Opposition BJP has alleged that Odisha is “unsafe” for women and children and BJD government’s claim about women empowerment in the state is ”hollow”.
Atrocities against women and children, particularly minor girls, have increased alarmingly in recent years, Odisha BJP Mahila Morcha president Smruti Pattnaik claimed.
The ruling BJD dismissed the charges and said its efforts to empower women through the SHG movement have been appreciated by the BJP-led government at the Centre itself, besides Niti Aayog and the United Nations.
Dubbing the BJD government’s claim about women’s empowerment in Odisha as ”hollow”, Pattnaik told a press conference on Tuesday, “While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has introduced several welfare schemes for women, the Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha has been utilising members of self help groups for political purposes”.
The BJD government, she claimed, is giving benefits to only a particular section of women who campaign for the party and cited the instance of agitating Anganwadi and ASHA workers, who are staging demonstrations here braving the cold weather.
“Odisha has become completely unsafe for children amid the spurt in kidnapping incidents,” Pattnaik claimed at a press conference here on Tuesday and quoted figures from the 2021 report of the National Crime Record Bureau.
The rate of conviction in cases of atrocities against women is ”abysmally low” in the state – only 8.3 per cent compared to the national figure of 26.51 per cent, she asserted.
Mentioning the NCRB figures, Pattnaik said 23,183 crimes against women were recorded in Odisha in 2019, which increased to 25,499 in 2020. In 2021 the number rose sharply to 31,352.
The BJP leader also claimed that more than 1600 children have gone missing in the last five years in the state and there has been an increase of 42 per cent in 2022 compared to that of 2021.
The BJP, she said, will launch a two-day awareness campaign in the state highlighting the welfare schemes for women launched by the prime minister and how BJD is using them for its political purposes. Thirtysix prominent women leaders of the saffron party will visit all Odisha districts to make women aware of their rights and the way BJD is using them.
Countering Pattnaik’s charges, BJD spokesperson Lelin Mohanty Wednesday said the party believes in empowering women and is the only party in the country that ”prioritises the political space for women from the panchayat till Parliament”.
He said empowering 80 lakh women through the SHG movement has transformed the scenario and women in Odisha have become the harbingers of change.
Agreeing that crime against women is a cause of concern, he said it can only be addressed by empowering 50 per cent of the population (the women).
”Let national parties not look at it (crime against women) from a political prism … It will be better if we work unitedly instead of having a perpetual habit of bringing false allegations for petty political gains,” he added.
