What is ragging? What are the different means of ragging? How can it be curbed? What action can be taken against those accused of ragging? Police trainees in Gujarat are now learning it all at the Police Training College in Junagadh.

The college has recently incorporated anti-ragging awareness courses in the curriculum, and fresh recruits are being taught by professors and other experts in a classroom environment.

“This was done in accordance with the Supreme Court’s guidelines, which state that the police should be involved in the campaign against ragging. The curriculum also includes field visits to colleges and universities in the district,” said Anil Pratham, Inspector General of Police, and the college principal.

The curriculum includes lectures by visiting faculties like college professors, advocates and other experts, and case studies on instances of ragging reported from various institutions in and outside the state. “The trainees are also being taught the police’s role in spreading awareness against the menace,” Pratham said .

The Supreme Court had this February termed ragging as “human rights abuse” in essence and directed all educational institutions to have stringent anti-ragging measures, including filing of cases against erring students.

A bench of justices Arijit Pasayat and Mukundakam Sharma had ruled that the police will have to be informed immediately and erring students booked under criminal law.

Ahmedabad had its first official ragging case entering police records this July when a Gujarat College student alleged that three of his seniors had asked him to dance naked on the first day of college. Pawan Tiwari, a first-year B.Com student had lodged a complaint with the Ellisbridge police station, stating that when he refused, they beat him up. Tiwari did not name anyone in his complaint.

... contd.