Human Rights

Fighting Modern-Day Witch Hunts In India’s Remote Northeast

by The Daily Eye Team March 3 2016, 3:06 pm Estimated Reading Time: 0 mins, 35 secs

More than 2,000 people accused of being witches have been killed in Indiaover the last 15 years in poor, remote areas of the northeast.
The victims, nearly all of them women, have been swept up in modern-day witch hunts, often accused by a neighbor or family member who might blame devious sorcery for a bad harvest or an unexplained illness. But the allegations sometimes stem from personal disputes over property and the land rights of women.
For three decades, BirubalaRabha, an activist, has fought to end this violent, retrograde practice ofpunishing women accused of witchcraft. She works with state legislators and residents of rural villages to investigate accusers and protect victims and their families.

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