Guwahati: Padma Shri awardee Birubala Rabha, a long-time campaigner against witch-hunting in Assam, died Monday at 70 years of age after battling cancer for three years.
A statement by Assam’s State Cancer Institute, Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH), confirmed her death and attributed it to “multi-organ failure”. Rabha was a “patient of advanced stage carcinoma oesophagus (cancer in the food pipe)”, the statement read.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma offered his condolences in a post on X, and hailed Rabha’s efforts to serve Assamese society.
“Through her untiring efforts to end social evils she illuminated the paths of scores of women with hope and confidence. Rising through a challenging life, she epitomised courage against all odds,” he said.
Former Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal also mourned her death on the social media platform, adding, “Birubala Rabha’s lifelong crusade against social evils like witch-hunting among tribal communities has empowered thousands of women and brought massive changes to society.”
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‘Individual bravery can make a dent in social injustices’
Forced to drop out of school following her father’s death when she was just six years of age, Rabha carried out an anti-witch hunting crusade, which led the Assam government to enact one of the most stringent laws in 2015.
The Assam Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act, 2015, came into effect three years after its enactment, receiving the President’s assent in June 2018. It provides for imprisonment of up to seven years, along with a substantial fine, for identifying, torturing and defaming a person as a witch or compelling a person to die by suicide. The punishment may also extend to life imprisonment.
Rabha came from a tribal community in the remote Thakurbhila village in western Assam’s Goalpara district. Her work, spanning more than two decades, began in the mid-1990s after a personal experience. When her son, who was struggling with mental health problems, was taken to a village quack for treatment, the quack said he was possessed by a witch and would live for only three days.
The son, however, recovered, and soon afterwards, in 2001, Rabha started working with a local women’s group to fight against witch-hunting and other social ills. She was threatened with excommunication from her community but remained undeterred and went on to rescue several women from being branded as witches and killed.
In 2011, Rabha launched Mission Birubala, an awareness campaign against witch-hunting, which often has more to do with family and property disputes under the garb of superstition. Assam has witnessed incidents in which men, too, have been branded witches and killed or maimed.
In April 2015, Gauhati University awarded her an honorary degree for her campaign against witch-hunting. In 2005, the Northeast Network, a women’s rights organisation in Assam, nominated her for a Nobel Peace Prize. She was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award in India, in 2021.
Speaking to ThePrint, former Assam DGP Kuladhar Saikia offered his condolences while reminiscing his association with Rabha and recalling how she devoted her life to fighting witch-hunting.
“Even individual bravery can make a dent in social injustices, which can be seen in (the case of) Birubala Rabha. My association with her goes back to 2001 when the Assam Police launched Project Prahari to create social awareness against witch-hunting. We had together roamed interior areas, holding social awareness meetings with villagers,” said Saikia.
According to Assam government data from last year, between 2011 and 2019, 107 people were killed across the state in witch-hunting incidents.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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