Is there a place in Odisha where a woman is safe?

The audacious and spine-chilling incident of the gang rape of a woman in a Bhubaneswar apartment has demolished several myths about crimes against women in Odisha in general and the safety of women in the state capital in particular.

The first of these myths is that a change of government can usher in a change in the rate of crimes against women. Governments may come and governments must go; but rapists go on forever! So far, we had lulled ourselves into complacency, believing that the rising graph of crimes against women in the state was an outcome of the long BJD rule. Now that there is a BJP government in place, which has repeatedly boasted that it would pursue a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ on crimes against women, the potential rapists would be shitting in their pants. But as two incidents within a span of a fortnight – both in the state capital – have proved beyond a shred of doubt, the would-be rapists couldn’t care less who is voted out of power and who is brought in. Their unwavering gaze is fixed firmly on their next target, the government be damned!

Second, women are safe as long as they don’t venture out and stay put in their homes. It’s the streets where the potential rapists or molesters roam around in search of their next victim, especially during night. And if such an audacious act can happen in the dead of the night, there is no reason why it can’t happen in broad daylight.    

Third, apartments are more secure than stand alone houses. One of the major reasons cited by most people who prefer to stay in an apartment is they are safer, especially for women. There are boundary walls in place. There are security personnel to keep a hawk eye on intruders into the premises. And since apartment blocks are typically multistoried and the houses are adjacent to each other, the chances of someone barging in to commit a crime are next to nil because someone could raise an alarm if s/he hears a commotion in the next flat. That’s the reason families where the male member stays away – like the unfortunate victim of the incident on the intervening night of Sunday/Monday - prefer apartments. The myth of alert neighbours raising an alarm has been shattered for good with Sunday’s barbaric incident. The bitter truth is neighbours staying in the same apartment – and even on the same floor or in the next flat – frequently don’t know each other or have a nodding acquaintance with each other at best. In the best traditions of modern urban living, they mind their own business and have no desire or time to bother about what is happening next door. This is especially true of newer apartments that have mushroomed all over the capital city.

And the fourth myth – that a police station is safe for a woman in distress - had already been busted nearly a fortnight before the incident at the Maitri Vihar apartment last Sunday when the chilling details of the nightmare an army officer’s fiancée had to go through at the Bharatpur police station on the night of September 14 appeared in the public domain. It proved – if any proof was indeed needed – that there is no place where a woman is safe; not on the streets, not at home and not even at a police station!

The arrest of the three alleged perpetrators – one of whom apparently stood guard on the ground while his colleagues had their ‘fun’ – on Wednesday would have been reassuring had it not been for the disastrous record of conviction in cases of violence against women in Odisha. For all you know, the three arrested for the crime could be acquitted by courts for lack of ‘sufficient, clinching and irrefutable’ evidence – as has happened in numerous cases in the past. The cynics would even doubt whether those arrested are the real culprits. When a case leads to large scale public outrage, the police often arrest some people without enough solid evidence to assuage public anger – only for the accused to walk free from the courts due to insufficient evidence.

The revelations made by new Twin City Commissioner of Police (CP) S Devdutt Singh while briefing the media about the case have raised more questions than they have answered. The CP said Sunday night was not the first time the accused had entered the victim’s apartment. They had apparently broken into the house and stolen a mobile phone the previous night. What it effectively means is that the culprits had done a recce the previous night to prepare for the big break in the next day. Given that they decamped with no more than a pair of ear rings and a mobile phone, one wonders whether they had entered the house with the intent to rob and pounced on the woman as a ‘fringe benefit’ or was it the other way round?

The other revelation made by the CP is even more disquieting. The accused, the CP said, had criminal antecedents and had come out of jail on bail recently. This raises the inevitable question: is there a system in place to track criminals and their activities when they come out of jail on bail? What purpose does the much-touted Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) – about which Odisha Police never tires of boasting - serve if it can’t keep tabs on the kind of habitual offenders who perpetrated the heinous act on Sunday night once they are out of jail?

Successive annual reports released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) have proved that Odisha has an unenviable record at the national level when it comes sexual crimes against women. It’s high time we reverse the trend and save ourselves the ignominy of being labelled one of the most unsafe states for women. While there is no way to anticipate a sex crime against a woman – and end he ‘culture of rape’ - what we can certainly do immediately is to act tough on those who perpetrate such crimes. And for that to happen, the Mohan Majhi must walk the talk of ‘zero tolerance’ against crimes against women.

(DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are the author’s own and have nothing to do with OTV’s charter or views. OTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)