Is it Ragging or Stockholm Syndrome in our Campuses?

-Harsh Agarwal

Ragging is debated and discussed for ages now but we always stopped short of understanding the hidden psychological mysteries behind it. It has been more than a decade and a half since we started to recognize this problem and hunt for a solution but we are still far way from our goal. At the outset the problem looks very simple but as one enters into it and tries to understand, it becomes more complicated than unfolding the Bermuda triangle mystery.

In our attempt to look for an early solution we perhaps focused too much on the law and order aspect of ragging and ignored to probe on the psychological front. We didn’t bother to unravel the mystery that how a victim who is tormented badly makes his abuser his best pal in a short span of time and starts to follow the same strategy on his junior. May be exploring answer to these questions and awareness of these answers could have led to a better understanding of this problem and have sorted it by now.


In August 1973, two bank robbers in Stockholm held 3 women and one man hostage for a period of 6 days. In those six days the hostages developed emotional bonds with their captors and exhibited shocking attitude. They not only resisted the attempt made by the police to rescue them but one of the woman hostages later got engaged to one of the kidnappers and another arranged fund for the legal defense of the kidnappers. This incident baffled many across the world. Psychologists later tried to study the behavior shown by the Stockholm hostages and termed this phenomenon as 'Stockholm Syndrome'. They say that this is a common behavior seen in hostage situation. Psychologists believe that hazing, child abuse, pimp-prostitute relationship, battered spouses’ relationship, etc work on the same psychology and call them 'Societal Stockholm Syndrome'.

In evolutionary psychology, psychologists explain that capture-bonding, or social reorientation after capture, was an essential survival feature for millions of years. The captives who reoriented survived, and those who did not form social bonds with captors were killed. Psychologists believe that anyone can get Stockholm Syndrome if the following conditions are met: (i) Perceived threat to survival (ii) The captive's perception of small kindnesses from the captor (iii) Isolation from perspectives other than those of the captor (iv) Perceived inability to escape. Psychologists believe that it takes about three or four days for this psychology to take hold of the victim mentally. A more in depth information about the psychology that works in such situations and the effect it has on one's personality can be found in the book 'Psychology of torture' by Dr. Sam Vaknin


Now, when I look back to my ragging days in Medical College, I can easily understand why my seniors, each time during ragging, used to first beat me recklessly for hours without any provocation then show act of kindness towards me and offer me tea, samosa, etc. and promise me of helping me later with notes. Perhaps they were applying this same psychological technique of torture by playing the good guy and bad guy at the same time, trying to break me psychologically- an art they learnt from their seniors. Same pattern in ragging can be seen across the country. Most of the victims just give in to this strong psychological tactics. Fortunately this phenomenon did not work on me; however, I feel that if little less torture had been applied, I would have easily become a victim of it.


Recently I saw a similar situation in an award winning Polish film ‘Your name is Justyna’. This film almost brought tears to my eyes and on several occasions even forced me to change the channel. The film shows a pimp who uses similar strategy to convince Justyna, the lead character in that film, into prostitution. His strategy was to psychologically break her down by simultaneously using torture and kindness. The director of this Film, Franco De Penn, while doing research on this subject found that using this psychological phenomenon, more than one hundred and fifty thousand girls in Europe were taken into prostitution. He says that this experience is so shocking that it takes away individual's whole personality. Psychologists who have worked on this phenomenon believe that this is not only harmful to the individual who goes through it but also to others around him/her.

This psychology is so long lasting that we can find people around us who went through ragging decades ago but are still under the influence of this psychology. Though because of the Supreme Court guidelines and tragic cases of ragging reported in recent times they will hesitate to openly show their support. However on talking to them, they would first segregate ragging into mild and severe and then gradually start justifying its need for the initiation of a long lasting camaraderie among students and its need to prepare the students for the 'real world'. Psychologists agree that this phenomenon helps in establishing emotional bond but they call it 'traumatic bonding' and a manipulative behavior which has harmful effect on victim’s personality. We need to ask ourselves that for the sake of bonding, is it justified to go this far and try destructive methods at the cost of one's liberty, dignity and personality. I am sure none of us would agree.


