ACTIONLINE: STUDENTS’ RELIEF OVER sc DIRECTIVE

SUPREME COURT DIRECTIVE: MANY HOPE THEY MAY HAVE SEEN THE LAST OF RAGGING IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES, OUR CORRESPONDENT REPORTS
‘Use exemplary, justifiably harsh punishment to stop ragging’
Subhendu Ray

Kolkata, May 17: It was the sheer fear of ragging that stopped Dibas Sinha from pursuing his education at Jalpaiguri Engineering College a few years ago. Later, he went to City College in Kolkata and there he graduated with a degree in physics.
“Even today, the pain of not becoming an engineer is fresh in my mind,” he says.

Welcoming a Supreme Court directive asking educational institutes to put down ragging with an iron hand, he hopes that generations to come don’t have to face the problem of ragging and can enjoy their time in college and university. He fervently hopes that hooliganism on the part of seniors in colleges and universities will soon be a matter of the past.
A Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and S H Kapadia of the Supreme Court passed an order on Wednesday, directing educational institutions to bring down ragging by compulsorily registering cases against errant students. “The punishment has to be exemplary and justifiably harsh to act as a deterrent against the recurrence of such incidents,” the order stated. The Bench also made it clear that on “every single incident of ragging, where the victim or his parent or guardian or the head of the institution is not satisfied with the institutional arrangement for action, a first information report (FIR) must be filed compulsorily by the institutional authority with the local police”.
Santanu Mandal, who has been doing his house staffship in Kolkata Medical College and Hospital after graduating from there, felt that the directive will provide a powerful tool for them to launch a strong fight against ragging. “We have been trying to do away with ragging for sometime now and have demanded the formation of an anti-ragging committee in every institute. Our efforts have helped in bringing down instances of ragging to some extent. Though, now armed with the Supreme Court directive we will be in a better position to make the matter a thing of the past,” he says.
Rittik Datta, a student of Shibpur Engineering College, however, feels that a complete halt to ragging will not be good for students who have just finished their schooling. “Ragging should be there, but it should not cross certain limits. We are against physical harm towards students in the name of ragging. But for the enhancement of maturity and mental growth of freshers, senior students should be allowed to organise introduction and interrogation sessions for them. Indeed, this practice helps students when they appear for jobs in a competitive environment,” he says.
This is the same college where three years ago 148 students were suspended for physically harassing juniors. The guardian of a student, on condition of anonymity, said that his son had been physically and mentally ‘tortured’ by a group of senior students, who were known to be Datta’s associates. “It’s the responsibility of the guardians, as well as the college administration, to make students fit for the hazards of professional life. Mental growth and maturity are subjective ideas and ragging cannot be a method for these,” he says.
First-year mechanical engineering student at Jadavpur University Roupyajay Bhattacharyya gets jittery when he remembers his first days in the university. “The way I was beaten up, I thought it would have been better to study in a general college. After the ragging session, I could not go for classes for four days. Even now I do not stay in the university hostel. Who knows I might be treated inhumanly there too,” he says.
Ragging has been reported at IIT Kharagpur too. A first-year student said that even girl students like her were not spared. “I hope the directive will be effective and my fellow students will not have to go through the trauma in future,” she says. IIT Kharagpur Director S K Dube, however, says, “We will follow the Raghavan Committee report in toto. There have hardly been any problems in the past five years, though.” Former CBI director R K Raghavan was given the task of finding ways and means to stop ragging in educational institutes.
Welcoming the Supreme Court directive, Jadavpur University Registrar Rajat Kanti Sanyal says, “We have already formed an anti-ragging committee and if any incident takes place here, we will definitely hand the culprits over to the police.”
Last Monday, Sarojit Biswas, a first-year civil engineering student of Ramakrishna Shilpa Vidyapith, had gone missing from the college, following ragging by his seniors. He climbed down a water pipe and fled the hostel to escape the ragging. Later, the police found Biswas at a friend’s house in Suri town. He told the police, “My seniors had asked me to inhale cigarette smoke. When I refused, they beat me up and burned me with cigarette butts. They banged my head against the wall till I started bleeding. Fearing more ragging, I fled after dinner on Friday night.”
A friend and classmate of Biswas said he heaved a sigh of relief after hearing about the directive. “If this is not implemented soon, I will personally lodge an FIR against the concerned seniors and leave the university,” he said.

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