‘Women from marginalised sections an easy target for violence’

Scholars present papers at a meet on ‘Violence and its Habitations in India’

Hyderabad: The women of the marginalised sections become an easy target for violence and the problem is being manifested in different ways in Indian context, felt many of the speakers at a three-day international conference on "Violence and its Habitations in India", organised by the Council for Social Development (CSD), with support from Indian Council for Social Science Research, in the city.

Historians, professors, editors, writers, economists, social activists and independent researchers from across India and beyond, participated in the intellectual paper presentations and discussions at the valedictory of the three-day conference.

Dev Nathan, professor, Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, presented a paper on witch-hunting in the past and present and inferred, how women still remained the targets, though contexts of witch-hunting had changed over the years, especially after the 1980s. He said that the witch-hunting practice, which has been prevalent in Adivasi areas, had become an established moral code in those areas and that the tribals felt that it was legitimate to kill someone suspected for witch-craft.

Taking a rationalist view over witch-craft, he said that witch-hunting arose out of the people’s tendency to attribute misfortune to human involvement. He said that though the colonial rule had to an extent tried to contain witch-hunting by banning it prior to 1857, it had met with heavy resistance from the tribals, who killed not only women, but children and men in large numbers at that time. He said that land was one of the main reasons for women to be suspected of witch-craft and killed.

However, he noted that the communities have been going through civilizational changes in their belief systems, rituals and practices and economy, mostly due to the impact of migrations for livelihood.

Shashank Shekhar Sinha, publishing director, Routledge-South Asia, made his comments on the paper, saying witch-hunting was no more confined to the Adivasi areas and that it has been affecting the Dalit and Muslim women as well.

In the round-table discussion, the participants brought several other forms of violence, unknown to many in the society. The takeaways from the conference for further research included - violence perpetrated on women, who were mentally ill and intellectually challenged, when they are kept in protective custody of the State, the abuse of Andhra Pradesh (Telangana) Area Eunuchs Act in violating basic human rights of transgenders, violence against nomadic women on suspicion of theft and murders, acid attacks on young women and the use of contraceptive pills by teenage girls and the health hazards they pose to them.

“Given that ‘the prevailing order of society always grinds out its tragic toll of unnecessary death year after year’, we hope the deliberations at this conference will illuminate some new paths in the understanding of violence and its habitations, with a focus on India,” said Kalpana Kannabiran, Director, Council for Social Development.