[Telegraph] Ragging ban cuts little ice with CU

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OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Is Calcutta University lax in enforcing the ban on ragging?

The authorities deny it, though they are not abiding by a UGC rule that students seeking admission to postgraduate courses must sign a declaration stating that they will not rag juniors.

The UGC had issued circulars to all universities early this year, making it mandatory for students seeking admission to give an undertaking that they would not bully, harass, tease or humiliate anyone on the campus.

The admission form must have a section bearing the declaration that the students have to compulsorily sign. Besides, the prospectus distributed along with the admission form should refer to the ban on ragging.

The ban has been announced by the Centre and the Bengal and other state governments.

Jadavpur University and Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu) have already introduced the system, but the admission forms being distributed by Calcutta University (CU) do not contain any section on ragging.

CU registrar Samir Bandyopadhyay said the authorities would inquire into the lapse, but claimed that ragging hardly occurs at the institute.

He admitted that the Union human resources development ministry, UGC and the state government have banned ragging and that signing the declaration by students has been made mandatory.

“We will find out why there is no word about ragging in the prospectus and the admission form for the 2007-08 postgraduate courses,” said Bandyopadhyay.

An official of the university said the UGC, in its circular, has clearly stated that “every institute must incorporate details about the ban on ragging in its prospectus and in the admission-related documents.”

Students seeking admission to CU’s postgraduate courses are being asked to give the following declaration: “...If I remain absent from the classes continuously for 10 days or intermittently for more than 50 per cent of classes held during any three consecutive weeks, my studentship will be automatically struck off from the rolls, according to admission rules of the university.”

[Telegraph] Ragging cloud on student ‘suicide’

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OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Lucknow, July 27: An Allahabad technology student died of strangulation earlier this week, a post-mortem revealed today, raising the stench of ragging gone too far.

Suicide was believed to be the cause after Alankeswar Mishra was found hanging from the ceiling of his room in Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology on Tuesday.

But the post-mortem report today revealed that the 18-year-old was strangled. Police say they suspect “a crude form of ragging”.

Vijay Kumar, deputy inspector-general (Allahabad range), said the door of the room in which Alankeswar was found had been locked from inside. But another door, leading to the hostel compound, was open. The key to the locked door was found in the pocket of the deceased.

“We initially thought it was suicide. Now we have to take it seriously. The line of investigation has changed. We are looking at the possibility of ragging in the institute. He was in the first year,” Kumar said, adding that a murder FIR has been filed.

Rakesh Mishra, Alankeswar’s father, said over the phone from the family home in Kanpur that his son was a “victim of violent ragging”. “He said he was scared of seniors when he left home on July 23 for his hostel. This is a case of murder but we don’t know if it was intentional.”

Rupesh Jain, a friend and college-mate, said Alankeswar had been humiliated by seniors, mostly facing abuses, but said: “I am unaware of any violent attack on him.”

Some junior students, however, suspect that as the death was the result of strangulation, Alankeswar might have been murdered.

The police suspect that the door could have been locked with the help of a duplicate key while another could have been put in the pocket to put investigators off track.

The grilling of Alankeswar’s two roommates and another friend — all said they were in class when the death occurred — hasn’t given the police any clue.

[IE] PU suspends five students for ragging

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Chandigarh, July 26: Five third year students of University Institute of Engineering Technology (UIET), Panjab University, were expelled from their hostel and suspended from the institute for allegedly ragging two first year students. The Central Monitoring Committee of the university took the decision.

The suspended students include three students of Electronics and Communication Engineering - Assem Yash Bhatiya, Anil Santlani and Abhimanyu Kapoor, while the other two are students of Information Technology - Ravi Kant Swami and Amit Soni. They were ragging the freshers in Hostel No. 2.

The suspended students claimed that they were just asking the freshers for their introduction. However, Dean Students Welfare Prof Naval Kishore said the hostel warden called him on Wednesday night and told him about freshers being ragged. “The two students who were being ragged also complained against them,” Prof Kishore said.

The monitoring committee was constituted recently to curb ragging on the campus. The committee decided that the students would remain suspended till further order. A copy of the decision has been sent to the Director, UIET, and the warden concerned for immediate action. The two freshers have left for their homes.

Meanwhile, the president of the Students Organisation of Panjab University, Harpreet Singh Multani, said expelling students from the hostel and suspending them was a harsh decision. “We will give a memorandum to the Vice-Chancellor tomorrow then we will start an agitation,” he said.

[KhaleejTimes] College authorities, police turn tough on ragging

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By Nithin Belle (Mumbai Musings)

25 July 2007

WITH the new academic year having begun, many college managements here have warned senior students not to indulge in ragging of freshers. The Mumbai Police too are taking measures to ensure that there is no ragging on campuses.

The Supreme Court had recently asked the government to take a serious note of the problem of ragging of newcomers at colleges across the country. Ragging has now been made a criminal offence, and the police have been instructed to take action against the perpetrators. College managements have been instructed to file a first information report (FIR) in case ragging occurs inside the campus or a hostel.

