India’s dental council issues anti-ragging guidelines

India: The Dental Council of India (DCI) has issued guidelines on curbing the practice of ragging in dental institutions.

Ragging refers to the widely banned practice of “initiation ritual”, which usually takes place in higher education institutions in South Asian countries, including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Similar to hazing in North America, it typically involves the psychological or physical abuse of new entrants by the senior students as part of an initiation process.

Ragging cases double

According to statistics compiled by www.antiragging.in, a total of 511 cases of ragging were reported across India in 2021 compared to 219 registered in 2020.

The number of cases increased twofold as compared to 2020 figures. While the total complaints registered in 2021 is half of what was registered before the pandemic, the fact that the majority of the 2021 cases involve online harassment raises concerns from anti-ragging expert groups.

The institution’s responsibility

According to the DCI guidelines, all institutions bear the responsibility to prevent the practice of ragging within their schools.

In the event that any ragging incident occurs, the guideline states that the school management “shall take prompt and appropriate action against the person(s) whose dereliction of duty lead to the incident. In its turn, the authority designated to appoint the Head shall take prompt and appropriate action against the Head.”

Information campaign

As a further measure to curb the menace of ragging, the DCI has instructed all dental institutions to carry out anti-ragging advertisements (i.e. signboards, flyers, pamphlets, etc.) before the start of the academic year and during the school term.

The dental institutes are also required to distribute booklets detailing the definition, consequences and penalties of ragging. The booklets also contain the names and contact numbers of the members of the Anti Ragging Squad, Anti Ragging Committee (Anti Ragging Helpline), Wardens, Deputy Wardens of Men’s and Women’s hostel.

Reporting system

The dental colleges will have to obtain and file an undertaking, on anti-ragging, from all parents/guardians and students (1st year to final year) studying in the various dental courses through www.antiragging.in

The institutions have to submit their reports to the Secretary, Dental Council of India by 31st October of every year in respect of the previous academic session.

Failure to submit the report entails the imposition of any one or any combination of the following penalties:

• To initiate the derecognition process against the institution under section 16A of the Dentists Act, 1948
• To reduce the institution’s admission capacity to the extent the Council deems fit
• To stop further admission in the institution till further orders
• To stop the renewal of permission in respect of UG/PG Dental Courses. 11.4.6 To post the information regarding penalties imposed on the concerned institution on the website of DCI for the information of all concerned.

DCI has developed an online module to upload the requisite information/documents on its website to reduce the paperwork and efficiently scrutinize the above data.