[Tribune] Ragging menace persists on campuses: NGO

Link to report

New Delhi, September 23
In spite of the anti-ragging measures initiated by the Supreme Court, a recent research by an NGO has indicated a rise in ragging incidents across the country.

A recent survey by Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURE), 52 ragging incidents were reported in the online editions of national English media since May 21 till date, an over three fold increase from only 15 cases in the same period last year.

Preliminary analysis of the cases reveal six suicides, another three attempted suicides, 17 cases of reported physical abuse and several other cases involving sexual, verbal and drug abuse.

Among some of the notable cases in the past four months was the case of a first year engineering college student of Mallabum Institute of Technology being forced to consume narcotics like marijuana, brown sugar over four days in may 25. A separate case involved stripping of three first year students of Kurnool medical college in july.

In another case, a fresher at the BIT Ranchi consumed poison after a bout of depression brought about by ragging in august. In a case at GMC Chandigarh in august, freshers reported that they were asked to abuse each other verbally, propose in a vulgar manner and act obscenely ‘’It is clear that the supreme court’s interim judgement has not been implemented in letter and spirit by the law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders. We also observed that despite the supreme court emphasising need for educating the society and spreading awareness on this issue, not much seems to have been done at the national level,’’ the report said.

According to the report the recommendations of the Raghavan Committee are not being properly implemented at many of the higher educational institutions. A three pronged approach has been proposed to weed out ragging menace from educational institutions across the country.

‘’The psycho-social aspects of ragging need to be understood thoroughly and ragging needs to tackled through education and awareness, providing alternate means of interaction along with strict implementation of deterring laws,’’ the report said.—UNI