The BBC on witch hunts in India, and a woman who campaigns against them.

Witch hunts have been reported from Assam, one of India’s most ethnically diverse states, for decades now.

Last year, the home ministry informed the parliament that at least 77 people – mostly women – were killed and 60 others injured in “witch hunting incidents” in Assam since 2010. Last year, in a particularly grisly incident, a feted athlete was branded a witch, tied up and severely beaten. (More than 2,000 ‘witchcraft murders’ have taken place in India since 2000)

Women are often branded witches to help relatives and neighbours grab their land and property, to settle personal grudges, or for denying sexual favours.

In tribal villages where superstition is rife and the public health system is in a shambles, quacks and shamans thrive and conspire with locals to blame women for crop failures, illnesses and natural calamities. Single women, widows or old couples are the main targets.

For the last 15 years, Ms Rabha, a slight and diminutive woman with big-rimmed spectacles and a girlish laugh, has been leading a courageous campaign against witch-hunting.

Travelling extensively and braving attacks and ridicule, the indefatigable 66-year-old crusader has spoken at meetings, held awareness camps, and taught school lessons about the dastardly practice. She has stormed police stations and lobbied authorities demanding protection for the victims.

In the past decade, Ms Rabha has rescued some 35 women branded as witches. Her relentless campaign spurred the Assam government last year to bring what many say is India’s toughest anti-witch hunting law.

That’s a woman who’s making a difference.

She talks to people in a village:

“Women have to fight against superstitions, women have to be vigilant. When you become sick go to a doctor, not a quack. Don’t have blind belief in rituals and worships. Worship your gods but don’t hate others in the name of your gods. Women can sometimes be their own worst enemy,” she tells the crowd.

The crowd, mainly women, listen intently.

Many have been victims themselves. They tell stories of how witch hunting has now even become a lucrative extortion industry, a far cry from old tribal beliefs such as the world is full of disembodied spirits “as a tree is full of leaves”.

Three years ago, Ms Rabha reached Majuli, the world’s largest river island, to find that 35 women had been branded as witches.

Later she discovered that they had been made to pay a hefty amount to the local quack for a ceremony to get “rid of the devil” or leave the village. “We went to the police, invoked the law, and saved the women. Then we found out this was a money making racket run by the local quack.”

Get rid of women you dislike and make some money. Who could resist?

H/t Mary Ellen