[Tribune] Call it crime: Court’s prescription against ragging

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THE Supreme Court’s directive to educational institutions to eliminate the archaic practice of ragging has once again brought this menace into sharp focus. The court does not want any mercy to be shown to those indulging in this heinous activity. On the other hand, it wants the educational institution concerned to take the responsibility of filing an FIR if the parents or guardians of a victim are not satisfied with the punishment given by the institution or if the sufferer is unable to file an FIR on his own. No doubt, preventing ragging is the collective responsibility of the authorities at all levels.

What the court has observed is based on the R.K. Raghavan Committee’s recommendations. The panel, headed by a former CBI Director, was appointed by the Centre under instructions from the apex court, which has approved of much of what the committee has suggested for banishing this ugly practice. Those among the student community who favour the continuance of ragging describe it as mere “fun”, which is believed to help interaction among the seniors and juniors. They must be bluntly told that any activity that can destroy a student’s career and even threaten his life and liberty cannot be accepted as “fun”. Ragging was reportedly the cause of at least 25 suicide cases during the past seven years. The number of those emotionally traumatised by the ragging can never be quantified.

The apex court has directed the educational institutions to appoint an anti-ragging committee or squad to keep an eye on the goings-on in the hostels so that no junior student is harassed by his seniors on any pretext. This can help only if the members of the panel include people who are not employees of the institution. According to a survey by the Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURE), the authorities of educational institutions “prefer to deny ragging incident for face-saving at the cost of the freshers’ trauma”. For them the image of their institution is more important than the life or career of a student. This needs to be addressed to make the anti-ragging prescription effective.

[NDTV] Panel to assess judicial impact of new laws

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Sunetra Choudhury

It's easier said than done - the homily couldn't be more true when it comes to new laws.

And when the Supreme Court defined ragging as a crime on Wednesday, it added to the burden of pending litigation.

Legal experts are expecting a rush of FIRs and complaints in the new admission season.

''There is just too much pressure for instance, the changes in the motor vehicles act, have justincreased litigation for us. When domestic violence law came, again, there was a lot of pressure, many many courts needed which aren't there,'' said Naveen Matta, Delhi lawyer

But now, for the first time in India's legal history, an attempt is being made to understand the burden of each new law.

A three-member panel will assess the judicial impact of such legislation and work out just what it will take to implement it.

They will work out the cost and the number of courts and workforce needed to hear the new cases.

''They amended just Section 138 of the Negotiable Act in 2002 that deals with bouncing cheques. That single change led to 40 lakh new cases and nobody could cope. Courts were reduced to money recovering agents,'' said Prof Madhav Menon, Council member.

The council plans to create a system that will absorb the shock of extra work that new laws create, and hopefully, reduce the long list of pending cases in the Indian courts.

At the moment, the only way courts prepare for a new law is to put a copy of it in the court library. Lawyers say that they are not expecting any overnight answers from the council but at least, a beginning has been made.

[NDTV] Ragging: UGC to issue instructions

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Press Trust of India

With the Supreme Court asking educational institutions to register FIRs against students indulging in ragging, the University Grants Commission (UGC) is set to issue strict instructions to all universities to implement the court's order.

''We will issue instructions to the universities soon, asking them to strictly implement the direction of the Supreme Court in letter and spirit,'' said UGC Secretary TR Kem.

''As soon as we get a copy of the court's order, we will issue the instructions to the universities within two to three days.''

There are about 275 universities under the UGC.

The IITs, meanwhile, are set to approach the Union Human Resource Development Ministry to seek a uniform policy for them to implement the order.

''We will move the ministry seeking a uniform mechanism for all IITs to implement the ruling,'' IIT-Delhi Registrar Rajendra Singh said.

He said the IIT here sets up an anti-ragging committee every year and a similar panel will be formed this year too.

[ET] Fun & games or life & death?

