National Students Union of India proposes Central anti-ragging law

PANAJI: Congress' National Students Union of India ( NSUI) has proposed formulation of Central Anti-Ragging Law in its manifesto, which will be released this week as a part of its ongoing Lok Sabha campaign.

"Ragging is a practice many students of our country have been subjected to. Certain States have anti ragging laws in place," says the manifesto which will be a sub-manifesto of Indian National Congress' current campaign for the 2014 polls.

The manifesto which is a part of national agenda has proposed Central anti-ragging law to erase every existing trace of this menace (ragging) under which respective educational institutions can be held responsible.

The NSUI which has drafted this manifesto after collecting inputs from around one lakh students from pan-India has claimed it to be the country's "First Student Manifesto".

NSUI officials stated that the inputs were collected from students through interactions, social media, and a web portal dedicated for the purpose.

The manifesto also proposes ways for having access of higher education for Not Rich, Not middle-class, not BPL (NRMB) students, who don't have parity with other students as far as higher education is concerned.

"There are 20 crore youths who are in the 15-35 age group belong to NRMB category. Of these eight crore are in the age group of 18-23," the manifesto reads, adding "96 per cent of NRMB youths in the college going cohort have no access to higher education".

"Our vision is to provide access to the higher education system and educate, train and impart skills to 96 per cent of the NRMB youngsters and 3.5 crore of BPL youths in the college-going category," the NSUI has said.

The manifesto also talks about national commission for students and Central Educational Fee Monitoring and Regulation Commission.