Many colleges have formed anti-ragging squads, and senior staff members have been instructed to warn mischief-makers that ragging would not be tolerated. Ragging is widespread in campuses across the country, and what starts off as a harmless activity, ends up in tragedy at times.

Last year, over a dozen students, victims of ragging, killed themselves in different colleges in the country. In most Mumbai colleges, there used to be light ragging of juniors, unlike in some campuses in the north. Though there have been instances of victims taking their lives even in south Mumbai colleges in the past.

But after a stern warning from the apex court, authorities here have decided to act tough with the culprits. The Mumbai Police say that victims can call up the control room number 100 and complain of harassment. Plainclothes detectives are also doing the rounds of colleges and even hostels in the first few weeks of the new academic year to prevent untoward incidents.

Mangalore: Boys' Hostel Ransacked - Revenge for Ragging Suspected

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Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (RD)
Pics: Dayananda Kukkaje

Mangalore, Jul 22: Over thirty youth, believed to be supporters of a victime of ragging, ransacked Maaza Boys' Paying Guest House, located at Kodialbail, Mangalore on Sunday July 22 morning.

There were 30 inmates living in the guest house, wherein a junior student, Raju Kurian, was subjected to ragging by the seniors. The youth arrived in large numbers at the guest house, waylaid and beat up the owner, Salam.

The police arrived at the scene who took control of the situation and took the leader into custody.

Meanwhile, Salam assured the victim that such things would not take place in the future, besides demanding police protection at the guest house.

Speaking to Daijiworld, Salam said the group of youth attacked the hostel and damaged the property. The kitchen, toilets, fans, and other valuable items were badly damaged.

Earlier, the group tried to set ablaze two wheelers parked inside the hostel premises by dousing them with kerosene.

The Barke police are investigating the case.

[AndhraCafe] Nagarjuna University suspends four girls for ragging

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HYDERABAD :Acharya Nagarjuna University suspended four post-graduate students from University College and hostel for alleged involvement in ragging a first semester student of M.A. (Economics).

According to the victim’s contention the three seniors, inmates of the women’s hostel, had forcibly asked her to sing and dance in front of a large gathering in the hostel on July 18.
Disturbed psychologically, she got treated in the Government General Hospital here and complained to the College Principal M.K. Durga Prasad, who in turn took the matter to the Anti-Ragging Committee.

The Committee decided to hand down a punishment to the four inmates of suspension of one week from the college and hostel for a week with a condition that they would rejoin in the presence of their parents after giving an undertaking that would not repeat such acts and that they could lose seat in the university if they repeat such practice.

[Yahoo] Is there more to ragging?

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By IE
Saturday July 21, 04:08 AM

The conclusions of two recent committees make an interesting study in contrast. The first was constituted by the Central government, under the chairman of the University Grant Commission (UGC), Professor S. Thorat, to inquire into the allegation of differential treatment being meted out to SC/ST students at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The other was set up under the directions of the Supreme Court, and was headed by ex-director of CBI, R.K. Raghavan, to investigate into the prevailing practice of ragging in educational institutions and to suggest measures to stop it.

Both committees have recently submitted their voluminous reports to the concerned authorities. Both have been prepared on the basis of non-participant observations, but the conclusions drawn are poles apart. Surprisingly, what Thorat has portrayed glaringly was completely overlooked by Raghavan.The latter failed to notice that social prejudices were at work inside institutions of higher learning and prominently surfaced during ragging exercises. Raghavan underlined the cruel forms of ragging prevalent in Indian institutions which are rarely found elsewhere in the world.

The extensive Thorat report recorded that social prejudices were not only on display during ragging but even played a major role in the allotment of rooms in hostels and went to the extent of perpetrating a clear segregation of students in the dining halls. Its observations were based on the written complaints of many SC/ST students of AIIMS. The Thorat report gave details about how caste discrimination assumed ugly forms when an SC/ST student is subjected to ragging. In fact, discrimination comes into play from the very first day and is the practice all the year round. The report quoted from letters of complaints, including one from Ajay Soyal, an AIIMS student, who had elaborately described the gory caste-biased ragging he had been subjected to. The Thorat report also mentioned that upper caste students have even threatened many dalit students with physical torture.

It is not just in AIIMS that ragging and caste-based ragging appear to be common occurrences. IIT Chennai also reported several incidents of caste-based humiliation. Ragging is not new in India but it has, as reported by the Raghavan committee, got more cruel after the implementation of Mandal in the nineties. The reason for this is clear - upper caste students had come to perceive the Mandal report as a threat to their status. They came to regard students from the lower castes and rural areas as hurdles in the way of their upward mobility. The kind of ragging that the Raghavan committee had reported should actually be seen as a problem related to caste-biases within society at large. But the Raghavan report does not see it that way.

This is what makes the findings of the Thorat committee so significant. They captured the caste-based humiliations that SC/ST students in a prestigious institution routinely faced. It is a pity, therefore, that the mainstream media has chosen to overlook this important report.