12 May 2006

Letter from the students of Noor Nursing College Bangalore.

We, the third year students of Noor College of Nursing, list here below the various kinds of pain we had to undergo during the past three years of study at the above said college.

We joined during 2003-“04, was the first batch with a strength of 40 students of which 35 were from kerala, 4 from Rajasthan and one from Karnataka. It is only after we came here that the construction of the college building was started. After the construction was over there was inspection from the INC for which we were made to do hard labour like cleaning the floors of the building, loading and unloading the furniture until late in the nights. Students who were unwilling to do this were physically assaulted by the Chairman himself, who seemed like finding happiness in beating up students for no rhyme or reason. This punishment was further elevated to monetary fines of Rs.500 to r.1000 also. If the fine was not paid on time then it used to be doubled and the beating would be worse. We did all this without any complaint as we considered this a bigger cause than the pains our parents had undergone to get the money by way of loans and other sources for studying this course.

Any student who dared to complain was threatened to be booked under false drug abuse charges and was treated with third rate physical atrocities and flogged with leather belts in front of all co-students. There are midnight checks in the hostel and students were beaten telling reasons of cleanliness and was again threatened that if these were told to anybody they would not be passed in their exams and will not finish their course even after five years of study. The chairman also said that he did not mind any complaints as he had the necessary contacts and that any body who dared to do so would be killed.

There were literally no classes during the first year, not even a day of hospital duty and almost no tutors to run the classes, but the physical labour for the building was still going on. During the second year we had to carry more than 30,000 bricks to build the third floor of the building, at night, from 11pm to 5 am in the morning, because there was INC inspection the next morning. Nobody complained as it was also our need to get the INC certification. We were also made to carry heavy iron cots and tables from the college to the hostel which was almost 2 Km away. Students who escaped from this job were caught and beaten up very badly such that even today there are students who suffer from the aftermath.

One reason for the fine was the sudden check by the Chairman to know whether the students knew the timetable by heart, failing which there was again beating and the fine being imposed. He also used to mentally assault the students by making the students stand up on the desk and shout third rate abuse at us.

There was only six days of hospital practice during the second year.

Seeing the chairman doing this the Administrator also started physical beating of students for all odd reasons like being late for hospital duty, students who skipped food etc. One of the students who left because of this was threatened in class by the Chairman that he will be booked for drug sale and will be put behind bars using his influence, which prompted the student to apologize and come back to class.

No student was allowed to stay outside the college hostel and anybody who wanted to do so had to pay the college an extra fine of Rs.750/- every month. The Administrator’s assistant also started putting up issues to collect fine for all sorts of silly reasons.

When the latest batch took admission in Bidar and started studying in Bangalore they complained about this and then it created a flutter with this issue published in the newspapers , we were forced to stay quiet and were left without any issues for some time.

All these issues were common for the girl students also, except for the beating. They were pestered with the same issues and was forced to stay in the same building where the Chairman stays and was not let to go out anywhere other than accompanied by the non teaching staff, that too during half a day on Sundays.

There have been a lot of instances when the teaching staff have left their jobs seeing the torture done to the students. No complaints were entertained regarding the bad quality of food served in the hostel mess. The mess fees were to be paid during the holidays also. The fees were collected at Rs.4000/- per month when the students were in Kerala for Pshytatric training on their own expence and the mess fee of Rs.1500/- was also charged for the same month when the students were not even in station, during the same time.

There were instances when students were kicked, dragged through the building, spat upon and their hair being cut by the Chairman (7.04.2006)

Another day one of the student was kicked on his groin and beaten up for almost 45 minutes (24.04.2006).

There were two instances when girl students tried to commit suicide, due to reasons unknown and the chairman was very successful making keeping it a tightly held secret.

The present issue has arisen due to the students being late in attending the hospital duty, which was accepted by the tutor in charge as she knew that we were late due to the overwork the day and night before. The college bus left without picking us and we reached the hospital by auto rickshaw, almost on time, by 10.05, when the duty started by 10.00 am. But the issue was created by the administrator who made the chairman beat the boys and put a fine of Rs.500 each for all the students. This was on 5.05.2006.

When we did not pay the fine we were called again to the office on 10.05.2006 and was beaten up by lathis, two of the students were kicked around in their groins and threatened to fail them in the forthcoming exams. The girls were called to the office and were showered with the utmost of the worst language. They also have not informed all this to either their parents or any authorities as they fear the chairman would harm them as he was staying with them in the same building.
After this day, we decided enough was enough and informed all our parents as to what was happening and they told us to come back home. So, all of us excluding the five students who had exams on the 12 and 13th of May have left for home, on the word of our parents who have asked us to come back.