Guwahati, Sept. 22: Birubala Rabha, a crusader against witch-hunting in India, today appealed to the people of Assam to watch the movie Aei Maatite.

The movie, directed by Sitanath Lahkar, the former principal of Cotton College (now Cotton University), is based on witch hunting and will be released all over the state on October 6. It is an adaptation of Lahkar's stage play Tamasaa on witch-hunting. The story, screenplay, dialogues and lyrics have also been penned by Lahkar.

'It is a well-made film and will be very useful to make people aware about superstition. However, there are not enough facilities to screen the film in rural Assam. If the film can be screened in the remote areas, among people who believe in superstition, it will be more fruitful,' Birubala told The Telegraph this evening.

She said 'Birubala Mission' will take the initiative to screen the film. The most affected areas are the tea gardens, tribal belts and blocks and very remote areas of the state. The districts in which witch-hunting is prevalent are the BTAD, Sonitpur, Goalpara and Tinsukia, with over 120 people getting killed since 2006.

The Mission was founded in 2011 to support Rabha who has been fighting to eradicate social evils since 1985 in Assam and Meghalaya. Assam police in 2011 also launched Project Prahari to create awareness on witch hunting.

Inheriting a love for social work from her mother Sagarbala, Birubala formed the Thakurbila Mahila Samiti. It was from this platform that she raised public awareness against witch-hunting and other social ills. Recently, a special screening of the film was organised at Birubala's home at Thakurbila, a village 20km from Agia in Goalpara district.

Birubala also spoke of her regret over not being able to attend the Witchcraft and Human Rights Experts Workshop at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on September 21 and 22 due to a delay in obtaining the visa.

The event is being organised by the Witchcraft and Human Rights Information Network, the UN Independent expert on human rights.

'I had got an invitation for the programme in Geneva in April. After collecting all required documents on August 13, I filed the visa application. A few days later an official of the external affairs department told me that there was some mistake in my documents. So I applied again on September 7. But I have not got the visa so far. To reach Geneva in time I should have left on Monday. Ultimately I could not attend the workshop,' Rabha said.