culture of labelling a dalit woman as a witch, disrobing her, abducting her from home, killing her mercilessly and throwing away her dead body is reflection of exploitation by the powerful people in the community of the weak. It is very easy for the upper caste in the community to violate dalits since we are powerless, helpless, and very small in numbers. We struggle everyday for a couple of meals lacking any economic assets like land. Also it is very easy for the perpetrators to be escape from legal punishment,” said Niranjan.
An incident of illness in an upper caste girl and assertion by the local witch doctor instigated a mob attack on Mina Naik, a poor dalit woman, dragging her from her house into the forest, slitting her throat and throwing the dead body into a pond.
Mina Naik, a resident of Pankal Badi village in Ganjam District of Odisha was one of the only three schedule caste families in the predominantly Gauda (OBC) village where the community has 494 houses. Mina used to work for the village deity and help in household work around the village.
The average land holding of the Gauda community is about 10 acres while the SC community is predominantly landless.
The survivor Niranjan Naik, Mina’s son, is still terrorised by the turn of events three years ago.
“On that fateful evening, my father was sleeping in the veranda, when the offenders rushed in to our house; they took my mother to the nearby village forest about 3 kms away, slit her throat with a sharp weapon and threw her into a water body. The dead body was found next day and police was informed by the Sarpanch, who belongs to the scheduled caste community.
“Since I was living in a nearby village I got the news next day. It would have been impossible for me to stand against a powerful person like Nakul without the help of the Sarpanch. Based on the FIR, the police arrested 6 persons including the main offender Nakul who was released on bail after 2 months”, said Niranjan Naik.
The trigger leading to the heinous crime was that Mira was accused of causing illness to Nakul Pradhan’s daughter by the witch doctor.
The village Pankal Badi has very pitiable health infrastructure. The Community Health Centre 10 Kms away at Buguda and the district head quarter hospital is situated at a distance of 100 kms. In the absence of health facilities people rely more on the witch doctor, during sickness.
Nakul started consulting a witch doctor form the nearby village to cure his daughter from illness. The treatment of the witch doctor was not fruitful and her illness aggravated. The witch doctor allegedly advised Nakula that his daughter is the victim of witchcraft by Mira, this lead to the brutal killing according to Naik.
“This culture of labelling a dalit woman as a witch, disrobing her, abducting her from home, killing her mercilessly and throwing away her dead body is reflection of exploitation by the powerful people in the community of the weak. It is very easy for the upper caste in the community to violate dalits since we are powerless, helpless, and very small in numbers. We struggle everyday for a couple of meals lacking any economic assets like land. Also it is very easy for the perpetrators to be escape from legal punishment,” said Niranjan.
Witch hunting and consequent violence on the victims is very common in this area with about 10 cases were being reported by locals and media during the last year. The offenders are encouraged by poor conviction rate and delayed justice.
The dependency of the dalit families on the rich and upper caste group for livelihood as wage labourer, share croppers makes them vulnerable towards exploitation including branding them as witch, which subjugates them forcing dalits to render services with minimum payment.
Parbati, a local woman says that “The belief of people on witch practice is also very strong in our locality, incidences of witch branding and consequent violence is highly prevalent in the locality”.
Bhagyalaxmi, a member of CSO working for the land rights of single women sums up, “instances of labelling single women as witches and further violence is very rampant in these areas. Also people here strongly believe in witch craft. In the absence of adequate health care facilities in the locality, people rely more on the witch doctor. Also the offenders hardly get convicted and justice takes a long time to get delivered”.
(Source: ‘Witch Branding in Odisha: Violation of Women’s Rights’, a compilation of Case Studies by ActionAid, Odisha.)
