UGC Receives 55 ragging Complaints within Weeks of Commencement of MBBS Academic Session: Report
New Delhi: This year, within weeks of the commencement of the 2024 academic year on October 14, the anti-ragging cell of the University Grants Commission (UGC) received more than 55 complaints from medical colleges across the country. As per a TOI report, this number was almost 42% of the total number of complaints received from all the colleges.
Even though there are only around 700 medical colleges in the country, comparatively much lesser than the number of engineering and technology colleges (8000), in 2024 alone, the anti-ragging cell received 800 complaints and among them 222 were from the medical colleges and 230 were from engineering and polytechnic colleges.
From these instances of ragging in medical colleges, the victims in four of these cases took their own lives. Meanwhile, anti-ragging activists have complained that the complaints about ragging don't always lead to action.
As per the latest media report by the Times of India, Anti-Ragging activists have pointed out that the UGC data does not even capture all the incidents because one cannot register an anonymous complaint.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported about the instances of ragging at Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia (RVRS) Medical College, Bhilwara, where the MBBS students were allegedly forced to "strip naked" and "moan" by their seniors. When the students complained in this regard to the UGC, the Commission had reportedly asked the complainant student to reveal his/her identity to initiate further action.
Referring to this, Gaurav Singhal of the non-profit that works on preventing ragging, Society Against Violence in Education (SAVE) explained to TOI, "The reported case of severe ragging in RVRS Medical College in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, does not feature in the UGC list of complaints though the students tried to complain. They insisted on the student identity being revealed and since the student was not willing to do so, the complaint does not figure in the list."
Rupesh Kumar Jha of SAVE mentioned that most of the complaints are made anonymously so that they did not have to face any consequences from the seniors. Referring to the recently reported ragging incident from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Raipur and added, "This is a common problem. So, victims are scared. If you are serious about tackling ragging, anonymous complaints must be given importance. It is for the UGC or college authorities to investigate and verify the truth in such complaints. In JLN Medical college, the boys were forced to shave their heads. If students are going around in uniform with shaved heads or if all freshers have a peculiar hairstyle, it is evidence that ragging is going on. How can the college authority deny it?"
"College authorities take it as a personal attack on them and almost never act on their own. Instead of being thankful that students are informing them that all is not well in the college, they victimize the complainant. This is why students cannot be expected to seek help from within the college. We must prevent ragging by implementing the detailed action plan mandated by the Supreme Court order in 2009," explained Prof Rajendra Kachroo, the father of a student who died in 2009 from violent instance of ragging. When Prof Kachroo took up the matter before the Supreme Court, it resulted in the framing of regulations against ragging.
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