Ranchi, Sept. 6: Titled Tantra, an hour-long documentary on witchcraft in areas around Ranchi, Seraikela-Kharsawan, Lohardaga, Gumla and Simdega, is being shown on the National Geographic channel.
The 10-episode film on witch-hunting was shot in many parts of Jharkhand. Only one episode has been aired so far.
The film was made by MediaTech, Delhi, an organisation which specialises in documentary filmmaking. The filmmakers took the help of city NGO, Asha-Flac, which helped crew members to zero in on particular cases.
Coordinator of Asha-Flac Ajay Kumar Jaiswal, said: “The film is on witch-hunting which is practised in many parts of India. But, here the focus was on Jharkhand where the practice is rampant.
“We faced problems while shooting as we had to remain awake the whole night and find out cases. We had to shoot at the crematoriums to find out the ‘witch deaths’. On interviewing the villagers, we realised that they believed witches were active especially at night. We also interviewed ojhas, who denied being involved in branding innocent villagers as witches. But, ojhas often encourage people to practice witch craft,” Ajay said. He added that the crew members shot at authentic locations and people, who knew of real-life incidents.
One such incident that was covered happened at Chano block in Jharkhand, where a woman was beheaded after being tagged a witch. In another case a young girl, Choti Matani, a resident of Birbas village in Seraikela-Kharsawan was paraded naked and thrown out of the village.
“But now we have rehabilitated her and are trying to spread the message among villagers about the ill-effects of witch-hunting at the rehabilitation centre located at Birbas. That incident, is also a part of the film,” Ajay said.
Witch-hunting cases are rampant in Ranchi, Lohardaga, Gumla and Simdega. So far, 835 women have been killed after being branded as witches. Often accusations follow, in an attempt to usurp land and mostly widows are targeted.
Ajay added that in bid to stop the increasing number of deaths, state social welfare department has mooted an idea to float a tender and invite bidders (NGOs) who would help in curbing this menace.
He further added that his NGO is trying to raise awareness through theatre groups and street plays.
Soon Asha-Flac members would be attending a national conference on witch-hunting to be held in Calcutta from September 9 to 13. “We have made a 30-minute documentary on witchcraft called Akhir Kab Tak and 2,000 Hindi audio cassettes of songs on witchcraft. We are going to sell the cassettes during the conference,” Ajay said.