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MYTHILI BHUSNURMATH

Has the SC gone overboard in calling ragging a crime and asking for ‘exemplary and justifiably harsh’ action against those found guilty of indulging in it? The answer is an emphatic no. Ask the parents of Amit Gangwar, a first year student at BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, who unable to bear the torment any more, threw himself in front of a train in 2005 or of Parmeshwar, a student at Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, who ended his life for the same reason in 2003.

Ask Sujit Saraf, who studied at the prestigious IIT Delhi from 1987 to 1992 and has had the courage to write about his experiences during the first few days there in Tehelka. No punishment can ever be severe enough as far as they are concerned.

It’s not only those who have lost their children so wantonly who will applaud the apex court. So will thousands of parents who send their children to colleges, including some of the most sought-after professional colleges in the country, and are then compelled to wait out an agonizing two months, fearing the worst.

To them the SC’s interim directions directing educational institutions to register criminal cases against those indulging in ragging activities are a long overdue and much needed step to end the menace of ragging on our campuses.

Inevitably the apex court’s directions have set off a fierce debate. Those who regard raging as harmless fun, as high jinks, a rite of passage to membership of a group argue that the ruling is excessively harsh. Apart from mandatory filing of an FIR, the court has shifted the onus of proof to the accused rather than the victim. It has also warned of more stringent measures in September when it gives its final directions, presumably based on the experience of working with these interim directions.

Diehard supporters of ragging are not the only ones unhappy with the SC’s directions. Heads of some educational institutions have criticised it on the grounds that not all instances of ragging are violent or abusive and hence lodging an FIR might be going too far. Agreed, not all cases of ragging are perverted or dangerous but it is not so difficult to distinguish between those that are plain fun and those that are not.

US-based website, StopHazing.Org, a websites against ragging (known as hazing) in the US, where it is a problem especially in the Greek-letter fraternity and sorority groups on campuses, has a very simple test to determine where to draw the line between plain fun and hazing.

It lists a few questions: Will active/current members of the group refuse to participate with the new members and do exactly what they’re being asked to do? Does the activity risk emotional or physical abuse?

Is there risk of injury or a question of safety? Do you have any reservation describing the activity to your parents, to a professor or University official? Would you object to the activity being photographed for the school newspaper or filmed by the local TV news crew? If the answer to any of these is yes, the answer is unambiguous. It is hazing.

We could adopt a similar test here as well. To be sure there will be stray cases of mis-carriage of justice just as with any other law. But since earlier efforts at milder punishment and leaving it to college authorities have not delivered, it is time to try more stringent measures. It’s much the same realisation that has led as many as 44 states in the US to pass laws against hazing, with penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment.

Will stiff punishment end ragging? No. Just as anti-dowry laws have not ended dowry deaths, law alone can never provide a complete answer. Especially since few victims ever speak out against their tormentors for fear of subsequent ostracism. But it will deter potential offenders. And if it is backed by determined efforts to educate and train students and teachers, it could save many young precious lives.

In the US, MASH, Mothers Against School Hazing, has been a powerful force in educating youngsters and spreading awareness about the tragic consequences that could result when what starts as fun and games becomes a matter of life and death. It’s time we formed a similar body in India.

[DailyExcelsior] Deeper social causes

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By Aarti

It has a large higher education sector — the third largest in the world in student numbers, after China and the United States. Barring a few exceptions, many of our colleges and universities have grown into massive, under-funded and ungovernable institutions. On one hand at many of them, politics has intruded into campus life, influencing academic appointments and decisions across levels. The cause for concern is that campus violence in the country is assuming dangerous proportions. At times it makes one ponder if our colleges and universities are turning out to be the best refuge of criminal elements?

Some recent incidents of violence on our campuses portrayed below are not only disturbing but clearly depict symptoms of a deeper malaise.

This 27 April, students protesting the killing of a final year petroleum engineering student went on a rampage at the Aligarh Muslim University. Paramilitary forces had to be deployed on the campus to bring about normalcy.

An undergraduate engineering student in Hyderabad was injured on 22 April this year, when one of his seniors allegedly fired on him inside the college premises. According to eyewitnesses, as students were collecting hall tickets for the examinations, the senior suddenly brandished his revolver and fired six to seven rounds. This shows how the gun culture has permeated into student life.

