In Odisha, a 20-year-old college student died after setting herself ablaze. Authorities had ignored her repeated complaints against a male teacher who was sexually harassing her. Her death has shocked the whole state and indeed the country.

The college in which the woman studied is named after Fakir Mohan who started the modern era in Odia literature and was a protagonist of female education in the state. It is ironical that a woman student of that college has lost her life to ignored complaints of sexual harassment.

The woman, according to reports, belonged to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Her complaints had allegedly been written on paper with the ABVP letterhead and sent, among others, to the college principal, the district collector and the superintendent of police, the local BJP MP, the chief minister, and the state and the Union education ministers. All the letters were unaddressed.

Congress leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and Odisha Pradesh Congress president Bhakta Charan Dash described that the death of the woman as murder because of the total  institutional failure in safeguarding her right to life.

This total institutional failure represents a state of 'anomie' described by French sociologist Emile Durkheim in his seminal work, Suicide in which he wrote about the collapse of norms governing human relations and providing legitimacy to institutions. Durkheim looked at the impact this had on the hope and expectations of individuals. He called this situation one in which 'anomic suicides' can take place.

In an organisation, everyone is guided by a body of rules. This brings professional ethics and acts as a guide for the person manning that organisation. Once the body of rules get disrupted with changes in the social structure, it disrupts the regular way of being and leads to a lack of regulation.

The woman studied in a college where relations among students and teachers are anchored in trust and the rules of the governing the college. In a traditional society like most of Odisha is, students maintain distance from a teacher as a mark of respect. Their collegiate interactions are determined by a prevailing moral environment.

The deceased student's allegation of the male teacher asking her for sexual favours points to a violation of professional ethics, a situation resembling Durkheim's anomie.

Utterly shaken by the behaviour of the teacher, she found his conduct contrary to the norms she was made to internalise while growing up in a society.

That teacher’s highly offensive conduct caused a collapse of norms.

Her complaints of redressal of that heinous misconduct were not dealt with by any authority. Thus, she was helplessly caught in the web of anomie.

The immediate authority of the college is its principal. The principal's decisive intervention could have stemmed the situation and generated hope in the woman.

Every college or university also has a committee to look into such problems and recommend punishment to the perpetrator or perpetrators of the alleged offence or offences. But in this college, the concerned committee held meetings twice and yet no statement was issued. All her pleadings with some of the highest administrative and political authorities of the state and country were unheard or not acted upon. This signals a total state of anomie.

It is also clear to see that her ties with the ABVP shows that an apparently powerful organisation like this one was ultimately of no use in safeguarding her in an otherwise lawless universe. In fact, Hindutva which ABVP vows to follow, negates gender equality.

Anomie in Odisha

BJP's rule in Odisha, driven by Hindutva leaders, has led to a spike in violence against the marginalised in the state.

Last year an army officer and his woman friend were brutally attacked in Bhubaneswar, allegedly by people affiliated to BJP.  In the recent past a college student was brutally raped in Gopalpur-on-Sea, a popular tourist spot. Dalits in Ganjam district were brutally tortured as they were transporting cattle. There are attacks on Muslims and Christians in several parts of the state.

Three people died a stampede during the Rath Yatra in Puri.

A state of anomie such as this is difficult to undo or compensate for. The chief minister's promise of Rs 20 lakhs to the deceased woman's family is unlikely to act as a balm.

The opposition Biju Janata Dal has been protesting. Congress and other parties are leading a statewide strike today.

Fakir Mohan's story Revati is one in which a student who wishes to study is guided by a teacher at home. In the Odisha of 2025, a Revati did not get justice when she confronted sexual harassment and exploitation. The sate, caught in the whirlpool of anomie, must be salvaged to safeguard women.

Radhakanta Barik was professor at the Indian Institute of Public Administration.

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