Panaji, Nov 24 : President Pratibha Patil, who was awarded a degree of doctor of letters (D. Lit) at the 22nd annual convocation ceremony of Goa University Tuesday, exhorted students to desist from ragging, calling it a "crime against humanity".

"Ragging in all our universities and educational institutions must stop. It is a crime against humanity and a shameful behaviour. Education must develop cultured attitude and social awareness, otherwise it is unrelated to life and its environment," Patil said.

The president also asked students not to rush for 'popular' subjects like commerce and management and asked them to study equally important basic science subjects at the university level and focus on research and innovation.

"With 54 crore youth, India has one of the largest young populations of the world. We have a responsibility to ensure that they receive proper education," she said.

Patil urged the youth to stay away from drugs. "Drug addiction is becoming an increasing threat for our youth. It is said that first you consume the drug then the drug consumes you. I hope awareness about its ill-effects would also be taken up by the platform."

She also urged universities to assess the requirements of the job market well in advance and structure courses in a manner that will help their students enter the employment market, prepared for jobs available.

"In India the problem is more of employability than of employment, which means that the skills that people have are not appropriate for securing employment," she said.

Earlier, Goa Governor S. S. Sidhu, also chancellor of university, conferred the doctorate on Patil for her contribution towards the upliftment of society and special attention to deprived section of society.

Thirty two students from different faculties were awarded PhD degrees and 376 postgraduate students received their masters degrees on the occasion.(IANS)