In Odisha, crimes against women mount as courts and police falter

Over the past few months, a slew of heinous crimes against women have been reported from Odisha. On Saturday, a 15-year-old girl was allegedly abducted, assaulted, and set ablaze by miscreants in broad daylight in Puri. She is in a critical condition at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar.

A week ago, a 20-year-old student from Balasore, who had alleged that her complaints of sexual harassment by a teacher were ignored, died after immolating herself. There was widespread outrage over the college administration’s alleged inaction.

In February, a Nepali student died by suicide under similar circumstances in the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology University. The incident led to tensions on campus and forced Nepali students to leave. This caught the attention of the Nepali Prime Minister, triggering a diplomatic crisis.

It is not just that issues of women’s safety in Odisha have been in the headlines frequently this year; data show that the State has fared poorly in disposing such cases over the last few years. Odisha registered the fourth highest number of court cases of crimes against women and one of the lowest conviction rates in the country between 2017 and 2022.

The table below shows the year-wise chargesheeting rate and conviction rate in cases of crimes against women in Odisha.

Between 2017 and 2022, every year, only 10% or a lower share of cases of crimes against women in Odisha’s courts resulted in convictions. Each year, at least 20 other States had a better conviction rate than Odisha in cases of crimes against women.

In 2022, only 71.4% cases of crimes against women were chargesheeted by the police in Odisha. The State ranked 24th out of 30 States in this measure that year. The chargesheeting rate was 91.2% in 2017 — the fifth best chargesheeting rate in the country — and rapidly worsened to 71.4% in 2022 and since then as well.

Odisha also continues to feature among the States with the highest rates of crimes against women in the country. In 2022, the State recorded 51 police cases of crimes against women per one lakh population, which was significantly higher than India’s overall rate of 33 such cases per one lakh population. 

The chart below shows the State-wise police case rate of crimes against women in 2022 (police cases per one lakh population) on the vertical axis and the charge-sheeting rate in such cases on the horizontal axis.

In 2022, Odisha was placed fifth in terms of police case rate and 24th in terms of chargesheeting rate, and so features in the left top of the graph. The States in this section of the graph, which include Haryana, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Assam, and Rajasthan, had a higher case rate and lower chargesheeting rate, a double whammy.

In 2022, Odisha was also the State with the second highest rate of cases of crimes against women sent for trial (384 per one lakh population) with only about 9% of these cases ending in convictions. Only Delhi with a court case rate of 385 featured above Odisha. The chart below shows the State-wise police case rate of crimes against women in 2022 (police cases per one lakh population) on the vertical axis and the conviction rate in such cases on the horizontal axis.

With a high court case rate and a poor conviction rate, the State features on the left top of the graph. The States in this section of the graph, which include West Bengal, Maharashtra, Kerala, Assam and Telangana, had a higher case rate and lower conviction rate, a double whammy again.

More than 95% of court cases of crimes against women sent for trial in Odisha until 2022 remained pending. The chart below shows shows the State-wise police case rate of crimes against women in 2022 (police cases per one lakh population) on the vertical axis and the pendency rate in such cases on the horizontal axis.

The State has one of the highest pendency rates in the country. It ranks just below Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, and Uttarakhand in this measure.

Source: National Crime Records Bureau

[email protected]