[Hindu] Consider having a chapter on ragging: court

Link to report

Legal Correspondent

Seek undertaking from students, Bench asks educational institutions

# Violators will face expulsion
# Institutions not complying with directives will also face action

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked courts to dispose of ragging cases expeditiously so that the action would prove a deterrent and avoid inconvenience to victims.

A Bench consisting of Justices Arijit Pasayat and S.H. Kapadia also asked the National Council of Educational Research and Training and the State bodies to explore the possibility of introducing in the curriculum a separate chapter on ragging under "human rights" to create awareness among the students of the evil effects of the practice.

The court urged the educational institutions to include in their prospectus a column seeking an undertaking from students that he/she was not involved in any ragging activity in the past and that he/she would not indulge in it in future. If the undertaking was violated, the students would be liable to be expelled.

Awareness programme

The court wanted the Central and State Governments to launch programmes, giving wide publicity among students, for dissuading them from indulging in ragging.

Non-compliance with the directives would be considered lowering academic standards by the errant institution. It would be open to the regulatory bodies or State Governments to deny grants to the institution for any failure to implement the directives. Financial awards or incentives could be considered for colleges or universities which took stringent action against the errant students.

The Bench, which accepted the bulk of the R.K. Raghavan Committee recommendations, said the other suggestions would be considered later.

It asked the panel to monitor the implementation of its recommendations and file a status report in September.

[CNN-IBN] Sex, crime in the name of ragging

Link to article

News Video

New Delhi: Ragging is banned in schools and colleges. But the horrible practice continues to exist across the college campuses. “We were asked to strip, hold the genitals of other male students enact a rape scene,” says student (name withheld) of the Delhi University.

Victims, who tell they either had to quit or suffer quietly for there was nobody to take an action, share the ghastly experiences of harassments and sexual assault in the name of ‘ragging’. “I joined Kumaon engineering college in 2002. Violence, humiliation and filthy language were very much a part of ‘ragging’ right from day one,” says Rohit Kaler, a victim.

He adds, “At midnight seniors entered the hostel and asked two of my friends to strip and rub Vaseline on each others body. They asked us to take our genital imprints and carry those as identity proof with the genital measurements written on it.”

Rohit left the college in 50 days. This was five-years back, but things aren't any better even today. Now in a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court has prescribed severe penalties for even mild forms of ragging.

However, the practice is still rampant says CURE (Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education)—a website that wages war against ragging on the net.

The website states:

Over 60% of ragging cases reported are physical

* 20% cases are that of sexual harassment.

In (2005-07) 64 ragging cases were reported—from 61 colleges and 3 from schools . 62 per cent of the cases involved physical assault. In 13 per cent of the cases, sexual harassment was coupled with physical assault. 20 per cent of the cases were of sexual abuse while 5 per cent complained of verbal abuse.

After 11 deaths, 10 suicide attempts and 23 injuries all in just the last two years—the Supreme Court ruling seems to be just paperwork. The order says that the prospectus of colleges should clearly mention the punishments for ragging.

And an institution that fails to curb ragging can be de-recognized by the UGC/AICTE. But none of this has been implemented so far.

“It is important to realise that the ‘ragger’ is also a victim of ragging: not only was he ragged in his first year, he was later co-opted in a system of abuse and exploitation—one that legitimizes violence and oppression, drug abuse and alcoholism, all as 'student life',” says Shivam Vij, Stopragging.com.

When the institutions fail, cyberspace comes of great help. The independent groups have worked closely with the Raghavan committee, appointed by the HRD ministry to recommend ways to curb ragging in schools and colleges—all in the hope that what happened to Rohit will not happen to anyone again.

[NDTV] SC cracks down on ragging

Link to report

Wednesday, May 16, 2007 (New Delhi)
The Supreme Court has come down heavily on ragging, telling institutions that any failure or negligence in lodging FIRs will be construed as negligence on the part of the institutions.

The court has ordered all institutions to implement several of the recommendations made by a government-appointed committee, the Raghavan Committee.

The court said that ragging must be deterred by exemplary and harsh punishment.

In every instance where a victim or his guardian is not satisfied with the action taken against ragging, an FIR must be filed by the institution.

The move comes after a committee appointed by the Supreme Court and headed by former CBI Director R K Raghavan recommended a comprehensive law to check ragging, asking for educational institutions to be made accountable.

The Raghavan committee report had found out that the conviction rate in ragging cases booked under the Indian Penal Code was very low and recommended changes in the IPC.

The committee suggested an induction programme for the freshers with the help of senior students under faculty guidance and faculty training to check incident of ragging.

The committee recommended stern penalties including expelling students accused of ragging and asked for counselling for victims.

[HT] SC committee wants a law to curb ragging

Link to report

A Supreme Court appointed committee last week recommended a comprehensive law to check ragging, while seeking accountability of educational institutions for such cases.

The proposed anti-ragging law had faced some opposition in the committee with certain members raising questions over its enforceability.

Six states have enacted anti-ragging laws following a Supreme Court order in 1999 but a negligible number of cases have been registered under the law, a government official said.

