Sunday 11 August 2013

Should ragging laws be made stricter?




I remember my old college days when I was so freaked out to enter college just because of the fear of ragging. Everyone knows how tough ragging is in medical school. I was glad I was not a hostelier. But still I heard that it was rare for anyone to escape.


The first day was good. Nothing really happened. But the next day we were all scared as the seniors approached. I was happy that the ragging law had just been passed and anti-ragging posters were everywhere on the walls of the college. Still a few of us were ragged. Some tortured mentally. Also there were some cheap comments in medical language made over some girls. I really don't know about the boys. Never even heard their tales. I Only saw on tv how brutally boys are beaten and even made to do unnecessary things. The worst I heard was that boys were made to drink their own urine.


It's really disheartening to see so many students die of  ragging in India.  So many tv programmes showcase why ragging should be banned. But each time we hear of similar cases. Why is all this still happening..?  Every time I see a student die of ragging my heart aches. Ragging has ruined countless innocent lives and careers. In order to eradicate it, Hon’ble Supreme Court passed a law in Civil Appeal No. 887 of 2009. Still we hear of similar cases.


Recently, on 7th august 2013, a Bhopal girl student of pharmacy allegedly committed suicide after being ragged by her senior and a faculty member. The suicide note mentions the names of the students, all four of them being girls.. But what can be done..? A very precious child has been lost. The family is mourning and their loss cannot be compensated by anything on this earth. So why does a senior have to torture or harass a junior so much so that they are forced to commit suicide. 




Ragging according to wikipedia which occurs only in India is a "Damaging form of interaction of the seniors in college or school with the juniors, newcomers or first years."

A junior enters college with new dreams and new hopes. And his dreams and desires are at their highest peak in the first year.. He yearns for new friendships.. New endeavours.. New beginnings.. And then suddenly some stranger.. The so called ' senior ' comes in the scene to crush his aspirations. What happens..? It's a real feeling of disgust really when one is ragged. It's difficult to remain silent when some notorious senior makes a cheap comment on a girl student in your class. But you cannot do anything. Why? Just Because they are seniors.. ?



I have heard of tales in my city itself where a junior girl was made to stay in the mortuary all night long.. You can imagine what the outcome was.. Yes.. She became a psychiatric patient life long instead of becoming a doctor and treating other patients. 


Nagedra AV, 25, was found dead in Chandigarh's prestigious Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research on 19 April,2010. The doctor had joined this post-graduate institution just two months ago. The police said he jumped to death from the hostel building, his father said he had been pushed. His father said a day ago he had said he was finding it difficult to continue there due to ragging.


Sinmoi Debroy, 21, was found hanging from the ceiling fan, dead, in his hostel room in Chennai. It was a private hostel shared by students of various colleges. Most of the 42 SMS's in the Assamese engineering student's mobile phone were threats and abuses from seniors, who also demanded money.


A student in AIIMS, the only child to his parents, committed suicide in the first year itself because he complained to the dean about how one of his friend was ragged by seniors and who in return was beaten and tortured which finally made him give up inspite of the complaints to college authorities..


I was lucky I escaped. I was lucky I did not have to face a similar ordeal. But why all these things are still happening.. ? Why a precious life is lost each time due to ragging..? Do we need stricter laws..? Or do we need to become better seniors..? Can we stop this thing called ragging which exists only in India and its subcontinents ? Can we save these precious lives who succumb due to undue pressures put on them? Can we really stop RAGGING..???




http://youtu.be/-P8DsViZKS4

37 comments:

  1. College authorities prefer to force the victim to hush it up rather than take a stand, because they fear the loss of reputation to their college. I know an incident in Mangalore where the college staff were just as culpable - mentally harassing the girl with comments on her morality based purely on their strict puritan views. She cried to her parents, she cried to her friends... when she went to senior authorities there, they sided with staff. In the end, she took her life.
    It is so sad that a young life and all the dreams that come with them are snuffed out purely by the whims of goons and bullies. I wish there was a solution. Making laws is never enough.. you need to be able to enforce them too.

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    1. Yes.. That's really sad.. Also one needs to be able to enforce laws too..!!!

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  2. HEy!
    Nice post!
    Ragging comes in all forms and well, if you were to ask me, ragging to a certain extent has to be there...
    Ragging to a certain extent helps to break certain parts of you and only broken people really do well in the longer run.
    When ragging gets excessive and almost impossible to speak of those are the kinds that needs to be stopped completely...

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    1. Thanks Danny.. Ragging certainly does break a part of you and as you rightly said only broken people do well in the long run..!! Ragging really needs to be stopped..!!

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  3. Its not the laws but implementing the laws that is the tough part. No one wants to act, or take the trouble to pull up the wrong doer.

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    1. Yes.. Implementing laws is the toughest part..!!

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  4. I have heard about ragging. Horrible. Having been educated here, I can only visualize. I am very sorry for those who committed suicide. If I were going to college in India, I would organize freshman (new students) group and take the sh* t out of those senior students.

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    1. Yes.. It's really disheartening to know of people who have succumbed to ragging..!!

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  5. One of my family friends was suspended as he was the Warden of the Medical College in which a boy committed suicide few years back in HP. I heard many stories from him and he said, there are many notorious kids who don't know the severity of what they are doing and do irreparable damage to someone's life.

    Have you seen Table No. 21?

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    1. Yeah.. Sadly they don't know the severity of what they are doing and then this happens... Nope not seen table no 21..

