Jharkhand is infamous for human trafficking across the country but when it comes to learning about the pathetic social issue in higher educational institutions of the state, the response is poor.
The Ranchi University (RU) had begun one year Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Anti-Human Trafficking in 2011 while a six month Certificate course on Anti-Human Trafficking was started by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in 2012. Unfortunately, very few students have shown interest in pursuing the courses.
As per the statistics available with The Pioneer out of a seat limit for 100 students in one batch at RU, only 34, 24 and 27 students were enrolled in PGD in the year 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively. On the other hand, the data of IGNOU’S Regional Centre shows that in 2012 two batches including a total of six students had done the course and in 2013 another two batches with same number of students pursued the course. However, in 2014, none have enrolled in the certificate batch schedule from January to June.
The fees for PGD course is Rs 6,500 for General category and Rs 5,000 for reserved categories. Meanwhile, the fee for certificate course is Rs 1100.
Referring to the reason on “lack of interest” of students and professionals towards this particular subject, a senior RU faculty associated to this PG Diploma said, “Since it is a new course, it will take time to publicise the advantages of such course. Unless, the state government does not cooperate in spreading awareness on such subjects, it is difficult to rope in NGOs and government organizations for campus interview of students for this PGD.”
“On our behalf, we try level best to promote the subject by calling guest faculty like cops, government administrative officers and state commission for women members who are working at the grassroot level on human trafficking. Few of them even agree to take the classes without any renumeration,” the RU official added.
Highlighting the specialty of the PGD course, Dr Karma Oraon who is coordinating the course said that it is first of its kind in entire Eastern India.
“Most of our Master of Arts students in Anthropology and Rural Development are doing this PGD as an add-on degree. We need students more students who have the passion to work or are already working in trafficking incidents,” Oraon maintained.
Meanwhile, IGNOU Regional Assistant Regional Director Arvind Manoj Singh related the “low intake” as “lack of sensitization among the citizens”. He said, “If NGO members and police personnel join the course in large numbers, then it will automatically help in stopping innocent girls and children getting into the chain of human trafficking since the former ones are known for rescuing victims of such crimes.”
Also, Singh pointed that the Inspector General of Police Anurag Gupta was among the first batch students here and he had instructed all police stations especially those which are women-centric to inform public about the certificate course. Both the universities claim to teach the subject on bilingual mode. However, Gupta felt that the subjects should be taught in Hindi as well because most of the local social activists are comfortable in this language.
Notably, both universities are facing difficulties in attracting students for society based courses like Human Rights and Disaster Management.
The website of Jharkhand State Commission for Women mentions about the launch of this IGNOU course. To provide a complete Know-house of this social evil IGNOU has decided to start this programme as a part of educational curriculum, mentions the website. “I was totally unaware about these courses. Now that you have informed me, I will take note on the structure of these courses as NGOs assisting us in trafficking incidents and data need to aware the mass on benefits of anti-human trafficking. Universities will be contacted for that,” State Social Welfare Secretary Rajeev Arun Ekka said.