| OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT |
New Delhi, May 27: India has finalised regulations to curb ragging through expulsions, steep fines, imprisonment and the threat of permanently blacklisting offenders out of the higher education system. Heads of educational institutions who neglect ragging complaints or fail to act against accused will be subjected to a combination of a departmental inquiry and penal action, the regulations stipulate. The University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations on curbing ragging, finalised after discussions between the regulatory bodies that monitor higher education, are expected to be notified this week. The regulations are India’s first central rules against ragging and aim to implement a Supreme Court ban on the menace. The regulations will be binding only on institutions offering courses recognised by the UGC. But other regulatory bodies like the All India Council for Technical Education, the Medical Council of India, the Bar Council of India and the Pharmacy Council of India are also notifying similar regulations by early June. The different sets of regulations will vary to take into account peculiarities of institutions offering different streams of courses, but will all specify identical punishments — those mentioned in the UGC rules. Several states have anti-ragging laws but their effectiveness has repeatedly been questioned. The UGC regulations put in place a multiple-tier structure to combat ragging. Each college has to set up an anti-ragging squad consisting of students, faculty and support staff that will investigate ragging complaints and will enjoy the power to raid trouble spots unannounced. Institutions must each also set up an anti-ragging committee consisting of civil society representatives and members of the local police and media apart from representatives of different sections of the institution. This committee will deliberate on the inquiry report of the anti-ragging squad and finalise a verdict along with the punishment. If a student is found guilty and asked to leave, any transfer certificate will include details of the crime committed to caution other institutions where the student may have applied. A monitoring committee will manage the anti-ragging measures at the university level, while a district panel will be set up — made up of heads of institutions in the area — to ensure preparedness of all institutions. A similar monitoring cell will be set up at the state level, and the UGC is starting its own anti-ragging cell that will co-ordinate nationally between different panels. At the time of admission, students and their parents will have to submit affidavits stating they are aware of the new regulations and willing to accept their consequences. Students will also be required to provide a school leaving certificate detailing whether they have shown violent tendencies or the potential to harm others while in school. All freshers will be given telephone numbers of a national call centre that UGC chairman Sukhdeo Thorat today promised would be set up by June 15. Freshers will also be given mobile phone numbers of their wardens, other authorities and members of the anti-ragging squad and anti-ragging committee. Each institution is required to set up a mentoring cell ahead of each academic session that will include seniors who will be responsible for assisting freshers. The regulations stipulate a mentor to fresher ratio of 1:6. Institutions will have to distribute responsibility for freshers’ safety among their faculty. If students live outside the campus, the city will need to be carved out into slices that will come under the jurisdiction of different teachers. FIRs must be filed against ragging accused by the head of the institution. |
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