JORHAT,Oct 26 � Birubala Rabha, a 62-year-old resident of Thakurvila village in Goalpara district and a relentless crusader against superstitions specially the ones that lead to witch-hunting in various tribal-dominated areas of the State, has been nominated for the Samajpran Sarbeswar Dutta Memorial Award 2011 by the SI Foundation for Media & Social Welfare, Assam. This was informed by Prof Nabajyoti Dutta, director-in-chief of the Foundation.
The award was instituted last year in memory of Samajpran Sarbeswar Dutta, a selfless and dedicated social-worker of east Jorhat hailing from Baghmora area of the city, by his family under the banner of the Foundation. The award carries a memento, a citation, a phulam
gamosa, along with Rs 5,000 in cash.
It would be pertinent to note that following bitter personal experiences, Birubala started fighting against witch-hunting and later got in touch with the Asam Mahila Samata Society, an NGO supported by the MHRD, Govt of India, way back in 1999.
Since then, Birubala Rabha has been relentlessly fighting against this evil along with other welfare activities to make the public aware of necessity of education, health and hygine and ill-effects of liquor, etc.
Till date, she along with her colleagues has been able to save at least 35 lives, whom local people tried to kill suspecting them of being witches. Besides, Birubala Rabha has also been successful in bringing back many such victims to their family members and respective villagers. This great crusader against witch-hunting was also nominated as a possible recipient of Nobel Peace Prize for the year 2005.
The award will be conferred on her on November 9 next, which will be the second death anniversary of Samajpran Sarbeswar Dutta at a function to be held at Jorhat Press Club.
