Helpless women in villages are often branded witches with an intention to grab their land. A Telegraph file picture

Macho Kui, a pregnant woman, shudders when she recalls how late one night her house was surrounded by villagers armed with bows and arrows.

They rained arrows at the house for hours shouting ?Witch, witch!? all the while.

Thinking that Kui might have been killed, they returned to their houses.

Kui, a resident of Kabragutu village under Muffasil police station in West Singhbhum, remained awake the whole night with her husband and a three-year-old child.

Early the next morning, Kui along with her husband and child, trudged 9 km to take shelter in Zilla Mahila Samiti, a missionary-run social organisation in Chaibasa.

A few years ago, the woman said, the village musclemen had hatched a plan to kill her at village?s haat but failed because of a large crowd.

?I had gone to sell vegetables in the market. Many villagers approached and negotiated the price but none come forward to buy,? Kui, said, tearfully recalling her narrow escape from death.

The pregnant mother narrated the night?s incident to a nun in Chaibasa. ?The organisation gave shelter for days. They took care of me. And I gave birth to healthy child under the care of nuns,? said Kui. Later, she lodged a complaint at Muffassil police station. But the police personnel were reluctant to arrest the villagers.

?The village people accused me of crop failure. I repeatedly denied the allegation saying these are natural disasters. But none of them took pains to listen me,? Kui said in choked voice.

She knocked the door of then deputy commissioner (West Singhbhum) Amit Khare. He provided her a government shelter home and ad hoc clerical job in the deputy commissioner?s office. Kui is taking care of her two children and hardly goes to village. Her husband comes and stay for a few days.

Kui was lucky but there are numerous women who are targeted and killed.

In a traditional tribal society, riddled with superstition, witchcraft is often blamed for illness, bad luck, drying of village ponds and wells, harvest failure and many other unfortunate things.

Director of Zilla Mahila Samiti Basanti Beshra said: ?Superstition is only an excuse. Often a woman is branded a witch so that you can throw her out of the village and grab her land. Other possible reasons are to settle family disputes and personal grievances.?

She added that usually women are labelled ?witches? in a village. Branding a witch gives villagers ?social licence? to kill a woman and villagers play are just silent spectators. ?Most of the killing takes place after proclaiming the woman to be a witch,? Beshra said.

Director of the samiti informed that three killings ? Muni Laguri, a resident of Kumata village in Kumardungi block (October 17, 2002), Somai Marla, a resident of proper Goilkera block(October 12, 2002) and Rai Muni Tui, a resident of Dilia Mirch village of Sadar block(September 22, 2003) ? were first branded witches and later killed.

?The reason of killing is to seize the land,? Beshra said.

She further said there were recent cases of witchcraft in Khuntpani block in the district. ?Nandi Tui of village Churgui was branded witch and attacked in April this year. Her family members wanted to oust the divorcee from the land. But finally, the dispute was settled among family members,? Beshra said

The samiti has settled a number of cases at the village-level and it was not reported to the police. Beshra said women are generally killed when she has no body to look after her and who possesses land.

?The victim is generally a poor woman. Women from well-to-do families have never been killed. Statistical data shows that killed victims hail from poor families,? she said.

Even though they blame ?witches? for bad luck, at the same time, people have faith in witch doctors.

A village woman ojha (witch doctor) at Diliamircha village under Sadar block said: ?Often, village heads approach us for treating ailing men and woman. They have complete faith on the traditional style of treatment. And most of the sick people are given treatment with minimum charge,? a lady doctor said.

She added that various age group of people are given treatment and patients are asked to pay money. ?On weekend days, a large number of ailing people visit her thatched room. She is one of the most popular ojhas in the village,? a woman said.

Talking about the punishment aspects of the accused, Chandra Bhusan Devgam, a Chaibasa-based human rights activist and lawyer, said the culprits go scot-free because of lack evidence and witnesses fail to turn up in court.

?Police lodge cases under various punishable sections of Prevention of Witchcraft Act but the judiciary has not option but to acquit the accused for want of evidence,? Devgam said. He added that statistics revealed that the Chaibasa District Court had awarded punishment to very few accused under the Prevention of Witchcraft Act. But with the Prevention of Witchcraft Act, killing of woman has decreased.

West Singhbhum superintendent of police Navin Kumar Singh said cases of witchcraft has climbed down to a lowest height after implementation of Prevention of Witchcraft Act.

?Earlier, there were a good number of witchcraft cases in the district. But the recent record shows that these cases in tribal-dominated districts are now negligible,? Singh said.

The district police chief said the police personnel register the culprits under punishable sections of the Prevention of Witchcraft Act.

?Finally, it is the court which gives punishment. Police try to punish the law offenders,? Singh said.

Anupam Rana