Upbeat India boosters like to portray their country as a modern, “forward looking” society that is an up-and-comer on the world stage. In fact, some believe this will be India’s century.
But retro social realities are hard to ignore. Bangalore is celebrated as a tech center, thanks to American outsourcing and education, yet indoor plumbing is not universal. Sacred cows roam the streets, and untouchables (aka Dalits) still face discrimination despite official efforts to eradicate the worst of the caste system.
Women get the worst of it. When drought occurs in the superstitious countryside, some unlucky woman might be made to pull a plow through the fields to please whatever gods are miffed. The government has built orphanages to hold the millions of unwanted girls who would be exterminated otherwise in the patriarchal culture.
Interestingly, some inquiring minds recently researched how many Indian women were killed for being witches, now in the 21st century.
Witch hunts kill 200 women in India, The Times (Johannesburg), July 26, 2010
As many as 200 women are lynched every year in India after being accused of practising witchcraft, according to a study.
The deaths are most prevalent in poverty-stricken villages populated by tribal groups in the northern Indian state of Jharkhand, with cases also reported in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Orissa.
Avdhash Kaushal, chairman of the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), told AFP that most victims were single or widowed and were often targeted for their land or money.
They are often forced to drink urine or eat excreta in public and are then paraded naked through the village. An estimated 200 are killed each year, with many more committing suicide afterwards out of shame.
“During our legal literacy programme in tribal villages, we came across these incidents of women being called witches and then being killed,” he said of his charity, which helps tribal groups with litigation and welfare.
The figure of 200 is an estimate based on research done by RLEK in Jharkhand and figures from police and state authorities in other states.
In the last 15 years, more than 2,500 women have been killed for being witches, Kaushal estimated.
The United States is home to at least 1.8 million India-born persons. Lucky us to have so many of the model minority.
