Bhubaneswar: While Odisha registered 582 cases of women trafficking from 2018-22— among the highest in the country—the state police managed to file closure reports in just 37 cases (6%), said Minister of State (MoS) in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Savitri Thakur. She was replying to a question raised by AAP MP Ashok Kumar Mittal in the Rajya Sabha, Wednesday. She said Odisha recorded 75 women trafficking cases in 2018, which went up to 147 in 2019, before declining to 103 in 2020. However, the figures again rose to 136 in 2021, and fell to 126 in 2022.
Significantly, the trial in 16 cases culminated during 2018-22, while for two years (2018 and 2019) none of the cases could be decided, she added. Highlighting the poor policing system in Odisha, Thakur said the state police managed to file chargesheet in just 386 cases (out of 582 cases) after a lapse of three years. “In the pre-Covid19 period – 2018 and 2019- Odisha Police filed chargesheets in 89 per cent of the cases. However, it declined after 2020 when hardly in 50 per cent cases chargesheets were filed”, she added.
