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A first-year engineering student of an institute in Noida was beaten up badly by his seniors in a college hostel when he tried to prevent them from ragging his batchmate in the hostel, police said on Wednesday.
Three senior students were arrested on Wednesday by Noida Police in connection with the assault on Mohd Wasim of DIT School of Engineering in Knowledge Park III with iron rods on Tuesday night while four other accused are absconding.
The college authorities, after an internal inquiry found ten students guilty and expelled nine of them. The tenth one was suspended for a period of six months.
Wasim was assaulted at Neha Apartments college hostel on Tuesday night when he intervened while his seniors were allegedly ragging his batchmate. Wasim bore injury marks on his back and hand.
He alleged that the senior students were on Tuesday targetting a first year student and they tried to rag him. Wasim objected the offence, leading to his assault.
Wasim lodged an FIR with Kasna Police station in Noida.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Ragging Hotline Begins Soon
The University Grants Commission (UGC) Wednesday issued guidelines for a national call centre to be set up to enable ragging victims from across the country to register their complaints by dialling a toll free number.
“The Education Consultancy India Ltd (ECIL) has been entrusted with the job of setting up of the national call centre. By June 15, it will be operational,” UGC Chairman Sukhadeo Thorat told reporters Wednesday.
The helpline will be equipped with software that will pass on the complaints directly to the head of the institution within 15 minutes to help the administration protect the victims.
Thorat said the helpline will operate around the clock and the UGC will monitor its functioning.
Under the anti-ragging laws, student offenders can be fined up to Rs.250,000 or rusticated for one to four semesters if found guilty of ragging.
The offence will be treated as a severe criminal act, he added.
The new provisions laid down by the UGC also requires that the parents and students give a written undertaking, at the time of admission, that they are aware of the ragging guidelines and will report any such incident.
“The Education Consultancy India Ltd (ECIL) has been entrusted with the job of setting up of the national call centre. By June 15, it will be operational,” UGC Chairman Sukhadeo Thorat told reporters Wednesday.
The helpline will be equipped with software that will pass on the complaints directly to the head of the institution within 15 minutes to help the administration protect the victims.
Thorat said the helpline will operate around the clock and the UGC will monitor its functioning.
Under the anti-ragging laws, student offenders can be fined up to Rs.250,000 or rusticated for one to four semesters if found guilty of ragging.
The offence will be treated as a severe criminal act, he added.
The new provisions laid down by the UGC also requires that the parents and students give a written undertaking, at the time of admission, that they are aware of the ragging guidelines and will report any such incident.
Punjab actions
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Excerpt from Gulf News
Chandigarh: Photos of noted scholars highlighting college prospectuses may be the norm but Punjab University (PU) has made a drastic departure from this practice by dedicating a whole page in its catalogue to the 'baddies' of the institution.
With an aim to curb hazing on campus, university authorities have decided to publish photographs of students who indulge in hazing or other anti-social activities on a black page.
"To deter students from taking part in ragging we will publish the photographs of past culprits in the varsity's prospectus," Naval Kishore, dean of students' welfare, PU said on Tuesday.
"Before taking admission, students have to fill an affidavit that they would not indulge in any kind of violent activity on campus and parents have to take the responsibility of their wards. Otherwise the university would be free to take strict disciplinary action against the defaulters," he said.
Half a dozen students were expelled from the varsity for hazing during the last academic session.
Excerpt from Gulf News
Chandigarh: Photos of noted scholars highlighting college prospectuses may be the norm but Punjab University (PU) has made a drastic departure from this practice by dedicating a whole page in its catalogue to the 'baddies' of the institution.
With an aim to curb hazing on campus, university authorities have decided to publish photographs of students who indulge in hazing or other anti-social activities on a black page.
"To deter students from taking part in ragging we will publish the photographs of past culprits in the varsity's prospectus," Naval Kishore, dean of students' welfare, PU said on Tuesday.
"Before taking admission, students have to fill an affidavit that they would not indulge in any kind of violent activity on campus and parents have to take the responsibility of their wards. Otherwise the university would be free to take strict disciplinary action against the defaulters," he said.
Half a dozen students were expelled from the varsity for hazing during the last academic session.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
31 suicides attributed to ragging and hazing in India: Amit Sahay
Photo: The hopes and dreams of the parents of Aman Kachru (also spelled Kachroo) vanish in smoke.
