Time to pass anti-superstition Bill

ALAPPUZHA: Banned rituals like Chooral Muriyal continues under the guise of custom and tradition as Kerala assembly failed to bring an anti-superstition law as suggested by the police in 2014, while Karnataka unanimously adopted it in November. Under the previous dispensation, ADGP Intelligence A. Hemachandran prepared it reviewing the similar law in Maharashtra and the proposals in Karnataka, after three deaths caused by superstitions. However, neither the UDF nor the LDF regime took an interest.

But on January 29, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan called for a mass movement against superstitious beliefs and rituals. “Article 51 of the Constitution (which terms the promotion of a scientific temper as a citizen’s fundamental duty) had empowered people to open a new front in the struggle against attempts to spread superstitious and anti-scientific beliefs," he said in Kannur. 

Even though he is so vocal, his government, despite almost two-years in power, had taken no effort so far. There were several horrific incidents like denial of breastmilk to a newborn for 24 hours on religious grounds, killing a woman to exorcise a spirit from her body, and the death of an 18-year-old girl following a  black magic treatment for a kidney ailment. The highlights of the proposed legislation titled Kerala Exploitation by Superstition (Prevention) Act, are five years to life in jail for sexual exploitation committed under cover of superstition or black magic and capital punishment or life term for death.