Bhubaneswar, Sept. 24: Here’s something very important for students, parents and college authorities. There is a 24-hour national helpline at your service that registers complaints regarding ragging. The helpline was launched by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in June last year.

The helpline, 1800-180-5522, came into existence after a major case of ragging came into light in 2008, in which Aman Kachroo, a student of Himachal Pradesh medical college was ragged to death by his seniors. The Supreme court, following recommendations of the Raghavan Committee that probed the incident, directed the UGC to take action.

The deceased's father, Raj Kachroo, was instrumental in setting up this helpline, which was launched by the human resource development minister Kapil Sibal on June 20, 2009.

The apex court directed the UGC to finance the helpline.

The UGC also replaced its generalised anti-ragging guidelines with stringent and binding anti-ragging regulations. The regulations enumerate a step-by-step grievance redressal mechanism.

The toll-free helpline operates in 10 languages — English, Hindi, Oriya, Bengali, Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi and Punjabi — and comes with a call recording system. The agents at the call centre inquire about problems faced by students.

After registering the complaint, the caller is given a unique number. The complaint is then forwarded within 15 minutes to the vice-chancellor or other authorities of the university/college concerned. Once the institution receives the complaint, an officer probes into the matter and forwards it for adequate action. The matter is tracked until necessary action is taken.

The identity of the complainant is, however, kept concealed. The unique number serves as a reference for future tracking, contact and feedback.

If senior officers fail to respond within a specified time frame, they will get a reminder via email or phone call.