UGC issues guidelines to curb ragging

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, July 24

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued fresh guidelines to curb the menace of ragging. Now, targeting students on the grounds of regional and linguistic identity, sexual orientation and caste are acts of ragging.

The UGC issued the fresh anti-ragging guidelines to the educational institutions on June 29. Now, any act of physical or mental abuse (including bullying and exclusion), targeting another student (fresher or otherwise) on the ground of colour, race, religion, caste, ethnicity, gender (including transgender), sexual orientation, appearance, nationality, regional and linguistic identity, place of birth, place of residence or economic background are parts of the ragging.

University scholars stated that the fresh guidelines had widened the definition of ragging. “As per the regulation, uttering words like Bihari, Madrasi, Punjabi, Parva (those hailing from across the Yamuna) or any mention to the regional or racial identity of those from the North East and foreigners are also deemed as ragging. This provision seems to have been made to safeguard the students hailing from other regions,” said Dr Sandeep Rana, Proctor, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology (GJUST) here.

Dr Rana said that he was yet to get the fresh guidelines from the UGC and would take action accordingly on getting the official communication. “The inclusion of many words would save the students from trauma of being called by names which hurt them, but they were unable to report earlier,” he said. The official stated that the university had already constituted an anti-ragging committee and even induction programme had been started in some departments for fresh students.

“Fortunately, no ragging incident has been reported on the campus for some time. The university has students from cross-section of society, regions, ethnicities and nationalities,” he added.