Download The last execution of a women accused of being a witch in Europe took place in the 18th century.
But in the tribal and rural areas of Rajashtan, India, women suspected of witchcraft are still hunted down and violently attacked.
They are often widows, infertile women, the elderly or socially unpopular women.
Jasvinder Sehgal has the story of a 50-year-old woman who has just been accused by her neighbors of being a witch - she is now in hospital.
50-year-old Sayra Devi has been in Mahatma Gandhi Hospital for five days.
Both hands are wrapped in bandages. She’s also being treated for genital injuries.
“They have beaten me with sticks and rods. They put chilli powder in my eyes. They even inserted chilli between my buttocks. It is still painful.”
The people she is talking about are her neighbors in Gwardi – a village of around a thousand people.
Sayra, a widow with a mentally ill son, says they broke down her door and dragged her outside by her hair.
They demanded she leave the village.
“They beat me because they say I am responsible for the illness of their children. The women of the village call me, not by my name, but as a witch. I was accused of being responsible for a little girl in the village that has high fever.”
Krishan Gopal an inspector of the local police station says one family was behind the attack.
“They hated her as they believe that she is a witch and possessed by an evil spirit. They believe that she is responsible for the prolonged illness of the daughter of the family who has been sick for a year. As a revenge, red chilli powder was inserted to her eyes and genital organs and she was forced to eat human faeces.”
Two villagers have been arrested for this abuse. They didn’t want to speak to the media.
And Kavita Srivastava, the secretary of the People Union for Civil Liberties, says it’s unlikely that they will face trial.
“Under the present law it comes under straight forward, simple beating up. So the people immediately get bailed and go back home and then they threatened the woman and no evidence gets collected. So we have been demanding from a very long time for a law for the prevention of such crimes, you know prevention of witch-hunting. Basically, the government is dangling a law in front of us but that is very weak.”
The department for women and children has proposed a law against branding women witches. Those found guilty would face up to 10 years in jail and a fine of up to 1000 USD.
But it has yet to be implemented.
Tara Alhuwalia who has spent the last 27 years fighting to stop witch-hunts says she receives little support from the authorities.
“Whenever we go to the police, they just book minor kinds of crime. They say we don’t have any law against witch-hunting, so administration and the police are not helping at all. So we never get any kind of support and 80 percent of such women are bound to leave their village. They have to leave their animals, even children and have to shift from their village to another village.”
Her organization Mahila Avam Bal Chetna Samiti has documented 50 similar cases of witch hunting in Bhilwara during last five years.
“It is increasing like any thing and even three women are being killed, here, and one woman was, just you know, she was burnt, one woman was thrown into a well and more than 20 women, nobody knows where they are. So this is horrible and the Government has to take it very seriously.”
Sayri will be discharged from hospital in a couple of days. She doesn’t now where she will go.
“I don’t know. I am afraid that that they will again beat me or worse. I am worried about my son. May God punish them.”
