BHUBANESWAR: Odisha continues to have the dubious distinction of reporting a disturbing number of rape cases including sexual assault on minors despite claims of the State government on initiating several measures for women empowerment.
According to a written reply given by Minister of State for Home Tusharkanti Behera in response to a question from Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja in the Assembly on Monday, the State recorded 15,715 rape cases including sexual assault on 5,584 minors during a 40-month period from 2019 to April, 2022. The number of rape cases increased every year during the period compared to the preceding year.
The Minister said that while 2,950 rape cases were registered in 2019, the number increased to 2,984 in 2020. The cases increased to 3,327 in 2021 while the first four months of the year till April 30 witnessed 868 cases.
The total crimes against women in the State increased from 20,274 in 2018 to 23,183 in 2019. The data released by the Minister showed that total crimes against women increased to 25,489 cases in 2020 during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic.
More disturbing aspect of the facts released by the Minister showed that sexual assault on minor girls also saw a steady rise during the period.
While 1,635 such cases were recorded in 2019, the number increased to 1,646 in 2020. The cases touched 1,871 in 2021 while during the first four months of 2022, Odisha has registered 432 cases of assault on minor girls.
The figures include 397 rape cases and 214 number of sexual assaults of minor girls in the Capital city of Bhubaneswar. Besides, dowry homicide, dowry torture and non-dowry torture of women increased in the State.
While 1,019 cases of dowry homicide were witnessed in Odisha, the dowry torture cases increased to a whopping 13,910 cases while over 12,000 non-dowry cases were reported in the last 40 months.
The Minister admitted that the number of dowry torture and non-dowry torture cases increased to 4,953 and 4,889 in 2021 while in the first four months of 2022, the number of such cases registered by the police was 1,442 and 1,430 respectively.