Despite consistent rise in crimes against children, Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in Odisha, the State Government seemingly doesn’t deem it fit to set up special purpose police stations to deal with the rising trend of atrocities towards weaker sections of society. In contrast, neighbouring States like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand already have over three dozens of special purpose police stations to prevent crime against children, SCs and STs.
Consider this. As per 2014 State Government data, the police have registered around 1,500 – 1,800 incidences of crime against children. The shocking fact is when around 2-3 children every day face heinous crimes like sexual abuse, around two children either get trafficked or abducted every day in Odisha. Similarly, the State police have registered around four cases every day under the SC Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989 and around two cases every day under ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The rate of crime too is shockingly high at over 25 per cent for SCs and around 5 per cent for STs. Every year the crime against children, SCs and STs are on the ascent.
The main reason behind the spurt is attributed to lack of effective delivery of punishment to offenders. Data shows the pendency percentage of crime cases registered against atrocities on children, SCs and STs in Odisha is abnormally higher at 33 – 43 per cent. In contrast, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand which have special purpose police stations for prevention of crime against SCs/STs. They have a pendency percentage far below that of the State average. Moreover, their rate of crime against SCs/STs is also much below that of Odisha.
This shows the effectiveness of special purpose police stations as mandated under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989 in curbing the rate of crime against weaker sections in the society. Significantly, the State Home Department has identified as many as 16 districts as SC/ST atrocity prone areas in the State. Deogarh and Kandhmal have been declared entirely as atrocity prone area. Around 10 per cent of police station areas in the State have been declared as atrocity prone for SCs/STs.
Another worrying aspect for the State is representation of SCs/STs in police force. Despite reservation of around 16 and 22 per cent for SCs and STs respectively in police force, the actual representation is around 14.8 and 19.25 respectively thereby leaving a gap of around 1.37 and 3.25 per cent respectively. Home Department sources, however, added that the Government is mulling to launch a special recruitment drive for SCs/STs soon.
But the State is yet to identify or map the police station areas or police districts that contribute the largest burden of atrocity on children in Odisha. Child rights activist Ranjan Mohanty is of the view that special purpose police station to monitor, detect, prevent and register cases of atrocities against children could prove highly useful in detecting and rescuing child trafficking or missing children cases, which has been very high in Odisha. Incidentally, Bihar which has a special purpose police station for children has a high detection and rescue rate in missing children cases in the country.