[Reader-list] Ragging crusader feels defeated

[Pawan Durani]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Ragging-crusader-Kachroo-feels-defeated/articleshow/5639061.cms

GURGAON: A year after Rajendra Kachroo lost his 19-year-old son, Aman
Kachroo, to ragging at a medical college in Himachal Pradesh and
launched the Aman Kachroo movement against ragging, he is a
disappointed man.

An RTI filed by him recently has revealed that the call centre set up
by the human resource development ministry and UGC after a Supreme
Court ruling, based on the suggestions given by Kachroo himself, has
virtually proved to be a non-starter.

The RTI reply given by UGC reveals that nearly 1.5 lakh calls were
made to the call centre since its inception on June 20, 2009, of which
300 calls translated into complaints. However, unfortunately, no real
action has been taken in a single case.

"My son Aman died on March 8, a few hours after being being brutally
beaten up by some students at the Rajendra Prasad Medical College in
Tanda town of Kangra," he said, his pain visible in his eyes.

"He was my only son and nothing in this world can compensate for my
loss. However, I did not want to his death to go waste and I vowed
that I would not let any other Aman suffer. However, a year later I
feel failed by the system from which I had sought support me," said
Kachroo, who has spent his entire time, along with his daughter and
sister, in creating awareness regarding the 'disease' of ragging.

He believes the call centre, his brainchild, ended up in "wrong
hands". He recalls: "I had myself offered to set up the centre, free
of cost, but this was rejected by the UGC. In May last year, some of
the best known companies in the business offered to implement the
entire plan at a cost of Rs 60 lakh."

He added: "A report was submitted to UGC with details of outputs,
methodology, time-frame, technology, format of reports, guarantees,
financial and infrastructural details, past history of doing similar
work etc. This proposal was rejected by UGC on the grounds that there
was not enough time for it to call for tenders from private
companies," said Kachroo.

For reasons best known to the officials concerned, the job was offered
to a company which, he claims, had no experience of doing this kind of
work for Rs 6 crore.

"As a result, the situation now is that when you complain of a ragging
case to the call centre, they are reluctant to take it seriously and
ask you irrelevant questions. And of the 300 complaints which were
recorded, 180 complaints were forwarded by UGC to college principals
through ordinary post. Only 60 principals have responded. No one even
looked into what they have said. Other 120 complaints are still
waiting to be looked at, at the end of January 2010, many months after
they were registered. This shows the pathetic state of affairs," said
Kachroo.

As for the trial in Aman's case, Kachroo has forgiven the culprits.
"The boys have been in jail for the past one year and I have even
stopped following the case. What I really wanted is that the then
principal should be punished. Not only did he ignore my son's pleas,
he instigated the senior students," he alleges.

Kachroo, who left his job to dedicate himself to the movement doesn't
believe all is lost.

"After the cooperation I got from the President, I have been working
closely in association with V-Cs of several universities and I am
happy that so much awareness has been created among students against
ragging," he said.