View: The state of university unions must be addressed

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

students' unions. Those answers cost me a place in the civil services list as he gave only minimum marks, and I resolved never to sit for the exam again given the arbitrariness of interviews. On one question I was vindicated by history, and on the other, I stood by my belief that students unions-from campaigning and voting to the responsibilities of elected office-were overall a force for good, preparing youngsters for the world outside.

Now I have begun to have doubts. Last week Kolkata was rocked by the death of a 17-year-old first year student of Jadavpur University, ranked fourth among the top 100 nationally. He had been humiliated, intimidated and tormented in the name of "ragging" in one of the hostels by a bunch of seniors and ex-students, leading him to jump off, fall off or be pushed off the second floor, stark naked.

The culprits then prevented police from entering the campus and tried to force the juniors to lie about it. For years the students, led by three campus unions, have prevented Jadavpur's authorities from implementing measures and did not even allow the guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission on ragging to be followed. Mandatory signs telling freshers where to go and what to do in case they were targets of ragging or witness to it, were only put up after the boy's death.

The authorities, curiously, had never really pushed the matter till now either. This dismal state of affairs was allowed to continue even though several vice chancellors had to quit over the past two decades over issues that basically boiled down to discipline and safety on campus. The unions have consistently opposed identity cards, checking at campus gates and the installation of CCTV cameras in strategic spots to