Death by ragging
In the wake of the death of medical student Aman Kachroo due to ragging, Nonika Singh explores reasons behind the social problem, while V. Eshwar Anand advocates the need for a stringent Central law to check this practice
Parents of 19-year-old Aman Kachroo, who died after he was severely beaten up by his intoxicated seniors
Parents of 19-year-old Aman Kachroo, who died after he was severely beaten up by his intoxicated seniors
A young boy is beaten to death. Another one is belted and slapped incessantly. A young girl is made to sit naked all day in a tub of freezing water. Many are stripped and forced to dance or walk barefoot for miles.
These are not jail inmates being tortured but young students who have entered educational institutions as freshers. The treatment being meted out to them is called ragging by society and ‘some harmless fun’ by their seniors.
What started as a harmless ritual has taken sadistic proportions, where fun is sought in utmost acts of depravity and abuse qualifies ragging.
Ragging, an innocuous mode of interaction between seniors and juniors, has acquired fatal ramifications today in the wake of medical student Aman Kachroo’s death .
Though Aman, who was ‘ragged to death" by his seniors, isn’t the first victim of this menace. In 2005 Amit Sahay, an NIT student at Jalandhar, threw himself before a running train, holding his seniors responsible for his death in the suicide note. His desperate act had provoked Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURE) to mark October 11 as ‘no ragging day’ .
Amit’s is not the only suicide attributed to ragging. Between 2001 and 2007, there were 31 more such cases.
Freshers weren’t the only victims. In Andhra Pradesh, mother of a ragging victim, disturbed by the sexual abuse of her son, killed herself.
Ragging is not limited to beatings, as even rapes and sexual harassment have been committed under the guise of ragging. In Bilaspur engineering college, a girl was not only raped but her tormentors even made a CD of the act. Another girl student of nursing college of School of Medical Sciences, Kottayam, was gang-raped by her seniors in October 2005 on the pretext of ragging. Two of the accused were sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous punishment, while six were acquitted by a special court recently.
In 2007, CURE analysed 64 ragging complaints and found that over 60 per cent of these were related to physical ragging, while 20 per cent were sexual in nature.
Dr Kushal Banerjee, founder of SAVE (Society Against Violence in Education), calls ragging an organised crime. A Bill, tabled in 2005 to prevent ragging, is yet to become a law. But it will need more than a law to change the mindset or deter those who indulge in ragging and care two hoots for the law. Even as a shocked nation was still coming to terms with Aman’s death, there came the news of suicide bid by a girl from Andhra Pradesh, forced to dance naked by her seniors as well as another ragging incident in Himachal at Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla.
Because of India’s failure recognise ragging as a social problem, both Central and state governments have failed to adopt harsh measures required to check ragging.
Dr Rajendar Kachroo, Aman’s father, questions the authorities’ indifference, "If there was a law to prevent ragging, why wasn’t it put into action?"
But can law alone suffice? After all, nobody can police thousands of colleges and hundreds of universities, except the institutions themselves, admits Dr Kachroo.
A collective change in the societal mindset maybe the only answer, which has to begin with parental guidance. Institutions may now take an undertaking from parents that their children will not indulge in ragging.
Parmod Sharma, coordinator, Yuvsatta, calls this a step in the right direction but he claims, "Value education at the school-level is the only answer."
Though the Raghavan committee made a pertinent observation that it is more rampant in medical colleges, but argues Dr Banerjee, "Give any institution a hostel and ragging pervades it." Almost 63 per cent ragging incidents reportedly take place in hostels.
So what makes students indulge in inhuman acts in the name of ragging? Dr Monica Singh, a clinical psychologist, says, "So preoccupied are we with academic excellence that we have ignored the emotional quotient of our young generation."
Do the victims, too, have a social profile? The Raghvan committee found that most of them were either from the rural areas or socially backward communities. Even girl students were as much the perpetrators as victims. Dr Singh says that often the non-assertive introverts are at the receiving end, while Dr Banerjee deems, "The more one resists, the greater are the chances of ragging turning severe."
Students, who have been at the receiving end, feel the trick lies in lying low. Anyone who stands out by virtue of strength or weakness is a likely target.
Does ragging have a soft side? Tushar Sharma, a student of Symbiosis Law College, Pune, thinks so and says it is harmless fun.
But Mohit Garg of SAVE is aghast: "It is precisely this harmless song-and-dance image of ragging, fuelled by movies and media, that has allowed ragging to continue unchecked and made even parents of the victims treat it lightly."
Dr Kachroo agrees that he did not take his son seriously when Aman complained of ragging. Though he may never forgive himself for doing so, he is determined that others do not meet the same fate. He has started ‘Aman movement’ intended to instil zero tolerance against ragging. Mohit interjects: "But don’t expect the victims to complain. That has and will always backfire. In South India two brothers, who had complained against ragging, were repeatedly failed by the institution."
