Crimes Against Women Continue to Surge in Odisha

It is a little over a year of the ‘double-engine’ government’s rule in Odisha but there is no end to incidents of burning of humans, even when Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi was lighting candles to mark the completion of one year in power. Of late, a series of burning of girls/women in different parts of the state are telling testimonies of lawlessness.

The case of alleged self-immolation in public and the subsequent death of a student in Odisha’s F M College in Balasore, blew lid off the rise in crimes against women in the State, attenuating the gloomy side of human conscience.

A few hours had passed after the death of Balasore victim, when in Puri district’s Balanga village another shocker surfaced. A young girl was waylaid by three miscreants, who molested and gagged her and then set her on fire by dousing petrol on her. She survived the beastly act, but is now battling with death with 75% burns.

“It is strange that the reason behind the crime still remains a suspense”, the victim’s aunt told reporters. A probe is underway.

Last June, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ‘double engine’ government was gleaming on the milestone occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s arrival in Odisha on June 20, the screams of a young woman from the Gopalpur sea beach in Ganjam district went unheard.

The woman was taken to an isolated location of the beach and reportedly gang-raped by 10 persons and then abandoned on the far end of the beach, while her friend was buttonholed with hands and legs tied before the crime was committed. A probe is underway although the 10 accused have been apprehended by the police as suspects at the time of filing this report.

Sadly, all these crimes continue to happen in the backdrop of a massive outrage after a series of shocking incidents of atrocities on women in other parts of the state.

In another horrendous incident, on June 25, a woman returning from a temple in Mayurbhanj district was allegedly gang-raped and abandoned near Karanjia, with the motor-cycle-borne perpetrators threatening to kill her if she opened her mouth.    

In another case, a Berhampur health centre operator — reportedly linked to BJP — was arrested for raping a minor. Photographs of the accused with senior BJP leaders, including the Chief Minister, further embarrassed the ruling party.

Soon after this, reports emerged of the alleged gang-rape and murder of a 17-year-old tribal girl under Pandapada police station in Keonjhar district. In another incident, a woman from New Delhi was molested in Jajpur district. Both the cases are being probed by the police.

Such serious criminal acts with impunity are taking place with authorities turning mute onlookers.   

Citing information published by the Home Department and presented in the State Assembly, the Opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) said, “Over 3,054 rape cases were reported in the last year alone, marking a steep rise in serious crimes like rape, abduction, and murder. This points to a severely deteriorating security environment for women and children in Odisha.”

In another incident of atrocity, a newly-married couple was subjected to inhumane punishment by villagers for marrying against societal norms in Odisha's Rayagada district. They were tied to a yoke like oxen and made to plough the field in a purported video that went viral on social media.

“The main cause behind the surge in crimes against women (including minor girls) can be attributed to the tardy process of law failing to catch up with the pace of crimes and even the absence of fast-track verdicts by the courts” Ritik Pramanik, activist and political commentator, told this writer.  

In this mess of lawlessness all over the state, it would, however, be unfair to blame the Majhi-led government alone.

More than 15,000 rape cases were registered in Odisha during from 2019 to 2022, Minister of State (MoS) for Home Tusharkanti Behera had informed the Assembly, the period in which the BJD was in power in Odisha.   

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Odisha with over 40 years’ experience in the profession.