Paying the price in the name of WITCHES

Our media is also replete with the news of women beaten up for practicing witchcraft. There are many villages in the country where the light of education has not reached and the people are under the impression of superstition. Image credit: bit.ly/3rWpGio.

Paying the price in the name of WITCHES…
LB Thapa

Nepalese women are still suffering from several discriminatory practices. In fact, the law has guaranteed them equal rights, but such laws are only limited in the book. They are tortured harassed, dragged, raped, and sometimes even beaten to death on various charges one being witchcraft.

This is the 21^st century and the world has taken a quantum leap of development. But most unfortunately there are still a lot many people in our country who live with the belief that there live spirits, ghosts, and witches. In fact, modern science does not believe in sorcery.

Our media is also replete with the news of women beaten up for practicing witchcraft. There are many villages in the country where the light of education has not reached and the people are under the impression of superstition. Quite often old, weak, and single women are targeted and blamed for practicing witchcraft. Such women are unable to defend themselves and become easy objects to be tortured by the villagers. Sometimes the alleged witches are forced to eat or forcefully fed human excreta. On many occasions, the angry mob turned violent and took the lives of the victims. Now and then media reports such embarrassing news. It highlights the gravity of the problem that demands urgent action without further delay. Unfortunately, some people still continue to engage in medieval practices. Despite much hue and cry, the concerned authority has still not woken up from slumber.

In the recent past, Suk Bahadur Saru, 51, a local resident of Mityal VDC Palpa was accused of practicing witchcraft and troubling local people and their livestock. The local village court also confirmed his crime. Then what! The crowd lynched the man to death. Later, Suk Bahadur Saru's body was thrown from a cliff to conceal the crime.

In another incident, Dik Bahadur Bhujel of Karmaiya VDC, Sarlahi, killed Goma Devi Singdali, 70, and Ratna Maya Subedi, 60. He killed them with a large knife thinking that duo caused him to suffer from stomach pain that lasted for three weeks. It sounds ridiculous but it is true.

Here is yet another shocking revelation. This incident took place some time ago in Simardahi where then VDC president Nawal Kishore Sahani hired Ram Kripal Pandit (Indian national) and asked him to identify witches in his village. For this purpose, Sahani decreed all village women to assemble at one place for the Witch Identification Parade. Meanwhile, some clever villagers smelled rats with Sahani's intention. They stood against Sahnai and asked him to release their wives or they would inform the police. Hence, the idea of parading women for the identification of witches was dropped.

It is even more shocking when such an incident happens in the heart of Kathmandu, the capital city. Saraswati Adhikari, 27, living in Maitidevi, Kathmandu, was tortured by a shaman, and her husband, who thought of her as a witch. They flogged her so badly that by the time she was brought to Bir Hospital, she was almost dead. Eventually, she breathed her last before she was taken to the ICU.

Such inhuman activities are of course the result of illiteracy, superstition, and poverty. On top, weak implementation of the law is also responsible for a great deal. Had these perpetrators been afraid of the legal punishment, they would have never executed such a heinous act against women. The first thing is that Nepali law against such offenders who torture women in the name of practicing witchcraft is very weak. Moreover, such laws are merely confined within the law book, and never adequately implemented.  

It has already been explained by several psychologists that ghosts and spirits exist only in the minds of sick people. They have no existence in real life. Dr Biswombandhu Sharma, Nepal's leading psychologist, has said that only those people who are mentally weak believe in spirits and ghosts. Such stuff is the creation of a weak mind. A healthy brain is strong and doesn't come under any such influence. "Many times it happens with the people when they are not ready to accept bad happenings with them. They simply blame others for their misfortunes. This gives birth to superstitions" added Sharma.

Let's not forget that if a person's body is dysfunctional, for this, nothing else but only his body is responsible. For such physical ailments, if someone claims to treat them through a litany of spells, it is nothing but superstition. The truth is that all physical troubles need medical treatment to get rid of them. There are some people in our society involved in some kind of shamanic practice. They take advantage of gullible people and make them believe that a witch or a spirit is behind their miseries and malfunctions. In a country like Nepal where unemployment is so high, these illiterate shamans find it an effortless way to make a living.

Normally it is experienced that mental-related illness mostly attacks those women who are physically and mentally weaker. Hence, at times we see some women exhibiting strange behavior beyond one's comprehension. For this reason, if any woman undergoes such hysteria or convulsion, it is nothing but a kind of mental illness. Whenever a symptom of such illness is seen in any woman, the best thing is to take her to a psychologist. Regular treatment and family support can soon make her strong enough to fight back against their weaknesses. But if time is wasted by taking her to a shaman, her illness will only turn bad to worse. So, before it is too late the patient must receive proper medical attention for some time. The family members of the patient must have patience because recovery from mental illness takes time.

Dr. Arati Paudel, working at the western region Gandaki Hospital, Pokhara, presently doing her MS in Australia says, "If there is any secret education like Boksi Vidhya then why only women but many men would have learned the art so that they could settle scores against their enemies. The strange fact is that why only women are blamed for being witches, but not men. Its only answer is…these women are weak and helpless. And if she has been abandoned by her husband, she becomes even more vulnerable. Has the media ever reported a single piece of news where a rich and influential woman has been accused of witchcraft? The answer is a big No".

Dr. Paudel is right when she says that people target weak women in our society to exploit them. It is always very easy to blame a woman for practicing witchcraft and the mass can be swayed against her.

Most of the violent cases of witchcraft have been reported from Mahotari, Dhanusa, and Sarlahi. Perhaps many people don't know about a temple called Son Mai Temple. It lies in Jaleswor district headquarters of Mahotrari. Local people say that every year witches and spirits converge here in large numbers. This is a kind of annual get-together of all witches and spirits. The local authority must discourage the people from cultivating such kind of thing which is based on superstition.

In fact, ignorance, superstition, illiteracy, and poverty are responsible for encouraging the cases of witchcraft against women at large, but at the same time, weak legal enforcement is also responsible for spreading violence against women. To deal with such cases efficiently, the country should have stringent laws against the perpetrators. The strict implementation of the law is even more important.

Only making harsh laws is not enough unless they are properly enforced. If the perpetrators are dealt with strict manner others would think twice before taking any action against the poor women. The woman empowerment is not possible unless violence against them is completely eradicated from our society.  

LB Thapa is the publisher and editor of The Hemingway Post, a literary magazine.

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