Dr Banerjee confesses that he has to often face resistance from colleges and universities in Kolkata. Whenever he approaches them for conducting seminars on ragging, the standard refrain is, "Ragging does not happen in our institution."
Mohit suggests proactive measures like surprise checks, anti-ragging committees. Cutting off financial aid as the Supreme Court has ruled, too, he thinks is a perfect tool to make educational institutions, especially private ones, accountable. And above all he quips, "Right now, ragging sustains for it is considered hep. Let us make it unfashionable. Get celebrities to endorse anti-ragging campaigns and spread the word that raggers are sick minds."
Dr Singh suggests,"Equip children with coping skills. They must know their right to privacy and that no one has the right to infringe upon it." NCERT now plans to introduce human rights as a subject in schools.
Clearly, to counter the menace of ragging a multi-pronged approach is required and is easier said than done. SAVE’s anti-ragging cell initiative so far has succeeded only in Jadhavpur University. But Dr Kachroo says that an overnight miracle is not possible because we are an amnesiac nation which forgets as easily as we are outraged. But for the sake of Aman and many like and before him let us hope that ragging becomes history. — NS
by V. Eshwar Anand
The horrific death of Aman Kachroo due to ragging by his seniors at Dr Rajendra Prasad Govt Medical College at Tanda in Kangra has shaken the nation’s conscience. It has also brought to the fore the callousness and negligence of the authorities at various levels — the Centre, the state and the institution concerned — in checking the menace.
The fact that the college authorities had turned a deaf ear to Aman’s complaints of torture and harassment typifies the total breakdown of the institutional machinery. Despite the Supreme Court’s rulings and guidelines, there was a complete collapse of authority and responsibility in the command structure.
Barely a week after Aman’s death, a girl student of the Bapatla Engineering College in Andhra Pradesh attempted suicide after she was forced to dance in the nude by her seniors. This shows that ragging is not confined to one state or region but is widespread in the country. The Supreme Court has rightly asked the authorities concerned in Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them.
The sickening regularity with which this abominable and despicable practice continues shows the brazen infraction of the apex court’s directions and poor enforcement of the law. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and West Bengal have enacted laws banning ragging. (Himachal Pradesh has now realised the need for an ordinance making ragging a non-bailable offence).
The Supreme Court had appointed an expert committee headed by former CBI Director R.K. Raghavan to examine the problem. Significantly, while comparing the existing legislation in the six states as mentioned, the committee found that except the one in Chhattisgarh, no other state law is intended to prevent ragging. Interestingly, it said though prohibition and prevention seem to serve the same intended purpose, it is important to understand the subtle difference between the two.
Prevention implies anticipating the problem of ragging, forestalling its occurrence and taking precautionary measures to make it difficult for ragging to take place. Consequently, the law, which is preventive in approach would necessarily create conditions that anticipate, forestall and check ragging, all of which help in the law becoming a facilitator in enforcing the prohibition of ragging.
However, while prevention must lead to prohibition, the reverse need not be true. According to the committee, prohibition is intended to restrain the act and check the menace. The subtle difference lies in the fact that while prohibition of ragging is a “top-down approach” where the law can be cryptic, any law on prevention must be more participative with a “bottom-up approach” laying down the detailed mechanism of preventive measures and instrumentalities.
After the committee submitted its voluminous report, the apex court asked regulatory bodies like the Medical Council of India, the Dental Council of India, the Bar Council of India, the All-India Council of Technical Education and the University Grants Commission to frame guidelines banning ragging in the institutions under their control. Predictably, the response has been lackadaisical. It is only now that we hear of some right noises like fund-cut from bodies like the UGC.
In its interim ruling on May 16, 2007, the apex court had ruled that for every incident of ragging where the victim or his/her parents are not satisfied with the educational institution’s arrangements, a first information report (FIR) must be filed without exception by the institutional authorities with the local police. Any failure on the part of the institutional authority or negligence or deliberate delay in lodging the FIR shall be construed to be “an act of culpable negligence”, it ruled.
In its final ruling on February 11, 2009, the apex court had asked the institutions to strictly enforce the ban on ragging. However, no state has implemented even the basic recommendations. If some institutions had tried to make a beginning, they have left the initiative midway.
