Harrowing witch hunt article

by Feòrag

Witch-hunting is a problem in many parts of the world, including India. Horror of ignorance by Madhya Pradesh, published in The Week (India's No.1 weekly news magazine) tells the human story:

Roomaliben is alive, but only just. The 71-year-old can barely speak or walk after suffering an attack so horrific, it hardly bears imagining. The defenceless old woman was beaten with spades, tortured and humiliated before being paraded around her village. Her assailants were her neighbours-people she had known, and trusted, her whole life. The reason? They thought she was a witch.

The accusations came after the death and cremation of a local boy, Dilip:

As Jogdabhai, Dilip's father, gazed into the funeral pyre he noticed that a small piece of flesh remained unburnt. It was all the evidence he needed to suspect that something sinister had happened to his son. Jogdabhai consulted the tribal witch-doctor (bhuva), who confirmed his belief: Dilip had died as the result of a witch's sorcery. What's more, he was told, Dilip's heart had been replaced by that of a chicken and the fragment of unburnt flesh was chicken flesh.

Very little is being done to combat the superstition and, in the long term, education is seen as the only solution.