'Anti-ragging panels don't take us seriously'

Students say attitude of college anti-ragging committees discourages them from coming out in open with their grievances

The allegations of ragging by students of College of Agriculture, Pune, (CoAP) on Tuesday have now put the focus on anti-ragging committees in colleges. According to UGC, colleges should have anti-ragging norms mentioned in the admission forms and should also have an undertaking signed by the students at the time of admission.

In a detailed report on ragging constituted by the Supreme Court in 2006, the committee that came out with the report had clearly mentioned that all colleges should curb ragging. Even the University of Pune clearly mentions that colleges should form anti-ragging committees.

But students and organisations say that the anti-ragging committees are not effective.

Amar Jagtap, a first-year student of CoAP, said, "We shared our grievances with the committee members but they did not take it seriously. We are therefore not very forthcoming in approaching them."

According to a survey conducted by the Swabhiman Sanghathna NGO among 1,000 students from 100-odd colleges, over 90 per cent of students said that they didn't have much knowledge about anti-ragging norms.

Sachin Satpute, president of Swabhiman Sanghathna, said, "Colleges are not following the guidelines regarding ragging set up by the Supreme Court. They claim to do so by forming committees, but the truth is that they are just on paper."

Others also feel that ragging committees are merely a showpiece. "In very few colleges do they actually function or meet regularly," said Shailendra Singh, CEO of Savera, an NGO that runs a helpline to fight ragging in colleges. "Most colleges have formed the anti-ragging committees to keep their university affiliation.

Students are not even aware who are the members to complain to in case of an untoward event."

Shailendra Dalve, Organising Secretary, ABVP said, "It's not suprising that ragging incidents keep coming up.

We had personally met the officials of various colleges including CoAP but they did not listen to us."u00a0

On the other hand, college authorities maintain that anti-ragging committees are functional throughout the year and also take initiatives to safeguard students.

"We have put posters of the Ragging Act in our campus and have also mentioned it in our prospectus. We also take undertaking from students regarding ragging at the time of admission," said Dr Rajendra Junzarrao, Shivaji Nagar Modern College. "Besides, we have an active anti-ragging committee in place with principal, vice-principal, HODs and student representatives on it."u00a0

u00a0A few colleges claim that along with anti-ragging committees, they have a grievance committee as well. "A grievance box is set up in my office which is opened by the committee every Wednesday and the issues are addressed. Complaints can be made anonymously as well," said Dr Shrikant Gupta, principal of Garware College.

Dr R B Pardeshi, principal of Fergusson College, said, "We have a meeting of the anti-ragging committee every month. Besides principals and HODs, we have included rectors of hostels and college and class representatives as well. We will also soon get more CCTVs to monitor on-campus activities."