HYDERABAD: Despite the recent incident of students ragging and assaulting a batchmate in ICFAI Business School, officials claimed there were few such cases because of strict enforcement, punishments and the presence of anti-ragging squads.
Registrar of Osmania University (OU) Prof. P. Laxminarayana said that all affiliated colleges had anti-ragging squads, as mandated by the University Grants Commission (UGC). Students could approach any member of the squad about any ragging incident.
“The committee members proactively interact with junior students and try to take them into confidence,” he said.
The squads have also come up with a novel way to crack down on ragging. They instruct first year students that if they are being ragged, they can just dial the number of any member of the squad and keep the speaker on, without actually talking over the phone. In this way, the receiver of the call can hear the ragging happening and can catch the culprits red-handed.
Prof. Laxminarayana said another factor that prevented ragging, especially in colleges under OU, was that many students are members of one of the major student groups, which ensure that none of their members get ragged. Yet another factor is the strict punishments meted out to the offenders.
“Serious incidents happen mostly in affiliated colleges and private hostels, not on the main campus. As a preventive measure, the anti-ragging squads should make surprise visits to the hostels at nights at the beginning of the semester, when most ragging incidents are likely to happen,” he said.
Registrar of JNTUH, Prof. M. Manzoor Hussain, said that first year students have a separate hostel facility, which automatically protects them from ragging.
