Odisha: Class 10 students in state-run hostels test positive for pregnancy

Phulbani (Odisha), Jul 25 (PTI) Adding to the growing concern over sexual exploitation of women in Odisha, two minor girls — both students of Class 10 and residents of state-run hostels in Kandhamal district — were found to be pregnant during routine health checkups, police said on Friday.

The cases were reported from two separate government residential girls’ high schools in the district's Tumudibandh block.

Both girls had returned to their hostels after the summer vacation last month.

Hostel authorities alerted the police, following which two separate FIRs were registered — one at Kotgarh police station (Case No. 103/2025) and another at Belghar police station (Case No. 64/2025).

"We have registered two cases and investigations have started," Baliguda SDPO Ramendra Prasad said.

He added that police are probing the circumstances that led to the pregnancies.

Sources said the incidents of pregnancy came to the fore when the two students did not came to the matron to collect their sanitary napkins after summer vacation.

Under suspicion, they were sent to the hospital where their pregnancy was confined, they said.

In another incident, Berhampur police in Balasore district on Friday arrested four youths for allegedly attempting to kill a 20-year-old woman near a village pond after failing to rape her.

According to police, the miscreants tried to smash head of the woman with a stone, but she managed to run away and reported the matter to her family. PTI COR AAM AAM MNB