Ragging: Can we ever solve this problem?
In July 2008,
CURE analysed the ragging incidents of past 5 years and did a comparative study
with the cases reported after the Supreme Court judgment in May, 2007. It was
shocking to know that even after the SC judgment, 11 cases of death due to
ragging and 5 cases of attempted suicides were reported by the media and there
was no significant decrease in ragging. After making so much effort to curb
ragging, whenever a fresh case is reported it makes everyone think as to why we
are still not able to successfully deal with this menace? It makes us feel
disappointed to comprehend the fact that the most educated section of our
society is involved in one of the worst form of human rights abuse. Let us
understand some of the important fundamental issues associated with ragging
which are essential to be understood and addressed if we really want to get rid
of this social menace. These are the issues which have been ignored or have not
been addressed with the right spirit.
Anonymity of the Complainant: This is the first step to solve the menace
and one of the key elements if we want to
encourage the fresher to report any incident of ragging. There is
tremendous fear in the minds of the freshers and huge possibility of backlash
because
of which the fresher decides to tolerate ragging and as a result almost 99.99%
of the ragging cases go unreported and problem remains suppressed. Provisions
like putting a compliant box or expecting the fresher to report the incident to
anti ragging cell/committee don’t work because such provisions fail to convince
the fresher of complete anonymity and his /her safety.
The best way to tackle
this problem is by making it mandatory for every college in the country to do a
weekly/fortnightly anonymous survey of the entire first year batch to find out
if any sort of ragging is taking place in their college. The idea is to
encourage the students by approaching
the entire batch and maintaining absolute anonymity rather than waiting for a
whistle blower to come forward and report the incident. Unless we make this
important
provision, the college authorities will continue to live in oblivion and feel
that ragging is not a problem in their institution.
Awareness: This is another key element
in solving this problem. Though ragging has been banned but since
the time it has been banned there is an atmosphere of confusion prevailing in
the campus. There is confusion as to what is ragging what is not; what will
happen to the senior–junior interaction in the absence of ragging. Reason as to
why ragging has been banned, what are the ill effects of ragging, what is its
origin? Where did it come from? – These questions have not been answered and
several students still believe that this ban has been unnecessarily imposed on
them. It is therefore very important to disseminate right information about
ragging, about its origin, highlight its ill effects, and why is it irrelevant
in today’s time. Also, we need to introduce alternative and healthier methods
of interaction to replace ragging to break the ice between the seniors and
freshers.
Psychological Menace: Ragging is more
of a psychological problem than anything else. Ragging is perhaps the only
Social
and Human Rights problem in the world in which the victim himself/herself
becomes the perpetrator of this crime in a short span of one year. This problem
can best be solved by going into the
roots of this menace and understanding its psychology. Psychological concepts
like Stanford Prison Experiment,
Miligram Experiment, Stockholm syndrome, which have close similarities with
the psychology of ragging need to be studied carefully to understand this
problem and look for appropriate solution.
Role of Media: Be it publishing a front
page picture of a Delhi University boy giving rose to a girl to portray ragging
or writing only about the provision of FIR or quantum of punishment with regard
to ragging, media has failed to disseminate the right information and essential
knowledge about ragging. Since the Supreme Court judgment in 2007, the role of
the media with regard to ragging has been more to spread sensation. Though
there is a long list of guidelines made in the Raghavan Committee report but
media chose to highlight only few sensational ones. Today all that the country
knows about the Raghavan Committee report is about provision of filing an FIR
or about provision of sending director of a college to jail but is completely
ignorant about the dozens of other important recommendations/guidelines which
can
be key to solve the problem of ragging.
Hard Approach:
This provision should be used as deterrence and as the last resort when all
the other softer efforts fail to curb ragging. Firstly, we need to look from a
17-18 year old fresher’s perspective and understand that a young student who
joins the college with a dream to become a doctor or an engineer will find it
extremely fearful to use the provision of FIR and later get involved in a court
case. Secondly, gathering evidence to prove any ragging incident has always
been very difficult as nobody comes forward to testify. Thirdly, we need to ask
ourselves that is it easy to de-recognize an institution or stop its fund if it
is several decades old and there are several hundred students studying in it?
What will happen to the future of those innocent students who were not involved
in ragging? Fourthly, successful implementation of hard approach depends
largely whether various stakeholders of ragging are convinced that it is bad.
Presently
ragging is seen as an age old ritual by the college community, there are
conflicting views about ragging, for some it is a painful torture whereas for
others it is a healthy interaction or a personality development exercise. When
knowledge about ragging is so low then how will we be able to implement these
harsh measures?
Unless and until
we act on the above issues seriously, college authorities will continue to
label ragging deaths as suicides due to academic pressure; majority of the
ragging incidents will continue to go unreported; seniors and teachers will
continue to believe that ragging is a healthy interactive and personality
development exercise; media will continue to report only sensational stuff
about ragging; parents, relatives and society will fail to understand the pain
of the ragging victim, and as a result of all this, the harsh provision to curb
ragging might soon loose its deterrent effect and we may never be able to solve
this problem.
Harsh Agarwal
