After several reports of ragging emerged from the IIT-Kanpur campus, the college authorities took the decision to suspend 22 second-year students for being a part of the hazing rituals. The institute’s student paper, Vox Populi, put out an editorial critiquing the institute’s decision, claiming it was their own faulty procedures that led to the students being wrongly penalised.
The editorial goes on to state that while the students were identified on the basis of testimonies of the freshmen and the confessions of the accused, some of the students were not even present at the venue where the hazing took place.
“They were charged with being guilty of dereliction of duty for failing to prevent the incident in spite of holding ‘Positions of Responsibility’. (These students were members of Hall Executive Committee)“, stated the editorial.
“Well-Ingrained Culture”
The editorial states that the ritual of ragging is so well-ingrained into the students that there are “specific monikers attached to it”. However, no student is physically violated, contrary to the media reports that have claimed otherwise.
“Complacent Administration”
“Most students, including the ones being suspended, have been ragged with equal brutality in their freshman year. They have learned, to their astonishment, that the administration is all too complacent to care,” stated the article.
The piece alleged that in the 7-day orientation that freshmen get, ragging finds no space between the conversations of road safety and community welfare, indicating “how little the institute cares about the problem of ragging”.
“During 2016, a hostel warden, on receiving a written complaint for ragging, responded by telling the freshmen in the hostel during its General Body Meeting (the only time of the year the warden actually meets the students), that all such complaints must be sent to the Hall Executive Committee (HEC) and not to him. The HEC is the student body which was accused of ragging in the complaint. This incident is to say nothing of countless other complaints that have yielded no or meek responses. One is left wondering how the institute suddenly starts suspending students on charges of ragging when it was forwarding similar complaints to the accused until last year. “
During an incident where two students were asked to enact a pole dance, the authorities punished the Counselling Service comprising of 100 students, yet made no mention of the professor or the institute’s own appointed counselors to the committee, the editorial claimed.
“Institute Flouts Rules”
On 8 May, 2009 the Supreme Court ordered the implementation of the Raghavan Committee recommendations to remove ragging from college campuses. Yet, IIT-Kanpur has flouted several recommendations that it had to follow, as the editorial claimed.
- Joint sensitization programme and counseling of both ‘freshers’ and seniors by a Professional counselor
- Joint orientation programme of ‘freshers’ and seniors to be addressed by the principal/Head of the institution, and the anti-ragging committee
- Each batch of freshers should be divided into small groups and each such group shall be assigned to a member of the staff. Such staff member should interact individually with, each member of the group on a daily basis for ascertaining the problems/difficulties if any faced by the fresher in the institution and extending necessary help.
- Freshers shall be lodged in a separate hostel block, wherever possible.
- Brochures or booklet/leaflet distributed to each student at the beginning of each academic session for obtaining undertaking not to indulge or abet ragging, shall contain the blueprint of prevention and methods of redress.
The editorial concludes in solidarity with the suspended students, stating that had it adhered to guidelines, the unforseen incidents would not have occurred.
“The institute must realise that the cure to the menace lies in taking reformatory action against the students involved and sensitising its students regarding the issue, and not in handing down barbaric punishments to ones who are but victims of this sordid culture.”
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