Ragging

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"Ragging" is a form of abuse on newcomers to educational institutions in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and in many other countries. It is almost similar to the Western form, known as "Hazing", but is commonly much more severe.

Some senior students, force the unorganized newcomers to undergo several forms of mental, physical and sexual abuses. The juniors are usually too frightened to resist their organized group of tormentors.

Legally ragging is often defined as -

“ ‘Ragging’ means the doing of any act which causes, or is likely to cause any physical, psychological or physiological harm or apprehension or shame or embarrassment to a student, and includes–

(a) teasing or abusing of playing practical joke on, or causing hurt to any student. or (b) asking any student to do any act, or perform any thing, which he/she would not, in the ordinary course, be willing to do or perform.” ^[1]

In present day India, ragging involves gross violations of human rights. The seniors commonly torture the innocent juniors and by this those seniors get some kind of sadistic pleasures.

Truly speaking the nature of ragging in most of the hostels in India, may be as severe as what we know about the infamous Abu Ghraib prison of Iraq.

The torture on innocent students often run for months, and involve same batch of students being physically and sexually abused by same and/or different group of seniors (including those from the opposite sex) over and over again. Most of the institutions usually turn a blind eye and rather tries to hush up in fear of loss of reputation.

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 Indian Supreme Court 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.

Ragging is different from other crimes because the motive is solely to get perverse pleasure.^[who?] Ragging is also different from other crimes as it is actively promoted by certain sections of the society.^{[weasel words]}

The following criminal activities can be categorised under ragging (especially if they take place inside a school or college):

unlawful coercion
criminal intimidation
assault
battery
sexual abuse
rape
murder

Ragging is different from "hazing" in that it is forced on the victim, whereas "hazing" is done with the consent of a person.^{[citation needed]}

The phenomenon was particularly prevalent in army and police forces, in which new recruits are required to undergo a degree of physical abuse. This practice is to a large degree actively promoted by many military groups.^{[citation needed]}

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 construed by the Union Human Resource Development ministry on the orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, the medical colleges are the worst affected in India.

However, India's first and only registered 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.

1 Legal and sociological aspects
2 Other uses of the word
3 Human rights and ragging
4 Deaths
- 4.1 homicides
- 4.2 suicides
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Legal and sociological aspects

Ragging has a long history, and has been highlighted in literature (e.g., in Britain, Tom Brown's Schooldays, or Boy by Roald Dahl, and in India, Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone). In recent years, it has been the focus of a number of legal actions. For example, the Supreme Court of India defined it in a 2001 judgement^[2] as:

Any disorderly conduct whether by words spoken or written or by an act which the effect of teasing, treating or handling with rudeness any other student, Indulging in rowdy or indisciplined activities which causes or Is likely to cause annoyance, hardship or psychological harm or to raise fear or apprehension thereof in a fresher or a junior student or asking the students to do any act or perform something which such student will not do in the ordinary course and which has the effect of causing or generating a sense of shame or embarrassment so as to adversely affect the physique or psyche of a fresher or a junior student.

Ragging can be thought of in terms verbal, physical and sexual aggression. A single act may be a combination of more than one of these.

A report from 2007 by the Indian anti-ragging group Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education analyzed 64 ragging complaints, and found that over 60% of these were related to physical ragging, and 20% were sexual in nature.

While SAVE has noted 7 reported ragging deaths in the year 2007 alone and 31 reported deaths in the period 2000-2007. :^[3]

Ragging is conducted during a fixed period in most institutions, which may range from one day to the whole year. Once this period is over, 'seniors' suddenly become "friends": the beginning of this new relationship is often a "fresher's party", where in some traditions, the freshers may rag their seniors. Seniors then go out of their way to help the freshers they "ragged," almost becoming their guardians. This generalisation may not always be true. In any event, innumerable freshers under severe stress may then leave the system , or may be suffering from serious psychological trauma, which may continue to take its toll through post-traumatic stress disorders. Occasionally, there may be physical injury, and some may even commit suicide.

It has been observed that often, after the ragging season, the friendship between juniors & seniors is only apparent, possibly due to the fact the junior still remains dependent on the seniors in many respects.

[edit] Other uses of the word

Uses of the word ragging by "chavs" in British society may refer to a bout of unrestrained violence, a term associated with the trend of happy slapping. Another meaning, popularized by "chavs" and often mocked by the middle classes, is a connotation for rough sexual intercourse. In this context, however, it is considered to be highly taboo.

[edit] Human rights and ragging

Ragging in India's educational system is widespread, yet ragging is far from being recognized as an issue under human rights by Indian government and Human Rights fraternity. This article attempts to establish "ragging" as an issue of "Human rights in Education" with the help of authoritative reports from the United Nations, and calls upon human rights fraternities to address the issue of ragging from a human rights perspective.