People are so blind folded by the virtues of ragging that they are not aware of the destructive psychology behind it. Furthering our understanding and awareness of this psychology could help in weakening the mass support that ragging enjoys and can gradually put a psychological taboo on it. I believe that asking the students and faculty to do some Google search on such psychological phenomenon might prove more useful than various methods of awareness that we are currently following. After knowing that ragging is a psychological disorder, many would just hate to be identified with it, many would be forced to rethink about the virtues of ragging they believe in, many would be forced to rethink the justifications they give to support ragging and this might eventually lead to peaceful and natural death of ragging by the simple method of thinking and application of logic.

[IndiaEduNews] Ragging - The first social encounter at college

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July 14, 2008

New Delhi: Come mid July and all the universities and colleges across the country will be agog with excitement. With the commencement of the new academic session, students look forward to serious academics, besides receiving the freshers in their midst.

That is where the phenomenon called ragging comes into the picture.

The Central Government may have banned ragging, in all forms, in all educational institutions; freshers however, take ragging as a means of interaction with their seniors and vice-versa.

The word ragging, according to the Oxford Dictionary, means fund raising programme of stunts, parades, and entertainment organized by students. That is how it is done in most of the western universities, from which, incidentally, we Indians have borrowed and adapted what is known as college ragging.

Ragging has become an annual 'tradition' in which the victims are solely the freshers.

This ritual is more of 'tradition' and gets its strength from the fact that those ragged in the first year see to it that they have their revenge next year when they are in the 'driver's seat'.

Ragging gains its justification from the fact that it 'breaks the ice' between the seniors and the freshers. It is basically envisaged to be some kind of 'interaction', they say. But interaction is a two-sided affair where both the sides put forth something about each other.

Contrary to this, here the only one who tells anything about himself/herself is the fresher, that too in a way, which his senior will like.

It is also considered a grow-up tonic by the raggers, which is a must for the freshers as they stand on the threshold of a new world.

Many individuals generally confuse ragging with bullying. It must be made absolutely clear that ragging is not bullying. The differences are subtle but well defined. Ragging has a large number of people involved in it and is quite prevalent, though it is not so with bullying.

Tips for freshers:

- Do not dress snazzily, it will catch attention.

- Keep a low profile.

- Move about in groups. If the seniors catch a few of you together, you will not be too nervous.

- If things go out of bounds, report to the authorities. Remember law prohibits ragging.


Tips for the seniors:

- Originally ragging was meant to be form of social interaction, light hearted way to meet the freshers and to get acquainted with them. Make an effort to adhere to this ideology.

- The freshers are by and large a timid lot. You ought to try and make them comfortable instead of enhancing their fears and apprehensions.

- Light banter, jokes, teasing, innocent but foolish acts etc are fair enough but avoid physical violence at any level (in any degree) whatsoever.

- Similarly do not force the youngsters to do things that have clear cut sexual overtones. Enjoyment is a must but it must be utterly devoid of vulgarity.

- Treat the youngsters with kindness car and sympathy, so that they are encouraged to look up to you, instead of hating you or avoiding you throughout the academic session.

Remember!! The Central Government has said, "We intend to abolish the practice of ragging and/or harassment from all Colleges and Institutions, in an effort to clean up the social stigma that it causes. In no other country's education institutions ragging takes place except in India. We intend to introduce stricter laws against ragging. Our objective is to make the campus areas free from any social injustice, mental, physical and/or sexual harassment that thousands of students face each year during their first few months in college. The enactment of the 'Prevention of Ragging in Colleges and Institutions Bill, 2005' would see the decline and finally abolition of ragging on campus areas."

A happy College Life to all students!!!

[EducationWorld] Delhi: Tightening screws

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Even as a new academic year has begun and bright-eyed students are streaming into college campuses across the country, the R.K. Raghavan Committee, appointed in December 2006 by the Union HRD ministry, (following a Supreme Court directive) to suggest and monitor measures to eliminate intimidation, molestation, assaults etc aka ‘ragging’ in college campuses, has severely criticised college managements for lack of seriousness in curbing the ragging menace. At the third review meeting of the committee held on June 11, Raghavan, a former CBI director, made his displeasure clear with the “post-office like attitude” of higher education regulatory organisations such as UGC, AICTE and Medical Council of India.

“These regulatory bodies have become too close to educational organisations and believe in tokenism. But I have told them in no uncertain terms to punish institutional manage-ments not following our anti-ragging guidelines endorsed by the Supreme Court on May 16, 2007,” he says. Raghavan’s annoyance with apex level regulatory organisations is shared by the Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURE), which together with Society Against Violence in Education (SAVE), was instrumental in helping the Raghavan committee formulate its anti-ragging code circulated to colleges and universities before the beginning of the academic session last year.

