New Delhi, Nov 15 (PTI) Surveillance measures to checkragging in educational institutions should not be limited toCCTV cameras which are often illegal as they intrude uponprivacy, a Supreme Court-appointed panel has said.
The four-member committee set by the apex court in 2009stressed the need for strengthening community links to combatragging in a list of recommendations submitted to the UGC.
"Surveillance systems are largely understood to mean CCTVcameras. They cannot be limited to such impersonal policing...
They are illegal as they intrude upon privacy," it said in thereport -- "Psychosocial Study of Ragging in SelectedEducational Institutions in India".
Data from other countries also show that such measures donot decrease the incidence of ragging and violence, it added.
"This sort of intervention does not address the rootcauses of ragging," the report, submitted recently to theUniversity Grants Commission, said.
These measures, it added, acted as "partial deterrents"and could not be relied on for complete coverage.
"They also induce a sense of complacency inadministrators and prevent what needs to be done, that isbuilding a sense of community," it said.
The panel suggested that surveillance comprise a humansystem of guardianship--of wardens, mentors, senior studentsand others in regular contact with newcomers.
Freshers should be included in sports and extra-curricular activities in colleges and hostels, it said.
According to the panel, ragging occurs in the context of"power relationships in a deeply hierarchical and unequalsociety and is reflective of these social processes".
The panel also recommended strengthening institutionalroles in "fostering inclusion, belonging and acceptance" ofnew students, implementation of UGC protocol and guidelines onragging and widening the role of anti-ragging cells invarsities.
It called for psychological support and counselling andpromotion of diversity in terms of ethnicity, language,religion and sexuality in educational institutions.
The Supreme Court had ordered the setting up of thecommittee while hearing a ragging case in the University ofKerala. The court felt the reasons behind the increase inincidents of ragging needed to be deliberated upon. PTI GJSBDS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.