The State saw on an average 21 females going missing every day compared to mere seven males in 2016.
The enormity is mindboggling when till the 2016 end, the whereabouts of a whopping 23, 687 missing females from the State are yet to be traced. The result: Odisha figured at number 2 in country with most missing girl children and was ranked 4th with most missing women in the country.
Such a damning evolving trend in Odisha was brought to the fore by the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) 2016 report released recently. The more damning fact is Odisha is the only State in the country where the recovery rate of missing females is below 10 per cent compared to national average of over 44-52 per cent.
As per NCRB report, last year a whopping 7,741 females, including 1,363 girl children, went missing in Odisha compared to only 2,867 males, including 538 boys. When around four girl children went missing every day last year; only one boy went missing. While missing girl child recovery rate was at the national lowest of mere 9 per cent, it was at 13 per cent for the boys, also the lowest rate nationally. In contrast, the recovery rate nationally stood at over 52 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively.
When such would be the recovery rate, then the trend getting bigger looks more certain as the NCRB data shows since 2014, the number of missing girl child in Odisha has grown by a whopping 63 per cent, whereas the number of missing boys grew by mere 29 per cent in the period 2014-2016. This wide gap brings to the fore a sinister design behind increasing rate of missing girl child in the State. Similarly, the rate of missing women in Odisha has grown by a whopping 86 per cent in the period 2011-2016, whereas that of adult men grew by around 52 per cent only. And the recovery rate in Odisha is poorer at mere 6 per cent for females and 9 per cent for men, which are again the lowest in the country.
District wise data with the State police indicates of most missing cases reported from drought-hit districts like Kalahandi, Nabrangpur, Bargarh, Sundargarh, Balangir and Baleswar. Besides, Keonjhar, Angul, Nayagarh, Bhadrak, Puri and Ganjam have added significantly to the burden of missing girl child last year.
According to a National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) investigative report on child trafficking/missing, it found abnormal rise in missing girl child in times of ‘livelihood distresses’ like droughts, cyclones or floods. And most cases ended in trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation than labour purpose, it added. In Odisha, the syndrome gets vindicated on ground because missing boys from the districts are far less than missing girl child. Case studies further reveal that most missing girl child cases filed in police stations are from landless or wage-earner households with more unmarried female members.