The state reported 8,577 crimes against children in 2023 — nearly 24 every day. The rise reflects not only persistent risk but also growing awareness and the courage to speak out
Trina Chakrabarti
Every hour in 2023, a child in Odisha found themselves pulled into the harsh world of crime. By the year’s close, the count had climbed to 8,577 — almost 24 cases every single day, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report. A year earlier, the figure had been 8,240. The four-percent rise, on the surface, may look like yet another reminder that children remain among the most vulnerable. But the numbers tell a more layered story — one where fear and silence are gradually giving way to recognition, reporting, and resistance.
For decades, child marriage, sexual assault, kidnapping, trafficking, and labour exploitation were realities that communities cautiously tiptoed around. Shame, stigma, and distrust kept families quiet. That quiet is beginning to lift. The 2023 data shows Odisha’s reported cases clustering largely around kidnapping and abduction (5,978 cases), sexual offences under POCSO (2,381), and a newer, fast-evolving threat — cybercrimes (69). The pattern aligns with national trends: children being targeted in familiar spaces, by familiar faces, and increasingly through the expanding digital world.
And yet, the very act of reporting these crimes signals a profound social shift. Odisha is today among the eastern region’s more vocal states when it comes to crimes against children — second only to Assam, which recorded a significantly higher rate of 84.2 crimes per lakh children, compared to Odisha’s 59.5. Elsewhere in the region, the picture varies widely: West Bengal logged 8,853 cases (29.5 per lakh), Bihar 9,906 (20.9), Jharkhand 1,626 (11.8), and Manipur 85 (8.2). Odisha’s higher reporting rate — rising steadily over the years — is not easily explained by NCRB data alone, but activists working on the ground suggest that improved systems, coupled with community awareness, have played a crucial role.
Across remote tribal belts and small blocks once cut off by geography and silence, cases are now being registered. One Stop Centres, Childline services, and Child Welfare Committees have brought child protection closer to families who earlier had nowhere to go. The journey from knowing something is wrong to speaking up about it is long — but more families are now making that journey.
Behind each statistic lies a human story. The data feels stark until you picture the thousands of girls coaxed into leaving home with promises of false marriages or digital friendships. Or the boys pulled into labour, abuse, and violence, only to be rescued because someone — a neighbour, a shopkeeper, a teacher — finally picked up the phone. Each of the 8,577 cases represents a moment when someone refused silence.
The emergence of cybercrimes adds another layer to Odisha’s challenge. In 2023, the state recorded 69 such cases involving children — up from 47 the previous year. The absolute number may appear small, but the steady rise mirrors the pace at which children’s lives are moving online. Grooming, harassment, extortion, and exposure to harmful content are becoming immediate risks. The fact that schools and alert parents report many of these cases again underscores a growing alertness — an acknowledgment that protection now must extend to screens and smartphones.
It is tempting to read the NCRB chart as a map of rising danger. But it is equally a map of rising trust — trust that if a child speaks, someone will listen, and that the system will respond. Odisha’s numbers across 2022 and 2023 reflect not just prevalence but participation. They reveal a state where community workers, government mechanisms, and civil society groups such as Child Rights and You (CRY) have spent years building awareness, confidence, and safe spaces for children. Through village meetings, adolescent groups, school sessions, and home visits, these efforts have helped children identify unsafe situations and adults recognise their responsibility to act.
Yet, the road ahead is long. For every incident that reaches the police station, others remain in the shadows. Justice, when sought, can still move slowly; healing — emotional, psychological, social — often lags even further behind. Faster investigations, trained police officials, dedicated counsellors, and stronger family support systems remain urgent needs. Protection cannot stop at punishment — it must begin with prevention.
Still, every report filed, every call made to a helpline, every parent or teacher who refuses to suppress a complaint, marks progress. It signals a crack in the wall of silence that once shielded abuse. Across Odisha and the eastern states, the growing willingness to report these crimes is evidence of faith — faith in the law, in institutions, and in the belief that every child deserves dignity and safety.
The task now is to match that courage with care: swifter justice, deeper support, and wider awareness. Only then can the hour-by-hour count begin to fall — not because children stop speaking, but because fewer crimes occur in the first place.
(Trina Chakrabarti is the Regional Director, CRY (East). Views are personal.)
