Ragging- Why the problem still exists?
http://themenaceofragging.blogspot.com/
In July 2008, CURE analysed ragging incidents of past the 5 years and
did a comparative study with the cases reported after the Supreme Court
judgment of 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, why
is the government still not able to successfully deal with this menace?
Let
us understand some of the important fundamental issues associated with
ragging which need to be addressed if we 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/ setting up helpline number 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 possible 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 the 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.
Colleges are unaware as to what awareness on ragging means.
Distributing contact numbers of faculty members or information that
ragging has been banned is certainly not awareness on ragging. It is
very important to disseminate right information about ragging, about
its origin, highlight its ill effects, where all it is prevalent, why
is it irrelevant in today’s time, etc. 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 a 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 point of view and understand that
a young student who joins the college with a dream to become a doctor
or an engineer will be extremely scared 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.