A minor altercation between some students of Arts and Social Science faculties during a cultural programme on the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) campus last December, culminated in ransacking of public property and destruction of motor vehicles.

Violence on the Bengal Engineering and Science University campus in Kolkata last August claimed the life of a third-year student. What began as a minor misunderstanding amongst two rival students' union led to the deceased falling off the second floor of the hostel.

Denial of readmission to some students at the Jamia Milia Islamia whom the varsity officials had identified as 'known trouble makers' and rusticated by the previous Vice-Chancellor ended with several students unleashing violence destroying property and vehicles last June.

Last February, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi witnessed violent clashes. A combination of factors including differences among employee and student organisations besides brutality unleashed by groups from outside the campus had shattered the peaceful atmosphere.

The menace of ragging is another important issue that seems to end in violence on the campuses. It is believed that as early as 7th century A.D, in Greece, new entrants to the sport community were subjected to all kinds of humiliations and teasing to inculcate a team spirit in them. With several modifications, such teasing became nasty with the first ragging related death reported in 1873 when a freshman from Cornell University fell into a gorge as a consequence of ragging.

Even though the forms of ragging may vary, generally it tends to create an environment of persistent fear. It is not uncommon for a fresher to be forced into performing petty work for seniors, like doing their academic assignments, cleaning their rooms, fetching them food or attend to some daily necessities. Ragging, instead of serving as an interactive session between the seniors' and the juniors', at times, reaches monstrous proportions.

According to a recent report "Ragging in India", compiled by Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURE), ragging is not 'harmless fun' as perceived by many people. That close to 25 cases of suicide have been reported due to ragging in the last seven years depicts the gravity of the situation. Severe ragging is widespread in colleges where students stay in hostels, more so in professional institutions like engineering and medical colleges where on account of ragging; a fresher is totally at the mercy of seniors with no support from family and friends.

A Supreme Court judgment in 2001 banning ragging defined it as any disorderly conduct whether by words spoken or written or by an act which the effect of teasing, treating or handling with rudeness any other student. This includes indulging in rowdy or in-disciplined activities which causes or is likely to cause annoyance, hardship or psychological harm or to raise fear or apprehension thereof in a fresher or a junior student or asking the students to do any act or perform something which such student will not do in the ordinary course and which has the effect of causing or generating a sense of shame or embarrassment so as to adversely affect the physique or psyche of a fresher or a junior student.

Following the ban, it is possible that many educational institutions across the country may play down incidents of ragging to save themselves from embarrassment besides prevent the institution's reputation from getting tarnished.

Another CURE study has revealed that between January 2005 and December 2006, as many as 64 cases of ragging were reported by leading newspapers and news channels. 61 reported cases were from colleges and three from schools. Of the 51 colleges identified where ragging took place, 18 were engineering institutions, 9 medical colleges, 5 polytechnics and 19 from architecture colleges. Notably, the kind of ragging that students were subjected to was ascertained only in 41 cases. If 11 deaths took place due to ragging, another 10 attempted suicide and 23 were injured.

A recent survey by Lucknow University's Social Work department concluded that over 80 per cent students were ragged in hostels and 70 per cent found the varsity unsafe due to ragging and abusive behaviour of the seniors. Around 93 per cent students felt that during initial period of an academic session, when ragging is normally reported, special guidelines for striking a rapport between the seniors and the juniors would be of help.

Under directions from the Supreme Court, the anti-Ragging Committee constituted by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development headed by former CBI director RK Raghavan is to submit its report to the apex court this 15 May.

The HRD Ministry has also suggested that different universities, colleges and educational institutions form anti-ragging committees comprising of representatives from the student community, guardians, parents and teachers.

It needs to be realised that recurring incidents of violence on centres of learning not only affects the academic calendar but can create avoidable fear psychosis amongst students. This can also have long term repercussions. Steps in the right earnest to uproot violence in college campuses merit consideration.

