Mangaluru : Rationalist Narendra Nayak on Friday said a law banning superstitious practices was needed to protect people from being exploited.

He was addressing a meeting organised by the district unit of the Moudhyachara Nirmoolana Andolana Samiti, here at the culmination of a jatha demanding a legislation on the issue. Though not all such practices could be legally banned, at least some barbaric and inhuman ones could be, he said.

Maharashtra took more than a decade to bring in a law, that too after the murder of rationalist Narendra Dhabolkar in 2013.

When rationalists in Karnataka demanded a similar measure, vested interests had been trying to stall it. As a result, the draft had not even been presented before the legislature, he said.

The jatha was organised as part of a State-wide movement to pressure the government to speed up the process, he said. The samiti wants the government to constitute a committee to elicit views from all sections of society before preparing the draft legislation, he said.

Samiti leader M. Devadas, quoting Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, said no religion was free from superstitious practices; but the degree of practices was higher in Hinduism. If the government did not act immediately, the samiti would be forced to escalate the struggle, he warned.

Samiti convener Vasudeva Uchchila said they wanted only such practices which were inhuman, lower the dignity of mankind, discriminating between male and female and castes etc., to be brought under such legislation.