Dismayed over rising student suicides, Delhi HC bats for effective anti-ragging helpline

New Delhi, Sep 11 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has expressed "deep concern" over the rising number of students suicides and outlined the need for an effective anti-ragging helpline as a "robust and efficient" measure.

The high court also referred to an order of the Supreme Court on the issues of mental health and student suicides at higher educational institutions while calling for urgent steps.

"The court has already observed that it is deeply concerned with the issue of student suicides which are becoming more frequent, and that urgent steps need to be taken, as also underscored by the Supreme Court in Amit Kumar & Ors. v. Union of India (supra) and being monitored by the Supreme Court," a bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Anish Dayal said.

The September 10 order added, "To put in place robust, efficient, and effective processes and programmes to address the issue, at the very least, a proper functional and effective anti-ragging helpline is certainly an immediate and utmost necessity. This can brook no delay lest we lose more young lives to this scourge." The high court was acting on two petitions filed by Aman Satya Kachroo Trust seeking various reliefs regarding management of the National Ragging Prevention Programme, which was originally run by the trust since 2012 and was discontinued since April 2022 when the University Grants Commission (UGC) issued a fresh tender awarding a contract to the Centre for Youth Society (C4Y).

The trust, in one of its pleas, sought cancellation of the tender awarded to the society for managing and monitoring the Anti-Ragging Programme.

The other plea sought a direction to the UGC to cancel its notice, advertisement and tender.

In 2009, Prof Rajendra Kachroo, an academician and founder of the trust, prepared a detailed plan titled "National Ragging Prevention Programme", aimed at eradicating ragging in higher educational institutions.

It had four key elements -- a 24x7 nationwide anti-ragging helpline, a database of student and parent details collected through online affidavits at the time of admission, a database of anti-ragging committees and officials of nearly 50,000 colleges across the country and a compliance and monitoring mechanism through a call centre-based platform.

The Supreme Court had ordered implementation of the plan and mandated monitoring to be carried out by a non-governmental agency.

This led to the UGC framing "UGC Regulations on Curbing the Menace of Ragging in Higher Educational Institutions, 2009".

The high court disposed of the petitions observing it did not find it necessary to delve into the larger issues raised by the trust concerning the efficacy of existing regulations or recommendation for strengthening protections, as these aspects were already under active consideration before the apex court.

The bench said such issues required a "robust institutional process" to examine systemic failures in regulatory and administrative mechanisms intended to safeguard student welfare.

The court said it was not inclined to interfere with the continuing affairs pursuant to the tender, more so when the counsel for UGC made a categorical submission that the work order provided to society, under the impugned tender, should expire on December 31.

"Without going into the merits of the submissions made on behalf of the petitioner/trust and the respondent 1/ UGC in court and without entering into the controversy, this court is not inclined to curtail the ongoing work by respondent 3/C4Y at the tail end of the contract,” it said.

On the issues raised by the trust alleging a "ham handed" and "lackadaisical approach" of UGC and C4Y in conducting a dysfunctional anti-ragging programme, the court observed there were increased incidents of students suicide in the past few years and it was sanguine these aspects would be highlighted, underscored and asserted by Prof Kachroo as part of the National Task Force set up by the apex court.

"The court is also hopeful and optimistic that these aspects, which form part of a larger set of issues and are plaguing the anti-ragging programme, will be considered by the National Task Force,” it said.

The court said while the matter was pending before it, three more student suicides including at IIT Kharagpur were reported in the news.

The reports also mentioned the support system was not functioning effectively, and possibly, the distressed student did not have any accessible lifeline to turn to.

The petitioner placed before the court comprehensive data derived from the National Crime Records Bureau, the All-India Survey on Higher Education, the National Medical Commission 2024 survey, and reports of various central institutions, to demonstrate the disturbing trends on student suicides.

Data showed over 13,000 student suicides annually, surpassing farmer suicides (11,000) in number and there is a 4 per cent annual increase in student suicides, which is double the national suicide growth rate (2 per cent).

In addition, it showed 98 suicides across central higher educational institutions between 2019 and 2023, including 11 suicides in IITs in a single year besides 122 suicides and 1,166 dropouts between 2018 and 2023 in medical colleges. PTI SKV SKV AMK AMK