Although ragging is a criminal offence with no bail today, many colleges turn a blind eye to it and support this criminal system by not coming up with an alternative. It is not enough for colleges to just ban ragging by word, on paper or by law. They have to do more. Students and teachers must strongly believe in a counter culture where fear, violence and abuse have no place in their daily lives; where the values and the atmosphere offered are ones that foster and promote friendship and living and studying together in harmony. This counter culture should stimulate creative learning, recognise talents and skills and encourage students to grow in character that that would help them give of their best to society when they graduate.
CURE FOR SURE
“Ragging is a complex issue that cannot be tackled just by punitive measures or by passing a law,” says Harsh Agarwal, who works with CURE, an NGO. “We need more than laws to eradicate the menace that ragging or hazing has become. Only about 10 per cent of cases are reported, so the number is likely much higher.”
CURE focuses on spreading awareness among students through interactive sessions and presentations. The sessions discuss what ragging is and its effect on the victim. “We encourage students to think about what they are doing, we make an appeal on an emotional level,” informs Agarwal. Recently, CURE held a campaign, Bus Aur Nahin - Speak Up Against Ragging. The bus made its way through Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kozhikode, Kochi, Kottayam, Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai.
HELPING
Here’s something very important for students, parents and college authorities. There is a 24-hour national helpline at your service that registers complaints regarding ragging. The helpline was launched by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in June last year.
A toll free “Anti-Ragging Helpline” has been launched on 20th June, 2009 with Call Centre facilities in English, Hindi and some regional languages (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Marathi, Oriya, Assamese, Gujarathi and Bengali) to begin with, for helping victims of ragging, besides facilitating effective action in respect of such incidents. Anti-Ragging has been made operational by UGC with toll free number 1800-180-5522 on 24 x 7 basis. After registering the complaint, the caller is given a unique number. The complaint is then forwarded within 15 minutes to the vice-chancellor or other authorities of the university/college concerned. Once the institution receives the complaint, an officer probes into the matter and forwards it for adequate action. The matter is tracked until necessary action is taken. The identity of the complainant is, however, kept concealed. The unique number serves as a reference for future tracking, contact and feedback.