Report by: Arkprabha Sarkar

Telecast: Saturday 9:30 pm

Repeat telecast: Thursday 4:30 pm

In tribal society the most inhuman and barbarous custom is the medieval practice of killing witches or Dainis. It generally takes place in Adivasi-infested areas. In the name of this custom all the problems are linked to the women and they can only be solved by killing these women. When a person from a particular village suffers from any kind of disease, a member of his family and most influential person of the village go to ‘Janguru’.
Janguru takes a handsome honorarium and valuable items and in exchange they declare the name of the witch of the family or village. After the announcement of the ‘Janguru’ the villagers initiate maximum torture on that particular woman, the result of which must be death. These types of superstitions vary with sometimes a son killing his own mother and a husband killing his wife with the misconception that they are the witches of Daini.
Long, long ago Daibaguru called together the males of his village who were strong, efficient and intelligent, with the intention of dispersing his God-gifted power among them. But seizing the opportunity some evil women reached Daibaguru before the males. From the other side of the curtain, Daibaguru could not recognise them and began his teaching. First he taught them how to harm people. Later on, when the males turned up, the women left silently with incomplete knowledge. Afterwards when the efficient males prayed for the spiritual knowledge, Daibaguru became amazed and then terrified, because the evil women had acquired incomplete knowledge of inflicting harm alone.
Over time these women came to be known as witches and the men, ‘Janguru.’ With the stories and some magic they began to establish their business in tribal society. Most of them are from the border areas of Malda district, Jharkhand and Bihar. They conduct their business in the open right in front of the administration.
The total tribal population of the Malda district is 1,71326. Gazole, Habibpore and Old Malda are the places where the Adivasis are in majority. There is no electricity, water and communication. Most are illiterate. There is not even any existence of a primary health centre. There is no denying the fact that these are places that facilitate growth of witchcraft. Even the leaders of the political parties do not want any improvement in these villages and use the superstitions to further their political ambitions.