Death of a youth, birth of a movement

Prof Raj Kachroo (bearded with spectacles) leading a demonstration
against ragging file photo

Almost a year has passed since the young student was ragged and fatally assaulted by four of his seniors at Rajender Prasad Medical College in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. The forensic report said Aman died of brain haemorrhage induced by injury inflicted through excessive beating.

The 19-year-old DPS Saket alumnus had often complained to his parents about the drunken misdemeanours of the 3rd year medical students. Aman is no more, but his family has not given up the cause. They are holding a cultural programme on March 7, the day that marks one year of Aman's death, for creating awareness towards eradication of ragging.

Various groups across social networking sites are supporting the cause and have invited people to join in. Raj Kachroo, formerly a professor, quit his job so that he could lead the Aman Movement, a resistance against ragging. "This is a big movement. I have started an awareness campaign across India by giving lectures and conducting youth conferences. For that I had to leave my job," said Raj.

"The Aman movement has received lot of appreciation from all and we have lot of members who has joined us through social networking. Even Aman's friends are helping us in this noble cause. Nothing could bring back what we have lost, but we get some kind of relief when we see that we could do a little to change a student's life," added Raj.

Though there have been hurdles along the way, Raj appears satiated by the progress. "To the achievement of Aman movement the honourable Supreme Court of India made the implementation of the Plan developed by the Aman Movement mandatory for execution by the union government and we are glad to report that the process has already started.

The help line was inaugurated on the June 20, 2009. Work on monitoring and related databases is going on but still most of the callers remain unhappy as there is no mechanism of execution. So we are planning to strengthen the monitoring part. Moreover, we have started collecting data of students across India and start awareness through mail and SMS," he told MiD DAY.

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