[Telegraph] Crusade to put an end to ragging

Link to report

DEEPANKAR GANGULY

Help is at hand for victims of ragging, courtesy an NGO.

The recently-formed state chapter of Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (Cure) has planned counselling sessions and treatment facilities to rehabilitate students affected by ragging.

On Wednesday, the NGO will hold an anti-ragging seminar at the AC Hall of the Book Fair. Two ragging victims — Rabindranath Das of Jadavpur University and Samir Swarnakar of Ayurvedic College — will attend the programme.

“We have also decided to publish an information booklet on ragging at the Book Fair. This will be part of our awareness campaign against ragging. The booklet will be distributed free,” said convener of Cure’s state chapter Kushal Banerjee. He is an intern at Sambhunath Pandit Hospital.

Cure was formed in Delhi in July 2001. Its West Bengal chapter was born in March 2006. The NGO has nearly 70 members, most of them students.

The Raghavan committee — set up by the Union human resource development ministry, on orders from the Supreme Court, to suggest ways to prevent ragging — accepted a report prepared by the NGO’s state chapter last year. National coordinator of Cure Harsh Agarwal submitted the report to the panel in New Delhi.

“Members of the Raghavan committee visited the Salt Lake campus of Jadavpur University earlier this month,” stated Banerjee. He defined ragging as traditional and systematic rights abuse, practised by seniors upon freshers in educational institutions.

“In Calcutta, ragging has, of late, entered schools. We have received complaints from parents of Class VI and Class IX students,” added Banerjee.