The committee in a report to the court has found out that the conviction rate in ragging cases booked under Indian Penal Code was poor and has recommended specific changes in the IPC to improve it.

HRD ministry told Rajya Sabha on Monday that no data is maintained centrally on ragging cases. Earlier this year, a social group Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURA) has said 25 suicides have been reported because of ragging in the last seven years.

The CURA report also said, “Many institutions don’t report cases of ragging fearing loss of reputation.” The committee wants educational institutions to be made punishable for hiding cases and has recommended a code of guidelines for the colleges.

The committee headed by former CBI Director R K Raghavan had also drawn a social profile of the victims and found that most of the ragging victims were either from rural areas or socially backward communities.

To bridge the divide, the committee has suggested an induction programme for the freshers with the help of senior students under faculty guidance. It also speaks about faculty training to check ragging incidents.

The committee appointed by the court to look into ways of preventing ragging and possible action against the accused has recommended stern penalties including rustication for the accused. The colleges would have to set up psychological counselling mechanism for the victims, the committee has said.

A committee member said the court is expected to consider the report soon.

[ToI] Student goes missing after ragging

Link to report

14 May, 2007 l 0107 hrs IST lTIMES NEWS NETWORK

SURI: Saroj Kumar Biswas, a first-year student of Ramakrishna Shilpa Vidyapith, a state-run polytechnic college, went missing on Friday night. His family members have alleged that Saroj fled from the hostel after being ragged by his seniors.

The family members and college authorities have lodged separate complaints with Suri police on Saturday night, nearly 24 hours after Saroj went missing.

In his complaint at the Suri police station, the victim's elder brother, Dipan, accused six third-year students - all hostel boarders - of being responsible for his brother's disappearance. Dipan has also named some first-year and second-year students who supported his claims.

"They used to torture him. He was threatened with dire consequences if he ever told anybody about the torture he had to endure. I'm a former student of this college and I know very well what goes on here. He had told me about the students who used to torture him. They started to torment him right since the day he joined for the first semester," said Dipan.

Pankaj, the other brother, who studies electrical engineering in the college, also claimed that Saroj was singed with cigarettes. Dipan's statement found support from some first and second-year students.

The boarders first noticed Saroj's absence on Friday night during dinner. The hostel monitor, Avijit Dey, a third-year student, informed the hostel superintendent that Saroj hadn't turned up for dinner. The authorities asked Pankaj about his brother's whereabouts. But he had no information.

The hostel authorities then called up Saroj's residence in Thakurnagar in North 24-Parganas. But even the family members could provide no information.

Suri police has started an investigation into Saroj's disappearance. However, they are surprised by the fact that it took the hostel authorities almost 24 hours to inform them. "The hostel authorities claimed that they were waiting to hear from the family," an officer said.

Satyasankar Panda, the SP of Birbhum said: "Our officers have started an investigation. We are considering all possibilities. We are not ruling out the allegations of ragging that forced Saroj to flee."

[Outlook] Committee on ragging to submit report to SC

Link to report

NEW DELHI, MAY 7 (PTI)

The Committee on ragging is all set to submit its findings to the Supreme Court tomorrow and is expected to suggest changes in the law dealing with the issue.

"More than making it a cognizable offence, most felt that there is a need to bring in a comprehensive law on the matter. There was also opposition to it as well.

"Apart from that the committee has also listed some mandatory instructions for every college to deal with the issue," sources in the committee told PTI.

"The members were also concerned of the low conviction rate in incidences of ragging and hence some amendments in the IPC is certainly in the fray if the courts deem it worth," they added.

The committee, headed by former CBI Director R K Raghavan, has suggested a two-fold approach of punishment coupled with counselling. Wherein, the college needs to also facilitate access to psychological help for both the victim and the potential perpetrator.

The committee headed by former has also noticed a trend in the incidents of ragging and the victims in most cases hail from the rural and weak backgrounds and vice-versa. Hence, some suggestion also include steps to bridge this gap in the campus and promoting amity among the students, the sources said.

The suggestions also speak in favour of healthy ways of introduction of the juniors under the guidance of the faculty. It also speaks of arming the juniors with the identity of the seniors at the time of their entry for better identification and mention of the rules in the prospectus of the colleges to curb the menace.

[IE] ‘NIT staff didn’t take enough measures to stop ragging’

Link to report

Anju Agnihotri Chaba

Jalandhar, May 6: In the ragging death case of a student of Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT), the crime branch has submitted its inquiry report to the ADGP (Crime) in which it said the institute administration had not taken sufficient measures to stop ragging. The report has also raised a finger over the investigation by the Government Railway Police (GRP).

The report said had the NIT administration taken proper measures to stop ragging on the campus, the death would have never occured. Sources said the probe also questioned why the GRP did not indict the NIT staff responsible for checking ragging.

Notably, a first-year student, Amit Gangwar, had committed suicide by jumping before a train in October 2005 and left a suicide note, naming ten senior students who tortured him.

Crime Branch SP, Jalandhar, Kamal Kumar, was not available for comments.