As first-year students gear up for their first day in college, institutions in the city are busy putting up notices, setting up anti-ragging committees and installing black boxes on their campuses. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has also recently issued a set of guidelines to institutions to initiate certain anti-ragging measures.
Colleges have also taken their own initiatives to help students settle down. At Loyola College, for instance, the first-year students are taken on a campus tour and introduced to the departments, facilities and the administration of the college by their seniors.
Colleges also conduct orientation programmes for parents, to inform them about anti-ragging measures taken by the college and also to acquaint them with the college and facilities in it. “Parents of first-generation learners are guided on using the facility available on the college website to check their ward's attendance. Students and parents are also introduced to the rules of the college and to the credit-based system,” says G. Ramamurthy, Vice-Principal (administration), Loyola College.
The new batch of students of the Kumararani Meena Muthiah College of Arts and Science is received with “fresher social” even on day one. “In the process, we recognise the talent of the students and also encourage the seniors to mingle with the fresh batch,” says P.T. Vijayshree, principal of the college. Similarly, at Meenakshi Sundararajan Engineering College, the hostel students are given a special lunch to feel comfortable in their “new home”.
Government colleges have also taken the cue and set up the disciplinary committee to prevent any instance of ragging and the redressal committee to deal with complaints they may receive. “We regularly inspect the classrooms to check if there are incidents of ragging,” says P.S. Raguraman, principal in-charge, Presidency College.
Some students of government colleges try and break the ice with their juniors during the time of admissions by guiding them on the courses, the cut-off and rules and regulation of the college.
However, according to a section of students of government colleges, it is not only the first-year students who are subjected to ragging.
“Sometimes, even the second- and third-year students are ragged. Students coming from certain areas or taking specific bus routes form groups and indulge in ragging,” says a student of Government Arts College for Men in Nandanam.
