New Delhi, July 23: Ragging is a heinous crime and must be punished severely. That is what the Medical Council of India (MCI) has recommended but the Government isn’t convinced.
The MCI’s recommendation reflects a menace in education institutes. There were 30 deaths because of ragging in the last eight years, says a report by the Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURE), a voluntary group.
As many as 60 per cent of ragging complaints were about physical abuse and 20 per cent of them about sexual torture, says CURE.
Studies have shown that more serious ragging offences are reported from medical colleges. The MCI, the country’s regulatory body for medical education, has therefore suggested that ragging be made a cognizable offence at par with rape, atrocities against women and ill treatment of persons belonging to Scheduled Castes and Tribes.
The MCI wants a medical college where ragging has been reported declared to be not having minimum academic standards. It wants a fine of Rs 1 lakh on a medical college for each ragging incident.
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Students found guilty of ragging should be expelled from their institutes and debarred from admission into any other institute for a specific period. Victims and witnesses of ragging who do not report ragging should be punished too, suggests the MCI.
“Ragging is torture–physical and mental torture AIIMS byte. There should be severe punishment for those who commit it,” says Dr Binod Khaitan, head of dermatology department at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
The MCI’s suggestions may not be accepted by the Law Ministry, and even the Human Resources Development Ministry does not agree. “Do we call our children criminal? That is an issue that should be widely deliberated upon,” says D Purandeshwari, Minister of State in the HRD Ministry.
–Agencies