HYDERABAD: In a welcome move, students of seven colleges in the city have come together to say no to ragging. "We will not allow ragging of juniors in any form both on and outside our college premises," they declared.

The initiative is taken by the Confederation of Voluntary Associations (COVA) to bring students of different colleges on a common platform. "When we interacted with students the reaction was the same -- nobody wanted ragging to continue. So we contacted students of different colleges and the response was overwhelming," COVA director, Mazahar Husain, told presspersons on Wednesday.

Students who came out openly against ragging are from Syed Hashim Engineering College, Nizam College, Signodia Degree College, Amena College of Engineering, St. Ann's College, MESCO College of Pharmacy and Mumtaz College.

Poor pretext

Ragging in professional colleges, the students said, had assumed menacing proportions. Often juniors were subjected to humiliation on the pretext of improving relations between seniors and juniors. "Stringent laws will not help unless students themselves come out against ragging," said Vasundara of St. Ann's Degree College.

Ragging was the result of superiority complex. Most often the junior students were in awe of their seniors. "It is the worst form of humiliation", remarked Omer Siddiqui of Syed Hashim Engineering College.

The students said they would evolve mutually respectful and friendly ways for forging better relations between the juniors and seniors. "We will ensure that the new practices will be pleasant and non humiliating," said Gaurav Chatterjee of Mesco Institute of Management and Computer Sciences.

To a question, the students said they would from a network of various college associations to carry forward the message of no ragging.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail