Unexplained deaths: how poor healthcare is fuelling Indian witch-hunts

Sudden unexplained mortalities – together with a lack of health care, education and legal protection – are proving a dangerous mix in India’s rural areas

Those accused of witchcraft tend to meet a grisly end

Reading Time:6 minutes

An abandoned room in Kanjia village of eastern Jharkhand state, India, where five women accused of witchcraft were murdered. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:30pm, 29 Nov 2020Updated: 2:56pm, 9 Dec 2020

Shakriben works her farm every day, starting at 3am. The 60-year-old stands a touch over 1.62m, and weighs just 38kg – 10kg underweight – and her skeletal arms struggle to control a scythe.

On November 2, 10 people assaulted Shakriben, believing her to be a witch. They accused her of eating her mother-in-law’s essence.

A widow, Shakriben lives with her two unmarried daughters and her son, Dineshbhai. On the day of the attack, they had all woken before the sun, drunk some water and eaten a meagre meal of dry roti and chai. The mother and son then stepped out of their house in the village of Khilodi, in the Panchmaal district of India’s eastern Gujarat state, to water their crops of maize.

That morning, the family was tense.

Shakriben in her field. Photo: Avantika Mehta

IT STARTS WITH AN ILLNESS

Two weeks earlier, Shakriben’s mother-in-law had fallen ill, and died within days. An immediate cremation meant the cause of her death could not be known. Shakriben didn’t attend the funeral.

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