Fifty women identified and assaulted as "Witches"

Villagers in Central India beat fifty women with sticks and cut off their hair, accusing them of being "witches", according to Sujit Kumar's news article on Reuters.

The villagers had beat the women on the saying of a local spiritual man who said the assault would protect them from evil spirits, in a forest in a poor district of Chhattisgarh state, 400km (250 miles) from the capital Raipur.

Every year, dozens of women are beaten, raped, tortured publicly, paraded naked or killed on suspicion of being witches or witch doctors in India. Superstition, mythical beliefs are widespread, especially in areas without proper educational system.

"Police have begun a probe and interrogated dozens of villagers who hosted a nine-day purification ceremony where they forcibly cut the hair of about 50 women branding them witches and also beat them up publicly," said Radheshyam Nayak, a senior state police officer.

Chhattisgarh's Chief Minister Raman Singh called the latest assault "inhuman, unfortunate and shameful" and asked the state's police chief to investigate the case, a statement said. A state law exists as the Witchcraft (Prevention) Act, passed in 2005, to conter a rise in witch hunts, handing out jail terms of up to five years for offenders. Cases of "witch hunting" is still reported though, inspite of this.

In a world where people complain from everything from 'Cockroaches in food', 'Celebrity slapped someone', 'too much pollution', an even such as this, where one's basic right to live is being snatched unlawfully, just reminds of the fact that we live in a world where we take things from granted.