Indore: State witnesses highest number of ragging cases this year

Indore: The tall claims of state government of making campuses of educational institutions ragging-free fall flat as Madhya Pradesh this year witnessed highest number of ragging incidents in past nine years. This year, so far, as many as 81 complaints of ragging from Madhya Pradesh have been registered with national anti-ragging helpline of University Grants Commission (UGC), reveals the national data on ragging.

This is the highest figure recorded from MP in last nine years since national anti-ragging helpline was launched in 2009 following the Supreme Court’s directives to the central government to enforce a tough regulatory mechanism to check the menace. The previous highest figure was of 80 ragging cases, recorded in 2013.

“The figure of 81 ragging cases is really alarming and exposes hollow claims made by the state government of implementing anti-ragging measures strictly,” said student leader Pankaj Prajapati. He said the government apathy towards the menace is accountable for increasing number of ragging cases in institutions of higher learning in the state.

“There is a customary practice by the government of issuing instructions to the institutions of higher learning to contain ragging cases. But monitoring of ragging is being done at government level,” said Prajapati. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal are among the top three states from where maximum number of ragging cases is reported.

With 119 complaints so far this year, UP tops the list followed by Madhya Pradesh (81) and West Bengal (76). The menace of ragging is prevalent on institution of higher learning for past many decades, but till June 2009 there was no centralised facility to receive or record complaints of ragging. So, figures of ragging incidents that took place before June 2009 are not available.

In March 2009, an MBBS student Aman Satya Kachroo died during ragging by some of his senior students at a medical college in Dharmashala.

Following this and other ragging cases, the apex court had directed the government to setup some mechanism to check the menace. Thereafter a 24×7 National Anti-Ragging Helpline was launched in June 2009 for providing immediate assistance to distress students. Since then each and every complaint of ragging is supervised and monitored by the UGC through the Helpline. Since its launch, the helpline had received a total number of 4609 complaints with maximum number of complaints coming from UP (811), followed by West Bengal (538), Madhya Pradesh (480) and Orissa (377).

Maximum incidents in engineering colleges

DAVV registrar Ajay Verma said that they were doing whatever it takes to contain ragging cases. “Unfortunately, despite stringent measures put in place, ragging in institutions of higher learning is not only alive and kicking, but ever increasing in the state,” he said. Verma said that the maximum incidents of ragging are taking place at engineering and medical colleges. “So the government needs to tighten its noose on these colleges,” he said. Verma’s claim seems true as of 81 ragging cases witnessed in the state this year, 65 occurred at engineering and medical colleges. The DAVV registrar stated that concerned over the increasing number of cases, the government lately directed vice chancellors of all 45 universities in the state to do more on ragging front. “In standing committee meeting of VCs, the department of higher education lately observed that steps taken so far by institutions of higher learning to curb ragging cases are not proving enough. More is required to be done in the ragging front. We are told to do more on the issue,” said Verma.