Birubala Rabha

Birubala Rabha was an activist from Assam who spent more than two decades fighting witch-hunting, the practice of branding people, usually women, as witches and attacking them. She was named for the Padma Shri in 2021 in the field of social work, from Assam ^[1].

A village on the border

Rabha was born on 5 February 1949 in Thakurvila, a remote village in Goalpara district on the Assam–Meghalaya border, to Koleya Ram Rabha and Sagarbala Rabha ^[2]. She belonged to the Pati Rabha community ^[2]. She studied up to Class 5 and was married in 1964 to Chondicharan Rabha, a farmer ^[2].

The fight begins

Her campaign began at home, when her son, who had an intellectual disability, was branded as a witch and it was predicted he would die within three days ^[2]. She held her first public meeting against witch-hunting at Goalpara on 15 September 2001 ^[2]. For three years the villagers shut her family out, and she was attacked and chased by angry crowds at night, sometimes having to escape through the forest ^[2].

Mission Birubala

In 2012 she formed Mission Birubala and became its chief adviser ^[2]. The group raised awareness against witch-hunting and superstition, helped victims rebuild their lives and promoted women’s education and scientific thinking; by the time of the award it had rescued 55 people in Majuli, Kokrajhar, Goalpara and Tinsukia districts ^[2]. She played a key part in Assam passing the Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act in 2015 ^[2].

She was among the 1,000 women nominated together for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, and Gauhati University gave her an honorary doctorate in 2015 ^[2]. In 2018 the Women’s World Summit Foundation in Geneva gave her its prize for women’s creativity in rural life ^[2].

Rabha died at a hospital in Guwahati on 13 May 2024 ^[3].