A quinquennial evaluation of the Assam witch hunting (prohibition, prevention and protection) act 2015 and project ‘prahari’ in btad, Assam

Mr. Kaustav Choudhoury and Mr Rahil Mathakia
Page No: 
1655-1659

The Assam Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act 2015 and the project ‘Prahari’ are dedicated legislations and community policing program respectively aimed at curbing the societal menace of witch hunting. Thus a quinquennial evaluation is emphasized to evaluate the deficiency in the execution of it, so that effective and efficient steps could be undertaken to eradicate such societal practices. The research gap of dearth of quantitative research on the subject also needs to be addressed and thus the utility of this study. Thus a quantitative approach have been adopted in this research paper and samples were collected from all the four districts of BTAD using structured questionnaire to examine the awareness of the people about the Act of 2015 and explore to the outreach of the project Prahari among the people in BTAD, Assam. The finding reveals that partial of the respondents are aware of the Act of 2015 and a mere part of it are aware of the project prahari. This research further advocates for innovative ways to make people aware of the Act of 2015 and the community policing good practices. It also contends that overburdening of the subordinate judiciary of the four districts of BTAD relating to offences against women further escalates the issue, which results in repeated number of cases of witch hunting.

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