India turns to Wiccan queen to save girls

KOLKATA: India has enlisted the follower of a global pagan witchcraft movement to help curb the country'' high female infanticide rate and end the neglect of the girl child, government said on Monday.

Ipsita Roy Chakraverti, a Wiccan and a social activist, has been nominated by the Centre's National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) to head a panel entrusted with the responsibility to improve the status of young girls, they said.

About 10 million girls have been killed by their parents over the past 20 years, said government officials as female infanticide and foeticide. “This is a triumph for Wicca as the establishment was against Wiccans for years,” said Chakraverti.   

Wicca is primarily a Western movement of nature worship based on pre-Christian traditions and is recognised as an official religion in the United States. Like many pagan religions, Wicca practises magic.

“Ipsita is the right person for the task as she has travelled widely, does a lot of social work and feels a pain for the downtrodden," said MSA Siddiqui, NCMEI chief and retired judge.

Domestic violence and sexual abuse involving young girls is reported frequently in the country and a 2006 government survey found that 45 per cent of girls were married before the legal marriageable age of 18.  — Reuters