The Raghavan Committee had directed every institution to set up anti-ragging committees and squads. The committees at the institutional level, headed by the institutional head, should consist of representatives from civil and police administration, local media, NGOs involved in youth activities, faculty members, parents, students from the freshers’ category and seniors and non-teaching staff. However, most affiliated colleges have failed to do so. The squads were to conduct raids on hostels and other ragging hot spots. Barring a few initiatives, no major attempt has been made to form such committees.
Similarly, the recommendation for district–level committees headed by the Deputy Commissioner/ District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police and mentoring cells in each college to oversee and involve senior students as mentors for the freshers have also not been implemented.
Though the judiciary can administer justice, the responsibility to implement the Supreme Court directives squarely rests with the state governments and the college authorities. Ragging should be made an explicit penal offence under the Indian Penal Code.
There is no need for the states to frame separate statutes. Let the Centre frame a tough law for tackling ragging in all states and Union Territories on priority. The offence of ragging should be made cognisable and non-bailable, with a sentence of at least 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. The punishment must be exemplary for the law to act as a deterrent.
Unfortunately, the Centre has done precious little to enact legislation on ragging. The UPA government did not demonstrate the political will needed to resolve the problem. On May 6, 2005, the Prevention of Ragging in Colleges and Institutions Bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha. However, it is yet to see the light of the day. The new government that comes to power after the ensuing Lok Sabha elections should enact a law banning ragging.
The Raghavan Committee has its own limitations. Devoid of statutory status, it could only lay down broad guidelines, with the Supreme Court’s mandate, and it is for the enforcement authorities at the state, district and institutional level to implement them.
There is also the need for expeditious trial of ragging cases by fast track courts. The usual delays of the criminal justice system should not be allowed to operate here. Speedy justice by fast track courts can infuse fear into malcontents in the campuses who have no fear of the law at present. — VEA
Kachru died due to injuries during ragging, says probe report; blames Suresh Sankhyan, school principal
March 28th, 2009
SHIMLA - The magisterial inquiry into the death of Aman Kachru, a first-year student of the Rajendra Prasad Medical College at Tanda town of Himachal Pradesh, has concluded that the student died due to ragging, according to an official statement Saturday.
‘Aman Kachru succumbed to his injuries caused during the course of ragging,’ the statement said.
Aman died March 8 after he was beaten up allegedly by four final-year students of his medical college as ‘ragging’.
Detailing the sequence of events that took place between March 6 and March 8, the report said many first-year students, including Kachru, were subjected to intense physical ragging in the early hours March 7. However, the incident of ragging only came to the notice of college authorities after a phone call was received by the health minister March 8.
‘Kachru collapsed and died due to injuries which the post-mortem report has linked to the incident of ragging,’ said the report.
The report also said that there was no recorded complaint about ragging in the college by Kachru or any of his relatives prior to this incident.
According to the report, about 10 instances or complaints of ragging and acts of indiscipline had been reported in the college since 2001 but none of the complaints drew any disciplinary action.
‘All these complaints were handled in a casual manner by college authorities and not a single instance showed any effective step or punitive action taken to curb the menace,’ it said.
The report held college principal Suresh Sankhyan, who resigned from the post after the ragging incident, responsible for the lapses.
The report has been submitted to the state’s principal secretary (health), the principal secretary (education) and the director general of police for action.
SHIMLA - The magisterial inquiry into the death of Aman Kachru, a first-year student of the Rajendra Prasad Medical College at Tanda town of Himachal Pradesh, has concluded that the student died due to ragging, according to an official statement Saturday.
‘Aman Kachru succumbed to his injuries caused during the course of ragging,’ the statement said.
Aman died March 8 after he was beaten up allegedly by four final-year students of his medical college as ‘ragging’.
Detailing the sequence of events that took place between March 6 and March 8, the report said many first-year students, including Kachru, were subjected to intense physical ragging in the early hours March 7. However, the incident of ragging only came to the notice of college authorities after a phone call was received by the health minister March 8.
‘Kachru collapsed and died due to injuries which the post-mortem report has linked to the incident of ragging,’ said the report.
The report also said that there was no recorded complaint about ragging in the college by Kachru or any of his relatives prior to this incident.
According to the report, about 10 instances or complaints of ragging and acts of indiscipline had been reported in the college since 2001 but none of the complaints drew any disciplinary action.
‘All these complaints were handled in a casual manner by college authorities and not a single instance showed any effective step or punitive action taken to curb the menace,’ it said.
The report held college principal Suresh Sankhyan, who resigned from the post after the ragging incident, responsible for the lapses.
The report has been submitted to the state’s principal secretary (health), the principal secretary (education) and the director general of police for action.
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