Installing CCTV cameras on campus is not a one-stop solution to prevent incidents of ragging and bullying, say student leaders from Jadavpur University.
According to Subhodeep Bandyopadhyay, General Secretary of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), Kolkata, "CCTVs can only help in detecting who is the culprit. But CCTVs cannot help in stopping ragging."
To substantiate their claim, another student leader questioned the effectiveness of how the Panchayat polls were conducted under CCTV cameras and if their presence could prevent the violence that took place.
"Despite CCTV, violence took place during the West Bengal panchayat election. No arrests could be done based on their evidence. Nor can we say that the election was conducted in a just manner. The narrative on bringing in CCTVs on the campus is being brought in now just to deviate from the main issue," Aafrin Begum, State Committee Member of SFI said.
The leaders stressed the need to have former students vacate the hostel. "We have seen that many students who have passed out continue to stay in hostels. Even if authorities take action against them, they do not bother,” Aafrin said, adding that hostellers are finally uniting against them after the alleged suicide case.
"Undergraduate first-year students should be put in another hostel following UGC guidelines. The process has already begun. The list of pass-out students who are still staying in the hostel should be given to us," Aafrin said, speaking to ANI about the steps SFI is taking to curb ragging.
The student leader also lays heavy criticism on the hostel supervisors. "Hostel supers (supervisors) have been kept on duty so that they can ensure that such kinds of incidents do not happen. How can they not know if a student falls down? How can they not know of incidents of ragging? How are they not aware of seniors who rag students?” she asks, adding that the seniors who rag and bully students should be identified, interrogated and punished."
Disputing the conception that ragging is a common practice at Jadavpur University, Aafrin said that no organisation, in particular, promotes ragging.
“We want all organisations in Jadavpur to get united against ragging. We are 98 per cent united that we will finish this. The remaining two per cent are those who practice ragging, which frightens students to submit. We need to break those who want to keep this culture (of ragging) in the university," she said.
It is not fair to blame the entire student community for incidents of ragging, says Subhodeep Bandyopadhyay. “Ragging has become a culture for a few. However, we have stood against this ragging culture earlier and we will do so in the days to come. We do not believe that any union supports or promotes ragging.”
Those practising ragging are only a few individuals, he says.
A first-year student, Swapnadeep Kundu, of Jadavpur University in Kolkata died on Thursday after allegedly falling from the balcony of the university's hostel on Wednesday night. Kundu, a first-year student of the Bengali Department, belonged to the state's Nadia district.
Earlier on Sunday, two more students were arrested in connection with the Jadavpur University student death case taking the total number of arrests to three.
