[HT] War Against Ragging on Net

This was published on the 7th page of The Hindustan Times, Delhi Edition (Apr 6, 2007)
The online version can be accessed through HT-Epaper

THREE YOUNG Indians, one of them a ragging victim, are waging a unique war against ragging in institutions of education on the Net. The voluntary group - Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education or CURE - started by the trio carried out an online research on instances of ragging reported in leading Indian dailies and have analysed the kind of torture youngsters are made to undergo.

The research was carried out on the basis of data pertaining to the period between January 2005 and December 2006. Within this period 64 cases of ragging reported by leading newspapers and news channels were identified. Of these 61 were reported from colleges and three from schools. The kind of ragging the students were subjected could be ascertained only in 41 cases.

Of these 41 cases, 8 were subjected to sexual ragging, while another 5 were subjected to both physical and sexual ragging. Another 25 were subjected to physical ragging, while only 2 underwent verbal ragging. "But remember that in the case of 21, the cause could not be ascertained. We found that 11 deaths took place due to ragging, another 10 attempted suicide, while 23 were injured," said Harsh Aggarwal, one of the members of the group.

According to the findings of the group, 12 suffered an adverse effect on their mental health while 5 left the college following ragging. Of the 51 colleges identified where the cases of ragging were reported, 18 were from engineering institutions, 9 from medical colleges and 5 from polytechnics and 19 from architecture colleges.

Aggarwal himself was ragged brutally by his seniors at an Allahabad medical college in 2000. He was forced to leave medical school and wage a twoyear legal battle to bring the guilty to book. "Nothing could be done though because of the there are no designated bodies that handle cases of ragging. I started looking for other avenues of seeking redressal for ragging victims, when I chanced up on the Yahoo! Group started by IIT (Bombay) student Mohit Garg and NSIT scholar Varun Aggarwal," said Aggarwal.

CURE started as a Yahoo! group The No Ragging Group. "Varun and I were in engineering college and concerned about the ragging happening around us and the total lack of concern of people about it. It was merely seen as rites of growing up. We decided to research the topic as offering individual help was beyond our capability We used to get messages from places like Bihar from students seeking help as they were being ragged," said Garg.

anuradha.mukherjee@hindustantimes.com