Guwahati: The social evil called witch hunting has claimed lives of 64 persons in Assam including 30 males and 34 females during the last four years since 2011 while 48 others were subjected to torture after being suspected to be witch, according to official records available with Assam Home department.
The police in the state registered 83 cases during the period in connection with witch hunting incidents and 512 persons were arrested and sent to jail. Out of these 176 persons were arrested in the year 2011, 117 persons in the year 2012, 128 persons in the year 2013 and 91 persons were arrested till
November this year.
The social malady of witch hunting prevailing among tribal and Adivasi communities living in far flung areas of the state, has assumed an alarming proportion in the state forcing the Assam State’s Women Commission to ask the state government to enact a special law to deal firmly with such incidents which can’t be dealt with effectively under the existing sections of the IPC.
Assam government has already initiated steps to enact a special law and a draft of the bill is being prepared as per the information provided by the state Home department in the state Assembly.
Assam police department used to run a project called ‘Prahari’ in some rural and tribal-dominated areas of the state to raise awareness against the malady of witch hunting.
A senior police official involved in the project informed that the super-stitious practice was mostly prevalent in areas where healthcare facilities were not accessible to the poor and illiterate population.
These illiterate and poor people belonging to tribal and tea tribe communities often believe that people fall ill when some witch in the village cast spell on them.