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  6. ragging is free entertainment for seniors to save ticket money instead of watching a movie.for some seniors, ragging is machoism.we have to hide and escape from seniors like murderers and criminals do from police.though ragging doesn't happen inside campus,seniors and juniors who are from outstation live in same locality in our city.whenever seniors finds a junior,they take him on their bike to their room.we have too meet assignment deadlines of college and we have to face ragging for hours if we are caught by seniors which takes away whole day after college hours.

    people who do ragging are insensitive to others feelings and is a result of bad parenting or corrupt parents.nearly 50 seniors took me to their rooms for ragging but after finding me more mature than them, they din't ask me to perform vulgar acts.they asked my classmates to strip and wear superman dress to roam in streets.if they had asked me to do the same,i might have stabbed all my seniors with a knife.i think seniors in most of colleges are gays,why a guy has to strip before another guy?i got high fever after they made me stand for 4 hours to interrogate on various issues and was in bed for a week after mental harassment by seniors.i have lost most of my classes and lab practicals during that week,first year was hell.

    to be frank,most of indians are rogues and india is a rogue nation with least law n order.

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    1. Yes.. It's sad ragging still continues.. I can't even imagine how traumatic it must have been for you.but.I am glad you are not the one who can stand injustice.. Yes it feels like stabbing them all.. but we need to find an answer.. We really need to raise our voice against this issue each time.. !!

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  7. Pertinent post. Now they ask parents to sign an affidavit against ragging. We did it but it is a small step.

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    1. Thanks.. Yes have heard of this.. We need to talk more on this and raise this issue..!! There should be a psychologist in every college to counsel students who have undergone this mental trauma.. Coz for me even calling vulgar names to a girl was traumatic.. It's really unjust when someone slaps you for no fault of yours and you cannot do anything just because he is a senior.. Some forget.. Some wreck there life completely due to this trauma.. Some end there life.. This thing just needs to be stopped..!!

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  8. Oh my, I didn't know it was that bad. This is ridiculous. How can people be so cruel, especially when they have been through the same stuff? I am glad you wrote this.

    And thanks so much for all the love on my blog. I hope you keep reading and I am following you :-)

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  9. Yes.. It's still happening.. Thanks a lot for the follow..!! I like your writing.. You are there on my blog roll.. Looking forth to your next post..!!

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  10. This is some silly tradition which needs to be done away with, though most of us have faced it some time! Thanks Priya for following my blog:)

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    1. Yes.. It's a horrible tradition and i really don't know who started it.. But I wish to see it vanished away one day.. Thanks for visiting my blog.. :-)

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  11. This is really so sad and I topic I feel very strongly about too. There are many innocent lives that have been lost this way. I just hope that each college takes it seriously and encourages students to come forward with any such incidents.

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  12. Yes... Even I hope each college encourages students to come forward with any such incidents..

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  13. I have heard people say that you get ragged and then you get really friendly with seniors and all. Thats insane to me because you don't need to rag someone to be close to them. I am not sure how powerful are the counciling in Schools and Colleges these days, at least there were none in our times.

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    1. Yes even I feel that you don't need to get ragged by someone to be close to them.. Its really absurd to hear that.. Infant I would distance myself from anyone who tried bullying rather than being friendly..!!

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  14. Ragging is like alcohol... beneficial in small dose but harmful after that... all these are very sad events but certainly these are exceptions. Anyway now as you've become a senior take care of your juniors :-)

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    1. Ya.. Once u became a senior I had already decided that I would never ever rag or even for that matter pass a comment on anyone.. Just a friendly introduction was enough for me..!!

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  15. Even i escaped it.Interaction and a little playful ragging is always fine.Extreme is where the problem comes.We have heard many tales the only thing we can do is avoid doing something similar to others or stop it when we see something like it happening.

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    1. Yes.. We can sign a petition.. Form anti-ragging groups.. And report any kind of activity which is recorded by anyone in the campus which they think would give rise to raging..!! I prefer juniors staying in groups and showing their strength instead..

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  16. I jusst read your profile. I come to know you are a doctor. Just interested to know what is your field/speciality. Thanks.

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    1. Yes..I am a doctor studying for my post graduation.. Thanks for visiting my blog..!

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  17. This topic is close to my heart as well. Sigh.

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    1. Thanks for visiting my blog.. Keep coming..!!

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  18. Hello. I came here through Alka Ma'am's blog. You have written so well about something that requires a lot of attention. Co-incidentally, my latest post is on the topic of ragging as well. Being a doctor myself I have some very strong views about it. Do read about it on my blog.

    http://mindzpeak.blogspot.com/2013/07/blog-post.html

    Hope to read more from you.

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    1. Thanks a lot...yes even i wonder why is it that only the juniors need to sing and dance to get friendly with the seniors? Why is isn't it the other way round?and yes.. Ragging is illegal.. One should raise their voice against ragging..

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  19. There seems to be some kind of bullying in educational institutions everywhere. And a lot of the time they are extreme cases. It's terrifying.

    Students shouldn't be losing their lives this way. There are laws in place, right? I feel there should be more awareness about the consequences on the legal side and the punitive measures should be strictly executed. 'Seniors' should be scared and Juniors should be encouraged to report and be protected if they do that.
    This vicious circle should be broken.

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    1. Yes.. You are right seniors should be dead scared to do anything.. And juniors should be encouraged to report to the authorities.. Thanks for stopping by.. !

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  20. That is just terrifying for a first year student... I'm a first year Uni student, and thank goodness nothing like that happens here!

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