Mocking a student over their caste, ethnicity or sexual orientation can get engineering students expelled, as the definition of ragging has been expanded by the regulator, ahead of the new academic session.
Ragging is rampant across campuses where students are humiliated in the name of friendly banter and it has led to some youths taking dire steps like ending their lives.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has widened the purview of ragging by further adding contentious words in a notification released on 22 February, as Hindustan Times reported.
Ragging is defined in the notification as:
Any act of physical or mental abuse (including bullying and exclusion) targeted at another student (fresher or otherwise) on the ground of colour, race, religion, caste, ethnicity, gender (including transgender), sexual orientation, appearance, nationality, regional origins, linguistic identity, place of birth, place of residence or economic background.
Those found violating the terms of the notification can be barred from classes for a certain time, get expelled or in worst case scenario, lose admission making them ineligible to pursue engineering anywhere in the country.
Caste and region based discrimination has seen a spike in the past few years in college campuses, as AICTE sources state.
Over 2-million students are enrolled in 10,000 colleges approved by AICTE.
Delhi Joint Commissioner of Police (operations) Robin Hibu said that the notification would act as a deterrent, stating that he often gets complaints from students about name calling and taunting, especially the Northeastern students who face discrimination.
Such cases happen because of the lack of awareness and concern about other communities.
Government and government-aided engineering and technical colleges across the country are all under the notification’s ambit.
After 2009, when the first set of rules to stop the menace of ragging were issued, this notification is the first expansive definition that’s been issued by AICTE.
In 2016, the University Grants Commission, the regulator for higher education, barred the usage of such words in central universities.
Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi’s director Pankaj Jalote said sensitisation of students towards issues of gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation was necessary.
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