[DNA] Ragging to invite stern AICTE action

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Technical council issues notices to all institutions warning of deregistration

MUMBAI: The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has issued a warning in the form of a circular to all technical institutions across the country that strict action will be initiated against them if any instances of ragging are found.

The circular warns the institutions that actions could be taken in the form of withdrawal of registration if such cases are brought to the notice of the AICTE.

“The circular was issued after Supreme Court’s order directing AICTE to take measures to prevent ragging incidents in technical institutions. We have also taken the initiative to display it on our website,” said NB Pasalkar, Director of Technical Education.

Issued by AICTE member secretary K. Narayana Rao, it says “All the AICTE approved institutions must ascertain that ragging, in any form does not take place on their campuses. In case such incidences are reported to AICTE, the council shall take necessary action including withdrawal of approval. Preventing ragging is not a responsibility of law and order machinery alone.’’

According to a report prepared by the committee appointed by Supreme Court in 2006 to suggest measures for preventing ragging, there have been 15 cases across the country from Jan-Aug 2007. Keeping in accordance with the SC verdict, AICTE has circulated the notice to all technical institutions and has also advertised it on national dailies across the country.

[Yahoo] Ragging rampant in Kerala's professional colleges

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By IANS
Monday October 29, 05:14 PM

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 29 (IANS) An attempted suicide by a first-year veterinary student following harassment by seniors in Kerala led to media reporting about similar cases and highlighting the menace of ragging in the state.

Eighteen-year-old Manu, who worked in paddy fields during his school years to support his family, hoped that his woes would end after he joined the Mannuthy Veterinary College in Trissur earlier this month.

However, harassment by seniors drove him to slash his wrists in an attempt to end his life last week.

'I just could not take all the humiliation. It was too unbearable,' said a sobbing Manu.

Even as authorities were sorting out Manu's case, reports emerged about instances of ragging in two other professional colleges in the state.

On Sunday, two senior students were suspended from the Amala Medical College in Trissur, while five students were suspended from the Pushpagiri Medical College in Thiruvalla for causing mental agony to their juniors.

Reports indicate that the worst affected are students who arrive at these campuses after having done their schooling in the Middle East.

The All India Council for Technical Education has come out with a warning that action would be initiated against the managements of colleges from where cases of ragging are reported.

State Education Minister M.A. Baby told IANS: 'At no cost will our government tolerate such inhuman activities. Irrespective of who is involved, stern action will be taken against the culprits and we are already on the job.

'A mere administrative decision will not be enough to stop this inhuman activity and we will work amongst the society to spread awareness against ragging.'

[CentralChronicle] Personal Thought: Ragging & its remedies

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As soon as admissions in technical and non-technical institutes start, news of suicides come from all over the country. In MP too such types of news is a common feature. Recently a ragging incident took place in the prestigious Hotel Management Institute of Bhopal wherein some senior girl students behaved unseemly with their juniors. Two of the students received serious injuries. The police registered a case but without result. Institute authorities have not taken any responsibility of this incident and told the media that this is just corollary of internal dispute between the senior and junior students.

Another incident occurred on Sept 27 at St Stephen's college, New Delhi when a first year student went to a senior student's room seeking help in filling up a university form. Some other students were also present. One of them had consumed alcohol. On the pretext of showing him some magic, a senior student sprayed a deodarant on his palm and ignited it as well. As a result the junior student suffered minor burns. It is high time for the concerned authorities to understand the matrix of ragging and take enough measures to stem the rot that has set in.

Ragging is certainly an anti-academic pandemic. We need to read and understand the Raghavan committee report that is based on problem of ragging. In this report bureaucratic approach has been adopted. We all know that ragging does not exist in simple form. Its shape is changing frequently and dramatically. Sometimes it has turned to criminality as well.

According to the report, time has come to treat every case of ragging separately and award proper punishment to the guilty students. Isolation and rustication of guilty students is the main tool of punishment. But it will push away students from the teachers; erode basic and tandem structure of college ambience. Hostility and distrust will spread in the education sector. It will ruin the very spirit of living and learning together.

Stress should be on a caring culture and mutual trust among the newcomers, seniors and the college authorities must be nurtured on regular basis. Our college is not a carry home knowledge outlet. It is an academic family. College is not the place where police go on a regular basis and lodge FIR against the students.

As per the Raghavan report, the college authorities could lodge FIR at police stations against the guilty students. The panel is also concerned about erroneous punishment which may push the guilty students to even more crimes. Hence there is need to make ragging a punishable offence.

Somil Chhaya

[IndiaNews] SC seeks ATR from UGC, MCI and AICTE in ragging case

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29 October 2007

The Supreme Court has directed University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and Medical Council of India (MCI) to file their action taken report within four weeks, detailing the steps taken by them to check the menace of ragging in educational institutions .

A bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and Lokeshwar Singh Panta, also refused to entertain an application seeking relaxtation in the condition of having 75 per cent attendance for contesting students union elections in a university or a college.

The court told the applicant, " you were given admission for studying and not for indulging in politics at behest of major political parties. You don't want to attend classes but want to indulge in politics and such a situation can not be accepted ." Earlier, while issuing guidelines for checking the menace of physical and emotional torture of freshers in the name of ragging , the apex court had made it clear that " we want students and not goondas in university campus."

(UNI)

[Yahoo] Taking the bully by its horns

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By HT
Saturday October 27, 01:52 AM

Those were the best days of my life." That's how many of us refer to our school days. But for some, memories of school include teasing, taunting and ragging. For some, it was being on the 'fun' side of the fence, while others have gone through the torture of being victims. Why do people bully others in the first place?

Arvind Mehta elaborates, "I guess, when I bullied people in school, it was all about showing how powerful I was. You can't deny that every foyer has a particular hierarchy. Along with my friends, I exploited that." Jai Mehrotra remembers his days of being bullied in school. "The guys in my class would watch wrestling shows, practice those moves on me in school the next day, and hit me with all types of classroom furniture. Finally came a point when I had had enough. I began fighting back. If they hit me, I hit back."

Stooping low
Jai compares his situation to a double-edged sword. He knew that he was stooping to the level of those who bullied him, but at the same time he knew that this was the only means of getting through to them. Bullying, however, isn't always equated with hitting and beating up people. For Adam Fernandez, it was more verbal. He says, "I was the butt of all the jokes. I was a very shy person, and found it difficult to speak to girls. So, I was picked on and referred to as 'gay'"

Adam chose to retreat, and didn't interact with the people who bullied him. "I didn't give them anything to feed off, so they soon got bored and stopped."

Wrong attitude
When girls are bullied, it assumes completely different proportions. Like in the case of Namita Joshi, who was bullied in college. "I came to Mumbai from Bangalore. I'd heard a lot of great things about colleges here, so I chose Mumbai to pursue my higher studies. When college started, I knew it would take me time to make friends, because I'm a shy person."

But soon Namita realised that she was being silently bullied in her class. "People would laugh at the way I dressed and the way I spoke. They would completely ignore me and I could see the way I was judged every single day." She chose to work through the problem, taking her own time, and even confronted some people about their attitude. "Now, things are much better, and I have made some really good friends in college. I guess this is something we all have to go through at some point. I take it as a compliment to having a nature different to the rest."

Only regrets
Gautam Hingorani deeply regrets bullying people in his school. "I now realise that I couldn't cope with the fact that I was an overweight, average student. I picked on the smarter kids, using my brutal force to compensate for my other weaknesses."

Bullying is an extremely complex phenomenon, and affects the bully as well as the bullied. There's a false sense of superiority for the bully, and a sense of inadequacy in the bullied. No matter what situation or form it comes in, bullying can make you feel depressed, hurt, and alone.

It can keep you from enjoying activities that are an integral part of your life. It serves no useful purpose for either of the parties. The only good it does is help strengthen some people, and force others to take a more critical look at themselves.

[Telegraph] Ragging heat on principal

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OUR LEGAL REPORTER

Calcutta, Oct. 24: The high court today dismissed an engineering college principal’s petition to reconsider its order to provide round-the-clock security to a ragging victim.

The principal of Mallabhum Institute of Technology in Bishnupur, Bankura, pleaded that it was near impossible for him to ensure first-year student Soumya Roy’s security through the day and sought respite from the responsibility.

But vacation judge Justice B. Somadder would not have any of that. The administration and the judiciary should be more active in eradicating the evil of ragging, he said.

Soumya, from New Barrackpore, who went to study electronics at the institute, about 230km from Calcutta, had been confined to a hostel room for three days and allegedly forced to take drugs.

Justice Somadder had passed the order on principal Sunil Kumar Roy when the boy’s father sought his transfer to any other engineering institute. But there is no rule allowing a student’s shift from one private college to another.

The judge asked Roy to take special care to ensure that Soumya was not ragged again and added that he would be held responsible in case of a rerun of the torture.

[SaharaSamay] Ragging at Surat Medical College

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Posted at Tuesday, 23 October 2007 17:10 IST

Surat, Oct 23: In spite of Supreme Court guidelines, ragging is going on unabated in medical and engineering colleges across India. One such incident came to light at the Government Medical College of Surat.

The first year students were beaten black and blue in the name of ragging after midnight.

The victims are in a state of shock after the incident.

Talking to the channel, one of the students said that they were subject to brutal beating by their seniors at for an hour between 2:30 am and 3:30 am.

Taking the matter seriously, the college administration has suspended 10 senior students of the college for a month, they added.

Several students have ended their lives due to cruelty of their seniors in the name of ragging in medical and engineering colleges across the country in recent months.