[Kuncher]

As colleges prepare to welcome new students, a familiar apprehension crops up — the fear of ragging. Anti-ragging committee head and former CBI director R.K. Raghavan has appealed to parents and students to deny support to all forms of ragging, and report every case to ensure the ‘campus evil is wiped off completely.’

A review by the committee last year revealed that fewer cases of ragging were reported in the country with figures in Tamil Nadu too, on the decline. Only one incident was reported but the police have been asked to not let their guard down. “There is nothing like ‘good ragging’. It is an evil that needs to be dealt with most strongly,” said Mr. Raghavan.

TH-RAGGING_1144089f.jpg

The anti-ragging committee was appointed by the Supreme Court and it had recommended a host of steps for educational institutions, many of which, says Mr. Raghavan, have been transformatory.

“We suggested that when freshers entered the campus for the first time, senior students not be around. By the time, seniors come back from their break, the freshers would have already adjusted (themselves) to the campus.”

While the committee has asked educational institutions and regulatory bodies such as the UGC and AICTE to be proactive, the onus is on the police to facilitate complaints, in case such incidents occurred, Mr. Raghavan said.

However, with internal problems plaguing the Medical Council of India , medical institutions, of late, have not been participating in the review meetings of the committee.

“This is a worrying trend because medical colleges are often the hotbeds of ragging.”

In the last three years, nearly 473 cases of ragging were reported across the country, of which 462 have been investigated. The others, colleges have claimed, were not cases of ragging. One of them, a private university, with campuses in Chennai and Delhi, has been warned too.

“We recommended that if there were repeated cases from a college, its funds and affiliation be immediately cancelled. But that takes time. However, the attempt should be to ensure that colleges do not try to curtail complaints,” said Mr. Raghavan.

Many colleges have devised ways to combat ragging. In several colleges of Anna University, students are not permitted to talk to juniors.

In medical colleges and the IITs, there is a ‘buddy system,’ wherein senior students are asked to mentor two juniors. But stray incidents do occur, particularly in hostels, say students.

“Seniors would ask us to dance and act like animals earlier, but once a strict warden was appointed, it was banned,” says a student who studies in an engineering college on OMR.

Source: The Hindu