Baripada: Violence against women is on the rise in tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district as it accounts for the highest number of cases such as witch hunt, gangrape, murder, minor rape, bridal torture and host of others, a report said.
Things have come to such a pass that miscreants are not sparing any women when it comes to unleashing their atrocities and ferocity against the fairer sex. Girls as young as three-year-old and even elderly women over 50 and 60 years of age are subjected to sexual harassment like rape. As a result, protection of women has become a matter of concern in the district.
The increasing cases of violence against women have sparked concern but hardly anything has been done to stem the rot. This is happening despite the Centre and state taking a host of measures for protection of the women. Despite a spike in crimes against women, the administration and the state government have hardly taken any effective measures to protect them from the perpetrators.
During the last three years, the district has become infamous for registering the highest number of cases of murder and rape of women in comparison to other districts of the state. Similarly, cases like dowry torture and bride harassment are quite serious in the district.
Observers pointed out that lack of awareness among the residents and superstition are to be blamed for the spike in violence against women.
In the latest incidents, a girl student was gangraped in a jungle near Kalma Square under Baisinga police limits Friday last, while a woman was gangraped by two youths on the pretext of giving her a lift on their bike under Raruan police limits on the same day.
Sources said that the population of women is more than that of men in Mayurbhanj district. According to the 2011 census, the population of women was 12,63,525, while the male population stands at 12,56,738 in the district. The district has 32 police stations and a women and child desk is functioning in every police stations. However, this has not helped in controlling crime against women.
Reports said that many of the posts in these police stations are lying vacant for which police have failed to control the increasing cases of crime against women.
The gravity of the situation can be gauged from the reply of Dibyashankar Mishra, Minister of State for Home, made in the State Assembly, September 6. Mishra, in his reply to a non-star question of Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja, said that the rape cases registered in 2019, 2020 and till June 2021 were 203, 258 and 145 respectively. Out of them, minor rapes cases were 117,102 and 73 respectively in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Similarly, 86, 104 and 57 women were murdered in these three years respectively. Among them, dowry murder cases were five, seven and six respectively.
On the other hand, torture cases of women for dowry were 167, 197 and 149 respectively in these three years. Torture of women in other cases was 162, 294 and 185 during the period. It is apprehended that rape cases may rise to 300 if the total number women who were raped is taken into account in last six months. This year no case of women trafficking has been registered in any police station, while it was four and five respectively in 2019 and 2020.
Badasahi MLA Sanatan Bijuli blamed the incompetence of the state government for the spike in crime against women. He said that tribal women are the major victims of these crimes due to free flow of country liquor and rising unemployment problem among the youths.
Hemant Das, district president of Congress, said the state government should first fill up the vacant posts in police stations and carry out awareness drive on mass scale to protect the women from such crimes.
PNN