{IMPORTANCE= CURRENT

AFFAIRS+SOCIAL ISSUES+PUBLIC
POLICY}
INDEX
1. ANTI-SUPERSTITION ORDINANCE
2. WHY ALL OF INDIA NEEDS ANTISUPERSTITION LAW?
3. ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE LAW
4. SOURCE
5. PERSONAL INFO
The death of Narendra Dabholkar- Crusader against Superstition has brought
the cause on the centre-stage. The Maharashtra govt has passed AntiSuperstition Ordinance and the need for national legislation on the issue has
been felt.

ANTI-SUPERSTITION ORDINANCE
The Anti-Superstition Ordinance approved by the Maharashtra
Cabinet has 12 sections,It provides for imprisonment of six months to
sevenyears and fine of up to Rs 50,000.
The crimes described in the Ordinance are asfollows:
Physical assault, torture, burning shocks, forcing a person to
eat faecalmatter in the name of driving out evil spirits or ghosts from
the personsbody.
Cheating somebody on the name of miracles.
Any sinister (aghori) practice which endangers life or causes
fatal injuries.
Claims by persons of having supernatural powers and
causing fear in theminds of others to cheat them.
To perform Karni, Bhanamati rituals and claiming
possession ofsupernatural powers or advertising such claim.

 To promise a woman that she will get child by claiming to

possesssupernatural powers or force her to have physical relations by
claiming tobe her spouse in previous birth.
To exploit mentally ill patients by claiming to possess
supernatural powers.
To oppose scientific medical treatment and to coerce a
person to acceptaghori rituals when bitten by snake or dog or if the
person is ill withcancer or other diseases.
Claims of performing surgery with fingers. Claims of
guaranteeing birth ofchild of desired gender.
To isolate or punish someone by claiming he or she practices
witchcraftor possesses evil power.

WHY ALL OF INDIA NEEDS ANTISUPERSTITION LAW

As Superstition is not state centric concern, it is prevalent in whole of India in
different forms and rituals, EXAMPLE- plunging of red hot iron rods on
childrens belly in Jharkhand in the name of killing worms, tossing babies from
atop a temple in Karnataka, grave digging for rituals with human skulls in
Mizoram or more common practice of witchcraft across India.

REASONS=>LOW LEVEL OF LITERACY, CULTURE OF NOT

QUESTIONING MINDS, WANT FOR MALE CHILD, ATTEMPTING TO
CURE ILLNESS WITH TANTRIKS etc.
Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have enacted laws to restrict witchcraft.But
=FAILURE. Because these laws have provision ofimprisonment for three
months and Rs.1,000 penalty only +supplemented by weak law enforcement.
A studyReport on Awareness &advocacy campaign against
womensexploitation in the name of witchcraft andland entitlementclaims that
a total of452 women have been brutally killed inJharkhand from 2001 to 2008
in thename of witchcraft(BY NGO Association for Socialand Human
Activities).
Rural Litigation andEntitlement Kendra (RLEK), had filed a public
interest petition in theSupreme Court in 2010 for proper implementation
of these Acts. Thepetition claimed that more than 2,500 Indian women
have been killed in thename of witchcraft in 15 years.
After the death of Dabholkar, AkhilBharatiyaAndhashraddhaNirmoolanSamiti
(ABANS) has asked for a National law on curbing superstition.

In June this year, the National Commission for Women (NCW) alsoemphasised
on the need for a law which can curb violence against womenin the name of
black magic and witchcraft.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE LAW

While in the case of exploitative superstition,
the law could help but harmless rituals should not be targeted.
Some experts ask if Science and Rationality are
only modes of questioning, what we need is education to
question all our fundamentals.
Blind faith like religion is belief-systemthe line
separating superstition from faith is thin,we need to differentiate
b/w God-men who practice black magic and faith healers who
bless or pray for devotees.
Faith often acts like placebo effect, the
placebo actually does not do anything, but belief insomething
makes us more likely to do the right things that will improve
our chances of success. We all know that the mindinfluences the
way the body reacts to disease or disability blind faith
sometimes plays the same role in influencing the mind to deal
with something that afflicts the body.
The key aim of organisations like ABANS is to
ban performance of magical rites in the name of supernatural
power, but how do we define magical rites, and isnt all
religious chantingor saying prayer about invoking a
supernatural power, a.k.a. God?
Another aim of ABANS is to ban claim
possession of supernatural powers and to advertise this claim.
This would outlaw all god men, sufi saints, orany sect claiming
miracle potential in their particular patron saint, even when they
do no particular harm. It would bring theChurchs efforts to
confer sainthood on Mother Teresa or Sister Alphonsa into
question.
But few people can quarrel with some of the major aims of
Dabholkars organisation, including laws to prevent the beating
andpunishment of mentally ill patients in the name of driving
out evil spirits, or preventing anyone from taking genuine
medicine inthe name of religious prohibitions.
Moreover, more bad laws are made with the backing of religion
than without it. Would Savita Halappanavar have died in an
Irishhospital without a church-backed law on not doing

abortions? Why should polygamy laws be in the statute book at

all? The reasonis simple: socially accepted ideas sanctioned
byreligion have to be fought in the social space, and not always
by law.
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SOURCE
1. Hindustan Times----1 September
2013.
2. www.sunday-guardian.com.
3. www.firstpost.com.
4. www.downtoearth.org.in.
byShrey Khanna