Latest news with #NationalRaggingPreventionProgramme
Time of India
10-07-2025
- Time of India
Key anti-ragging tools scrapped: Father of student whose death sparked reforms
New Delhi: A national anti-ragging framework built in response to the 2009 death of medical student Aman Kachroo is now part of a larger legal battle in Delhi High Court, where the University Grants Commission (UGC) has been accused of violating tender norms and discontinuing several core components of the mechanism originally mandated by the Supreme Court. Between 2012 and 2020, the framework — developed and implemented by the Aman Satya Kachroo Trust following a Supreme Court directive — included features such as a 24x7 helpline with trained responders, real-time case tracking, access to call records, anonymous complaint options, parent outreach via daily emails, annual surveys across thousands of colleges, and publicly available compliance data. Since 2022, many of these elements have allegedly been withdrawn. The helpline now functions only as a referral centre, anonymous complaints and survey-based interventions have ceased, institutional monitoring has stopped, and no recent compliance data is publicly available, according to Prof Raj Kachroo, Aman's father and a member of the Supreme Court-appointed anti-ragging task force. You Can Also Check: Delhi AQI | Weather in Delhi | Bank Holidays in Delhi | Public Holidays in Delhi The mechanism he helped build, Kachroo said, was backed by a dedicated team and infrastructure, and was credited with bringing down reported ragging cases from an estimated 40% in 2009 to under 5% by 2020. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like One plan. Total peace of mind. ICICI Pru Life Insurance Plan Get Quote Undo by Taboola by Taboola Sixteen years on, Kachroo, whose personal tragedy catalysed India's anti-ragging laws, said he now finds himself fighting a second battle. The first was to bring anti-ragging laws to all educational institutions; this time, it is to save the very system he helped design and implement. In a fresh petition before Delhi HC, Kachroo alleged that UGC awarded the contract for operating the anti-ragging mechanism to an "unqualified" consortium, in violation of mandatory eligibility norms and based on manipulated submissions. "It's like giving the job of building a road to a cook," Kachroo told TOI in an interview. When contacted, there was no immediate response to the allegations from UGC secretary Manish R Joshi. Kachroo has sought the restoration of the original National Ragging Prevention Programme of 2009, which he said was mandated by SC to be implemented with all its innovative features after his son's death. "The programme was destroyed by UGC in 2022 due to irregularities in the public procurement process," he alleged. "We have 35 million students enrolled in Indian colleges and universities — the brightest generation of our country. And what are we putting at risk?" Kachroo asked. "By dismantling the protective framework that was meant to stop ragging, we are breaking this capable generation into nothing." The core failure, he argued, is not the absence of laws, but the erosion of institutional credibility. "Ragging continues because the system lacks empathy. You cannot tackle something so personal and violent with indifference at the top," he said. "What students need is confidence — that if they speak up, the system will hear them." "For me, justice was never about punishing the accused in Aman's case. It was about saving lives. Thousands of students were protected because a working system was created. That is what is under threat now," he said firmly. The petition was filed in 2022. During the latest hearing on Monday, the court directed Kachroo to submit data on ragging, student suicides and dropout rates. It also directed UGC to furnish the same data before it passes a detailed order. According to the data Kachroo intends to submit, more than 13,000 student suicides (roughly 8% of the national total) have been reported in India since 2020, surpassing the number of farmer suicides in the same period. The suicide rate among students has grown twice as fast as the overall rate, rising 4% annually. Between 2019 and 2023, 98 student suicides were reported in central higher education institutions. In 2022–2023 alone, IITs reported 11 suicides. In medical colleges, 122 suicides and 1,166 dropouts due to ragging were recorded. Of the 33,979 student dropouts from central universities during 2019–2023, 48% belonged to SC, ST and OBC communities. Kachroo also pointed to a rise in ragging complaints since 2022 — the year he alleges UGC began discontinuing core components of the anti-ragging framework. The number of complaints rose from 858 in 2022 to 962 in 2023 and further to 1,084 in 2024. During Monday's hearing, the court highlighted the need for a "more robust" anti-ragging mechanism for colleges and universities, stating that UGC must be "on top of the issue". It also indicated it would suo motu initiate a public interest petition to monitor steps being taken by authorities to make institutes of higher education safer for students. "UGC is compromising student safety and well-being, placing lives at risk and dismantling a proven institutional safeguard against bullying, caste and identity-based discrimination, and sexual harassment in higher education institutions," Kachroo alleged.
New Indian Express
13-06-2025
- New Indian Express
VIMSAR, OUHS warned by UGC for flouting anti-ragging norms
BHUBANESWAR: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has warned two state government-run institutions of regulatory action for failing to submit the mandatory anti-ragging compliance reports and undertakings from students not to indulge in ragging, for the year 2024. The two institutions are Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR) at Burla and Odisha University of Health Sciences (OUHS) in Bhubaneswar. The UGC on Thursday asked 89 universities and institutions across the country including the two in Odisha to submit the anti-ragging compliance and get online undertakings from all students directly under them or in their affiliated institutions, within 30 days. Under the National Ragging Prevention Programme of the Ministry of Education, it is mandatory for all colleges, standalone higher education institutions and universities - both public and private - to submit anti-ragging undertaking by students through UGC's anti-ragging website and file undertakings of compliance with UGC's anti-ragging regulations, 2009. In a letter to the institutions, UGC secretary Manish R Joshi pointed out that despite multiple advisories, follow-up calls from the anti-ragging helpline and direct interventions by its anti-ragging monitoring agency, the institutions have failed to submit the documents which is a violation of the regulations. He directed the defaulters to ensure that all enrolled students complete their online anti-ragging affidavits and submit their compliance reports within 30 days, along with a comprehensive account of the preventive measures taken to stop ragging on campuses. Failure to comply would lead to listing of the institutions as non-compliant on the UGC website and consideration for de-recognition or withdrawal of affiliation, Joshi warned.
