Bhubaneswar: Crimes against women and children seem to be haunting Odisha if the recent data released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is any indication.
According to NCRB data, Odisha recorded the highest of 542 cases of using child for pornography or for storing pornographic material under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in 2019. Odisha was followed by Rajasthan which saw 157 such cases in the year.
The report said that 2,036 incidents of sexual offences against girl children and 1,417 incidents of rape were reported from Odisha last year. The state also seems to be floundering in tackling crimes against women. The report said that Odisha topped the list in terms of cybercrimes against women in the country by registering 390 such cases in 2019.
Similarly, Odisha has been ranked among the five worst performing states when it comes to cases of outrage of women’s modesty. Odisha was forth in the country to report the highest number of cases of outraging modesty of women as per Section 509 of Indian Penal Code.
An analysis of data regarding crimes against women for the last three years suggests that the state has seen a surfeit in number of crimes against women.
The NCRB report said that while the state had reported altogether 20,098 cases of crimes against women in 2017 it went up to 20,274 in 2018 and 23,183 in 2019.
The crime rate with respect to crimes against women in Odisha is among the worse five states. It has a crime rate of 103.5 in such cases. Other states which are worse than Odisha are: Assam (177.8), Rajasthan (110.4) and Haryana (108.5).
The NCRB data revealed that Odisha saw a total of 342 dowry deaths, three cases of rape and murder and a total of 1,382 cases of rape of all types. Odisha is also the second state to report the highest number of cases of assault on women with the intent to outrage their modesty.
The state, however, saw zero attempts of acid attack, zero cases of kidnapping and abduction for murder, zero cases of kidnapping for ransom and no case of trafficking of girls from abroad. The state is fourth in terms of human trafficking cases.