The woman alleges she was first labelled a witch who would eat up the children of the village.

An 80-year-old woman in Rajasthan was allegedly paraded naked on a donkey on the orders of the Khap Panchayat.The woman alleges she was first labelled a witch who would eat up the children of the village and then she was stripped, black paint was smeared on her face and she was then paraded naked on a donkey.The incident happened in the Chauhanon Ki Kameri village in the Bhilwara district last week.The khap also allegedly ordered the entire village to ostracize the woman, threatening to impose a Rs 1 lakh fine on anyone who so much as speaks to her.The woman's husband died 37 years ago, and she has no children. She says some people in the village want to grab her small piece of land, and had been harassing her for a while.Just a month ago, a similar incident took place in south Rajasthan when 50-year-old woman in Rajsamand was allegedly paraded naked on a donkey on the orders of a self-styled village court that decided that she was guilty of killing her husband's cousin.

The Rajasthan High court had ordered action against such community panchayats but in large parts of rural Rajasthan, their diktats are law.Khap Panchayats, which are all-male unelected village bodies, are notorious for issuing extra-judicial diktats and even ordering honour killings in parts of rural India, especially in northern states, but they enjoy such political influence that local politicians rarely speak out against them, no matter what their parties say.