Witch-Hunting, Gender, And The Criminal Law Response: General Penal Codes Versus Specialized Statutes In India
Nikita Pawar, Symbiosis Law School Pune
ABSTRACT
Witch-hunting in India is a form of violence in which accusations of witchcraft, rather than any demonstrable conduct, become the basis for branding, exclusion, assault, sexual violence, dispossession, and killing. Although the practice is frequently explained through superstition, its operation is also connected to gender hierarchy, caste, indigeneity, economic insecurity, local authority, and disputes over land and family resources. This paper compares two legal routes available in India: prosecution through general penal law, now principally the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), and prosecution under specialized state anti-witch-hunting statutes. The study uses a doctrinal and socio-legal method. It examines statutory materials, selected judicial decisions, official legal sources, a field-based civil-society report, and academic literature on gender, caste, customary authority, and witchcraft accusations. The comparison shows that general penal law can impose severe punishment where conduct is proved as murder, hurt, sexual violence, intimidation, or unlawful assembly, but it often enters after serious harm has occurred and does not name the social process of witch-branding. Specialized statutes improve visibility, permit earlier intervention, and in some states address witch doctors, compensation, preventive duties, or collective action. Their impact is constrained by variation in definitions and penalties, weak registration, limited investigation, witness intimidation, low institutional awareness, and insufficient rehabilitation. The paper argues for a carefully drafted central framework that criminalizes branding and related facilitation without criminalizing belief itself, harmonizes minimum standards, protects survivors, and preserves culturally informed local prevention. Criminal law should be integrated with land and property protection, health access, legal aid, education, social security, and reliable data systems.
Keywords: Adivasi women; criminal law; Dalit women; India; specialized statutes; witch-hunting; gender violence; central legislation.