Ragging, a colonial legacy, is widespread in India's education. Various State Legislatures in India have been passing anti-ragging legislations, yet the issue is far from being resolved. Indian legal fraternity has yet to approach the problem of ragging from a perspective other than that of "crime." In the absence of any serious research to that effect, ragging is hardly recognized as an issue under human rights; human rights fraternities in India do not seem to bother about "ragging."

Ragging, though widely believed to be a major factor for campus violence and suicides in educational institutions in India, has yet to be recognized as traditional and systematic human rights abuse in education, and such human right violations in education have not been given the proper attention in India that they deserve. However, within the United Nations, ragging has been considered as an issue of human rights in education.

Katarina Tomaševski, the Special Rapporteur with Commission on Human Rights, Economic and Social Council, United Nations, in her Annual Report in 2001, advocates a 4-A scheme, whereby governmental human rights obligations to make education available, accessible, acceptable, and adaptable have been recognized. The Commission on Human Rights had asked the Special Rapporteur to focus on overcoming obstacles and difficulties in the realization of the right to worldwide education and, in keeping this direction in view, the Special Rapportuer made specific mention of "Ragging” in Chapter V, “STREAMLINING THE HUMAN RIGHTS FRAMEWORK FOR EDUCATION.”

"75… The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka decided in April 1998 on the constitutionality of a law that aimed to outlaw and suppress inter alia, verbal abuse (recognized as ragging, bullying, or harassment) within educational institutions. The victimization of students, especially newcomers, through verbal abuse should be outlawed, the Court affirmed, adding that "ragging has far too long been cruel, inhuman and degrading. Our society has been unable to deal with the root causes of ragging, and the anxieties, fears and frustrations of youth on which ragging has fed and flourished."

Appreciating domestic courts' increasing recognition of human rights in education, the Special Rapportuer expressed her satisfaction about the entry of human rights in education law. The report's recommendation section says:

“81. the international and domestic human rights law protecting the right to education and guaranteeing human rights in education should be used as a corrective for all education strategies.“The Special Rapporteur recommends to all international actors involved in promoting education to review their approach using human rights as the yardstick.”

Making a particular reference to India, the report says:

“24…While fully aware of the allocations of responsibility within education between central and State governments, the special rapportuer emphasized the responsibility of the State in ensuring the full implementation of international human rights law binding upon it...”

This mean that State needs to take up the task of making education acceptable to all and elimination of ragging should be construed to be a necessary step in this direction.

The Special Rapportuer's report calls for:

Mainstreaming of human rights in educational strategies
The full mobilization of the existing human rights standards for education in order to enable the human rights community to provide a timely contribution to developments which were, until recently, deemed to lie beyond the reach of human rights safeguards.

[edit] Deaths

It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article. (Discuss)

[edit] homicides

Y. Manohar ,a student of Sarada college,Vijaywada,India was convicted on 4th August 2005 of having killed his classmate R. Srilakshmi in the college classroom in broad daylight on June 21, 2004.:^[4].

[edit] suicides

Amit Sahai was a student of NIT Jalandhar, Punjab and he committed suicide on October 11, 2005 by jumping in front of a speeding train. He blamed nine senior students of NIT Jalandhar in his suicide note for having had mercilessly ragged him:^[5].
Durgesh Shukla hanged himself from a ceiling fan on September 18, 2007. He blamed seniors in his suicide note ^[6].
Manjot Singh, an MBBS student, committed suicide by consuming a poisonous substance on August 8, 2007 ^[7].
18 year-old Chetan Raj committed suicide on September 20, 2007. His body was found hanging from the roof of his lodge room. He had already complained to his parents that he was being ragged in his college ^[8].
A first year engineering student, C Abraham, hanged himself to death on December 14, 2005 at his residence in Hyderabad. In his suicide note, he mentioned that he was not interested in studies. His parents suspect that his suicide to be a result of ragging ^[9].
A 19-year-old first year engineering student, Anup Kapoor, committed suicide on September 19, 2002 by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his residence in Kanpur. In his suicide note, Anup said that he was going through mental agony due to the sexual harassment by second-year students of the institute (Institute of Engineering and Technology, Lucknow) in the name of ragging ^[10].
Azad Nair was a 22 year old cadet at the Officer's Training Academy(OTA) in Chennai.He had hanged himself from the fan of his room on 5th November, 2006. Prior to his suicide he had told his brother Soumendu over telephone that he was being ragged and humiliated at the OTA and he had pleaded to his father Padmanabhan Nair to rescue him from the OTA.