By IANS,
New Delhi : Concerned over several incidents of ragging reported from across the country, President Pratibha Patil Friday wrote to all the state governments to enact laws to prevent ragging in educational institutions.
In a letter written to all governors and Lieutenant Governors, Patil asked them to help to eliminate the menace of ragging.
“The Supreme Court has already taken a strong stand on ragging and rules and regulations including laws have already been enacted at different levels or are in the process of being enacted. The governors and lt. governors need to consider whether such legislation, if it does not exist in their states and union territories, could be brought in,” a communique from the President’s Office said.
The president said that the repeated incidents indicates “the perverse practice of ragging has not only become rampant in our educational institutions but acquired hideous proportions costing the sanity and life of some of the students”.
“What is more worrisome is the persistent spread of this scourge both across a range of educational institutions as also across the length and breadth of our country. Such disorderly, aggressive, and inhuman conduct on the part of senior students inflicting physical cruelty and mental torment on the freshers has outraged society at large,” she said.
According to the president, it is the primary responsibility of the management of educational institutions and the teachers to prevent ragging. However, “it would make eminent sense if parents and guardians are mobilised to counsel their wards to behave more responsibly and be supportive in their dealings with their juniors”.
“As the new academic calendar is about to commence soon, time has come when all the stake holders in the realm of education and civil society need to seriously ponder and put their act together to prevent the menace of ragging,” she said.