Ragging in India

Jan 16 • General • 1606 Views • 5 Comments on Ragging in India

Unfortunately, the traditional practice of familiarising beginners with their seniors has now turned into a potent tool for ill-treating and punishing poor students if they fail to obey their seniors.
Under the pretext of fun, a poor student is often assaulted, sometimes even stripped and intimidated by his seniors and this ritualised torture leaves an indelible impression on his mind. The chilling incident continues to haunt him throughout his life, and he unknowingly develops various psychological disorders.
After experiencing the evil of ragging, a student develops a feeling of revenge for his ‘unjustified harassment’ and derives pleasure in ragging his juniors on his turn. So the trend goes on and students continue to suffer.
Those who surrender before their seniors are set free from the torment after going through a series of inhuman acts, but those who refuse to follow their diktats are subjected to barbaric and brutal treatment and are forced to urinate on high voltage heaters, take part in naked parades, shave off their moustaches and beards, and stand upside down on their heads etc.
The situation sometimes turns so bad that it compels the ragging victim to commit suicide. A section of students feel that light ragging should be allowed in educational institutions, while some are totally opposed to the idea and demand stricter punishment for those involved in it.
A high-level committee in 2009, which probed the death of Aman Kachroo, revealed that alcohol was the main reason leading to serious form of ragging and violence in the campus.
The custom of canning (Ragging) is indeed poorly-thought out. A report from 2007 highlights 42 instances of physical injury, and reports on ten deaths purportedly the result of ragging:[1] Ragging has reportedly caused at least 30-31 deaths in the last 7 years. In the 2007 session, approximately 7 ragging deaths have been reported. In addition, a number of freshmen were severely traumatized to the extent that they were admitted to mental institutions. Ragging in India commonly involves serious abuses and clear violations of human rights. Often media reports and others unearth that it goes on, in many institutions, in the infamous Abu Ghraib style:[2] and on innocent victims.
In many colleges, like DDIT (Dharmsinh Desai Institute of Technology, Nadiad),Birla Institute of Technology and Science and IITs, ragging has been strictly banned and is proving effective . However, this ban has not been the case elsewhere, as seen by the number of ragging cases still reported by the media. Ragging involves gross violations of basic human rights. The seniors are known to torture juniors and by this those seniors get some kind of sadistic pleasures.
Though ragging has ruined the lives of many, resistance against it has grown up only recently. Several Indian states have made legislatures banning ragging, and the Supreme Court of India has taken a strong stand to curb ragging. Ragging has been declared a criminal offence.
The Indian civil society has also started to mount resistance, only recently.
But in India, ragging is more infamous for its ubiquitous presence in the educational institutions. According to the observations by the Dr. Raghavan Committee, which has been constructed by the Union Human Resource Development ministry on the orders of the Supreme Court of India, the medical colleges are the worst affected in India.
However, the Anti-Ragging NGO, Society Against Violence in Education (SAVE) has supported that ragging is also widely and dangerously prevalent in Engineering and other institutions, mainly in the hostels.

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5 Responses to Ragging in India

  1. Ritika says:

    Ragging is a very condemnable practice. A student aspiring for a bright future, after toiling for months clears an entrance exam . Parents pin all their hopes on their wards & just for the sake of fun, seniors use their status to impose physical & mental torture on their junior. So many students have even lost their lives……..
    Ragging should be banned in all forms!

  2. Ankita Prajapati says:

    Ragging should be completely removed..because it is a crime..

  3. sakshi chaudhary says:

    Ragging is crime …it is not to be supported in any kind,,,,but if it is adopted as just for the introduction in the Senior and the juniors than their is harm to adopt this….now a days many anti ragging departments are made in order to avoid problem in case occur….

  4. Saurabh Singh says:

    Ragging should be but in a limit so that their is interaction between seniors and juniors and juniors can take help of their seniors in many field..

  5. Siddhant Tripathi says:

    Ragging should be completely eradicated.. mentality should be changed that freshers aren’t a plaything.

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