Govt turns to Wiccan queen to save girls (India)

[icymist]

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

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

Around 10 million girls have been killed by their parents over the last 20 years, the government says, as female infanticide and foeticide, although illegal, are still prevalent with boys preferred to girls as breadwinners.

"This is a triumph for Wicca as the establishment was against Wiccans for years," Chakraverti said.

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. Wicca witches believe that the human mind has the power to cause change in ways that are not fully understood by science.

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[Marrah_G]

1. Err Wiccan "Queen"?

perhaps they messed up the translation?
Still, it's cool though.

[Why Syzygy]

2. Excellent idea.

I've not thought of this side of Wicca and Paganism. I know it is what I find nourishing to my feminine power. I'm still working on it even though I was raised in this country. Think about it. We don't get a lot of encouragement. How much more in other parts of the world. I hope they/we take it global in an important way.