(The Beti Bachao Aandolan has organized a one-day workshop on February 15, 2010 at Khagaria. It was intended to draw the attention of the different stakeholders to the increasing violence on womenby elements falsely accusing them of being ‘witches.’ More than 100 participants hailing from different area of Kosi – Mahananda region participated. A brief Report on the prevailing situation based on the workshop )

Despite claims of women empowerment,women in rural areas continue to be branded as *Dayeens*(witches) . Its one of the worst forms of violence against women in which the victims are beaten-up, stripped, paraded naked and even forced to eat human muck.

However, the branding of a woman as a witch is not confined to the victim alone. The whole family suffers. Her family faces social boycott. Her children are not allowed to go into other homes or play with other children.

Despite, the enactment of the Prevention of Witch Practices Act, 1999 the violence against women goes unabated. The custom of branding a woman a witch is more pronounced in flood prone areas-which fall into high migration, high mortality, low literacy and flood prone diseases zones which have poor health infrastructure and abject poverty.

It will be appropriate to point out that Bihar’s Khagaria district, one of the most flood prone districts of the state, has witnessed at least four such cases in the last three months.

The SP of the district Ashuliya Ranasingh Sahu appeared hardly surprised by the reports of women being branded as witches. “Why Khagaria only? It is happening throughout the state”, she remarked. She says that the laws against branding of women as witches are not stringent enough to prevent the crime.

The children of women branded as witches are among the worst sufferers and victims of mental and physical exploitation. Massive migration of male population, poverty, low literacy, high cost of medicines, poor health care infrastructure and rampant superstition all contribute to the local population depending on unscrupulous persons posing as Tantriks and Ojhas (witch doctors) or quacks. It is easy for these unscrupulous persons to push the blame on any helpless woman--who usually is a widow or belongs to the poor downtrodden classes.

They exploit the low level of awareness and illiteracy not only to make financial gains but also to inflict atrocities on women and their children –sometimes leading to death.

The Beti Bachao Andolan is aware of the sufferings heaped on women and their children-especially girls after falsely branding them as witches.

It happens in flood prone areas more than other places. Often unscrupulous elements motivated by greed or sexual exploitation brand them as witches and seize their property.

It will not be out of place to mention that Khagaria and other flood prone districts of the states have witnessed a sharp decline in the sex ratio during the last one century. It is proposed to launch a social campaign on the issue under the banner of `Beti Bachao Andloan’.

Details of some cases of women being targeted after being branded as witches are given below:.

On Republic day, R. Devi in *Khagaria* was beaten-up, stripped and

paraded in the public by her neighbors. The *tantrik* had told the neighbors that R. Devi was responsible for the prolonged illness of their daughter as she had cast a spell on the girl. R. Devi would have been

drowned in the Kosi river had it not been the intervention of some villagers.

In the first week of December another woman was beaten-up and tortured after branded as a witch in Barikothia village in Khagaria district. She was buried half-way in the ground and asked to make a dead boy alive again.

- On November 19, R. Devi of Pasraha was brutally beaten-up by a group of villagers. She was charged with causing the death of another woman during delivery of a baby through her witchcraft. The victim succumbed to her injuries.

- In the month of October an old women of Beldaur block was tortured

after being branded as a witch. Some persons of the village were out to get

control over her property.

- In Dharhara village of Munger district S. Devy was brutally assaulted

by a person in whose premises she worked. She had asked for her payment of her salaries. The person branded her as a witch and assaulted her. Boiled water was poured on her.