Ragging- my random reflections-15 Oct 2012

Ragging: the practice, policy and compliance: my reflections This is only a note and may not have academic rigour! As a student: My association with ragging dates back to 1981, when I was first subjected to ragging in the Silver Jubilee Govt college, Kurnool. The ragging was mild, soft and hard. Ofcourse there were no serious victims. I enjoyed the ragging process as it involved mostly dancing to the tunes of NTR’s blockbuster movie “Gajadonga” and alike. But there were other serious humiliations to other co-students also. But for me, it helped in getting friendhip with seniours very easily. Ofcourse some of my classmates ranaway to their hometowns unable to bear the hardships for the time being. I never subjected anybody to the ragging process other than being subject to the process. The other campus in which ragging present was University of Hyderabad. It was present though in a limited manner. In IRMA, there was no ragging at all, as the seniors had very few occasions, because of some outside campus engagements, to speak to us. Legal form to anti-ragging measures: Then over a period of time, the ragging menace resulted in loss of lives of young students in campuses across the country, leading the Indian government to enact a legislation and a series of measures to eliminate ragging. Apart from the legislation, there were tollfree helpline, enforcing the signing of affidavit by student at the time of joining itself. As a parent: Another time I had involved in the process of ragging was, when my son, Sankalp, studying in Sastra university, Thanjore, was subjected to ragging and when he filed a complaint with the University. Then the university authorities initiated measures to balcklist the senior(s). Then the parents of seniors approached me to convince the Registrar not to take any action against the senior. I was taken to Thanjaore and accordingly complied with their request. The university banned the seniors from attending classes for a month or so. As a professional: Then comes the my professional association with the Ragging. My second assignment (2011) in Development and Research Services (www.drsindia.org) was about the compliance of Ragging act and associated measures. I visited Krishna, Guntur, Nellore, Ongole districts and interacted with nearly 50 college authorities and 1000 students and some set of parents also. Almost all the college authorities denied any ragging and almost all students denied that they were subjected to ragging on the record. Some students responded that they were subjected to ragging in the form of verbal abuses and related manners. One or two college authorities said that they have taken some stringent measures in the past. Ofcourse there were students who admitted that now their interaction with seniors is much less. There were also some faculty members who said that ragging in its decent form is very helpful and today’s generation is missing all that. The parents were afraid for being asked so many questions on ragging over phone and reported that their children did not report anything negative. Ofcourse as a result of the study, the government raised its antennae and made the affidavit signing as mandate as most institutions were not sure about the nature and content of the affidavit. Only some medical colleges were complying in the strict sense. Nursing colleges never bothered/cared. When probed further, some engineering colleges lamented that they don’t have fresh intake at all, then why so many questions?