With a whopping 1,957 cases of criminal assault on women with intention to disrobe, Odisha in 2015 saw a record rise in ‘disrobing’ of women modesty. The State also dubiously sits at the top in the country in ‘disrobing’ crime leaving the States like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar far behind.
Displaying an ominous trend, Odisha has recorded an eye-popping rise of over 71 per cent in disrobing cases against fair sex last year, reveals the Crime in India report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recently.
How the fair sex in Odisha is in a quandary is starkly revealed by the fact that when Odisha has a mere 3.5 per cent of country’s women population, the rate of sexual crimes against the fair sex in the State grabbed a high of around 5 per cent of total such crimes against women in the country in 2015.
More telling is Odisha has a crime rate of around 82 per lakh women against over 70 in 2014, which is 4th among 36 States and Union territories and is worse than BIMARU (Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) States. However, under Section 345B of IPC, which means assault or use of criminal force on women with an intent to disrobe, Odisha posted a new national record in 2015 with a crime rate (disrobing incidences per 1lakh women population) of 9.4 against mere 5.5 in 2014. UP and West Bengal followed Odisha. The rise has also hit the minor girls in Odisha gravely as victims to such crime rose to a high of 62 against mere 26 in 2014.
An analysis further doesn’t reveal this stripping-off act in Odisha as any vendetta against caste conflict, a trend in northern India, rather a vengeful crime against women across the caste divide. Because, only 2.2 per cent of such disrobing cases in Odisha were filed under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act against 2.6 per cent in 2014. On the contrary, around 51 such SC/ST victims have undergone through this strip-off treatment by their own community.
Almost 95-98 per cent of such strip-off cases were recorded in rural areas and urban slums. Around 2– 4 per cent cases come from semi-urban centres, reveals the data with the State police. And, the reasons that flare up such crimes against women ranges from petty neighbourhood quarrels to anti-liquor agitations, alleged practice of witchcraft and compelling for marriage. Women activists blame greater degree of politicisation and poor staffing of rural police for the genesis of such heinous crimes against women in Odisha. “Crimes against women could easily be nipped off in the bud if police acted swiftly on first complaint by the victims. Their act of patronising powerful elements in society bolsters the morale of law-breakers,” observed activist Tapasi Praharaj.