JORHAT, ,Jan 29 - In order to spread scientific knowledge on basic healthcare techniques as well as preventing witch-hunt cases in upper Assam, Mission Birubala, a voluntary trust set up for launching massive awareness against practising of occultism and witch-hunting, has started a series of sensitisation programmes in some selected areas of Jorhat, Golaghat and Tinsukia districts.
In one such programme, renowned anti-witchcraft activist Birubala Rabha said here on Tuesday that she along with her associates will try their best to make the people think on scientific lines in day-to-day life instead of resorting to occult practices during any kind of disease or epidemic. Rabha attended a meeting at JB College here on Tuesday. According to her, lack of scientific knowledge and deep-rooted belief in occult practices in several backward areas in rural Assam are the basic causes of witch-hunting, many of which could not be prevented even by timely intervention.
Citing many cases of atrocities and killings in some rural areas, Rabha urged the civil society to be a part of her mission against witch-hunting.
She said while several people were killed by the witch-hunters, some others were ostracised from social functions along the bordering areas of Assam and Meghalaya in her locality. Two persons were allegedly killed in some tea garden areas in Tinsukia district, while another woman was tortured mentally at Majuli in the current month, said Arpana Bora, coordinator of Mission Birubala. The awareness programme which started at Katanibari Tea Estate in Mariani on Monday, will be held at Dergaon, Majuli and Tinsukia respectively till February 2 next.
