Dayan and witch accusations in India
Some women in rural India are believed to be dayans, or witches, and are tortured and killed for it. Official figures count more than 2,500 such deaths between 2000 and 2016.
Women, especially widows, accused of being witches are tortured and killed in Jharkhand, Odisha and other states of India. The National Crime Records Bureau counted more than 2,500 such deaths, mainly of women, between 2000 and 2016.
Wikipedia says women in rural areas are believed to be daayans and are sometimes tortured and killed, along with young children. It calls witchcraft a major social problem in Jharkhand, where many women are accused of being witches and killed, and says single women, especially widows, are easy targets for the accusation.
ActionAid India says the practice of branding and hunting witches is present in 12 states of India, among them Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha. It cites National Crime Records Bureau figures that count more than 2,500 deaths nationwide from 2000 to 2016, mostly of women, each following an accusation of witchcraft.
The Quint reports that Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, a minister of state at the home ministry, told an MP in a written reply that 42 women had been killed in Jharkhand by November of that year after being labelled witches. Jharkhand police gave 44, 51 and 46 for 2016, 2015 and 2014. Down To Earth reports that a new study found witch-hunts still common in 12 districts out of the 30 that Odisha has, six of them named, among them Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar.
"Some women are believed to be daayans, and (along with young children) are sometimes tortured and killed in rural areas.[12] Witchcraft is a major social problem in Jharkhand, a large number of women are accused as witches and are killed. The state is known for an indigenous religion called Sarna. Similar to the puritan society of the 17th century, women here are not treated as equal to men. Hence single women, especially widows, are easy targets of witchcraft accusations.[13]"
- Witch-hunting: 83% of Odisha's cases in six districts, says report, Down To Earth
- Women killed in Jharkhand over witchcraft, The Quint
- Witch-hunting: its prevalence and our efforts to make it history, ActionAid India