Odisha girl’s suicide exposes systemic rot

IT was just a month ago that Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi sang praises of his one-year-old BJP government at the state-level Nari Shakti Samabesh event. The CM said he wanted to make Odisha a model state for women’s empowerment. Ironically, and tragically, the ruling party seems to have put women’s safety on the back burner. The state has been rocked by a series of rapes in recent weeks, including one on the Gopalpur beach in Ganjam district by a gang of 10 men. And now a 20-year-old college student, who set herself ablaze after no action was taken on her complaint of sexual harassment, has succumbed to her burns.

The girl desperately sought help from the principal. Her tormentor, an assistant professor, was allegedly asking her for sexual favours and had threatened to ruin her academic career if she didn’t do his bidding. The institution’s internal complaints committee gave her a hearing and an assurance, but failed to initiate proceedings against the accused. She reached out to the local MP, the higher education minister and the chief minister’s office, but to no avail. Pushed to the brink by systemic apathy, the student chose to take her own life rather than continue to suffer in a man-made hell.

Why didn’t the college believe her right away? Having already attempted suicide earlier, she should have been given special attention and care. And why was the predator allowed to have his way? Former CM Naveen Patnaik, who transformed Odisha into one of the best-governed states in the country, has rightly described the sequence of events as institutional betrayal and planned injustice. Shaken out of complacency, the double-engine government must go all out to curb crimes against women — the same holds true for Opposition-ruled states such as West Bengal. Grand slogans like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao sound hollow if India’s daughters remain unsafe and vulnerable.

Editorials