[Telegraph] College axe on ragging 6

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OUR BUREAU

Calcutta/Suri, April 18: The six students accused of ragging in a Suri polytechnic will be suspended.

Ramakrishna Shilpa Vidyapith, which had earlier refused to act before its internal probe team filed a report, was asked to get cracking by the government yesterday.

The day before, the Supreme Court had put the onus of action against ragging culprits on the colleges. Otherwise, it said, their funds tap could be turned off.

Sarojit Biswas, a first-year civil engineering student, had climbed down a drainpipe and fled hostel last Friday to escape the torture of his seniors.

The decision to suspend the six, named in an FIR filed by Sarojit’s brother, was taken after technical education director Parijat De and technical education department secretary S.C. Tewari met the officer-in-charge of the college this morning.

“We have asked Mohammed Ali Haider (the officer in charge) to collect a copy of the FIR from police and act accordingly. Those named in the FIR will be suspended for a year,” De said.

“They would be expelled if criminal charges are framed against them.”

The seniors had allegedly forced Sarojit to inhale smoke, scalded him with cigarette butts and banged his head against a wall.

Yesterday, De asked the college to lodge an FIR against the six, as the Supreme Court had wanted institutions to do. But it did not because Sarojit’s family had already lodged one.

“We are adhering to the Supreme Court order by acting against the boys on the basis of the FIR,” De said today.

Sarojit quit college because of the torture. His cousin, an electrical student at the same college, quit out of fear.

“We are happy. The culprits should get exemplary punishment,” Sarojit’s brother Hiranmoy said from their home in North 24-Parganas.

[Hindu] "Mixed feelings about life at college"

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Aarti Dhar

Raghavan Committee survey report

NEW DELHI: More than half the college students consider the first few days on the campus as a fresher a positive experience, with many of them calling it an opportunity to explore the unknown, making new friends, an experience far different from the school days in terms of excitement, change and similar other feelings.

One in every five respondents of a survey carried out by the Raghavan Committee during the course of preparing its recommendations to check the menace of ragging in educational institutions indicated a mixed feeling, neither too effusive in terms of the significance attached to college life, nor any negative emotion.

However, as many as 28 per cent of the 10,470 responses were outright negative with experiences ranging from loneliness, dullness and fear of the unknown to being overawed and living in anxiety about being ragged and teased by seniors.

While more than half the responses were positive in terms of dealing with the question of early life at college, questions about early days in hostel brought out only 16 per cent positive responses.

Expectations

A question on expectations from the new institution that they join brought forth an expected response from the freshers with as many as 63 per cent desiring a good academic environment, good infrastructure and good placement opportunities. The second highest number of respondents (15 per cent) worried about discipline and care in the new environment, and 11 per cent voted for freedom.

As many as 44 per cent of the respondents said they expect their seniors to guide and help them in academic matters, the second largest group of respondents (37 per cent) looked forward to friendship and affection from seniors, while 10 per cent wanted to escape ragging and another 3 per cent did not want anything from their seniors.

Asked how they make new friends, the strategy was helping the strangers (33 per cent) and through an affable smiling approach (47 per cent). There were only a few extreme instances of making friends through aggressive behaviour - 4 per cent said they did so by teasing and 1 per cent through scaring off the strangers. These extreme cases, according to the Raghavan Committee, are the potential "raggers".

In reactions to bullying, the largest number (46 per cent) of respondents said they felt angry, and 28 per cent said they felt insulted when bullied.

Strangely, as many as 17 per cent of students said they felt important even though subjected to ragging, while nearly half the respondents (48 per cent) said they enjoyed the experience of being bullied, and 22 per cent said they would stay away from the institution if bullied. Six per cent were even willing to leave studies if subjected to being bullied or teased.

The questionnaire asked whether the respondents would be happy to be friends with someone who hurt them. Even though 55 per cent gave an emphatic no to this suggestion, two in every five respondents (40 per cent) would not mind mending relationships even if they were hurt.

An overwhelming 72 per cent of the respondents said they want well-described procedures and guidelines to regulate the relationship between junior and seniors.