It’s routine for UGC and other regulatory bodies to issue stern instructions to college managements at the start of every academic session. But thus far no college has been penalised for ignoring these instructions. Due to inaction of past decades, these warnings are seldom taken seriously by college authorities and senior students, and ragging continues unabated. Last year despite the strong anti-ragging recommendations made by the Raghavan Committee and endorsed by the Supreme Court, more than 70 cases of ragging were reported in a span of five months in the English media. The number of unreported cases and those reported in the vernacular media are many times more,” says Harsh Agarwal, who co-founded CURE along with Rajiv Ram in 2001.

In the June 11 meeting attended by representatives of UGC, AICTE, Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India, Nursing Council of India, UGC informed the committee that a separate cell has been constituted within the commission to investigate ragging-related complaints from colleges and universities. Moreover a visiting committee has been constituted by UGC to sensitise institutions about the scourge of ragging. The visiting committee will have powers to recommend dilution of grants under various UGC schemes for colleges and universities not complying with the anti-ragging measures stipulated by the Raghavan Committee.

“We will publicise the measures against ragging in our campus as per the committee directives and are ready to implement them,” says Dr. A.K. Agarwal, dean Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi.

According to Harsh Agarwal of CURE the HRD ministry and regulatory bodies must list the measures they have taken in the past year to enforce the recommendations of the Raghavan Committee. “They must detail cases where they have punished raggers. Even to this day, ragging victims have no idea about the complaint registering authority. Last year CURE sent a proposal to the HRD ministry to launch an anti-ragging campaign but didn’t receive any response. Ditto when we proposed to declare October 11 as ‘No Ragging Day’. It is really unfortunate that despite our offer to help them on this issue, regulatory bodies are not willing to involve us. CURE will be closely monitoring the progress and hopes that this year the HRD ministry and other regulatory bodies will be serious about strictly punishing institutions that tolerate this humiliating ritual,” says Agarwal.

CURE is all set to mount a nationwide awareness campaign against ragging and is hopeful the HRD ministry will support it. Meanwhile freshers subjected to harassment are advised to contact CURE or SAVE for support. “Ragging is a criminal offence punishable under the Indian Penal Code, 1860. And under the Raghavan Committee’s guidelines it is incumbent on institutions to file FIRs related to ragging incidents and support the victim. So, don’t fear when you step into college life,” advises Agarwal.

Autar Nehru (Delhi)

[IBNLive] What can we do?

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Saturday , June 14, 2008

Whenever I hear of corruption at different hierarchical settings of the civilized world a strange uneasiness grips me.

Is it just the fault of a single person who is doing it or is it a social process set in motion by certain conditions. Is it inevitable or are we too busy to consider otherwise?

While pursuing the thought on this social dilemma I came across an interesting piece of article in CNN-IBN which described how in certain parts of Karnataka.

Which had plummeted below poverty line and were helpless are being revived with the powerful administration of the state government and through implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme which was perhaps the worst economic fiasco of UPA government in most parts of India.

So is the corruption really inevitable? I already see an exception to the argument.

It also nullifies any blind assumption of "political turmoils giving bureaucracy the power to do anything" as Karnataka has seen the worst of political scenarios among the Southern states in the recent times.

Although many may disagree with the subsequent argument but I feel it is more of our present social process of growth that molds the individual and its behavior to great lengths.

Take for example the start of all intimidation processes, the bullying at school or in the neighborhood.

How many children really put up a brave front in light of such events. They generally keep quiet, submit to the enforcer's wishes and try to pass by.

In some rare incident when they manage to tell the parents, the best you can do is talk to the parents of the bully and get him a light scolding or a "you are grounded for so and so days" kind of rhetoric.

Most parents don't even want to indulge in these child squabbles and spoil their time and reputation. The bully whenever he manages to get off from the last punishment decides to extract vengeance and acts on his minatory calls made earlier resulting in further demoralization of the victim and strengthening of the bully's might for he has now achieved the noble power of "consequences".

This is the most rudimentary form of naked dominance and strictly divides the society into two parts, the submissive ones and the enforcers.

The damn parents never try to solve the problem by encouraging the victim to stand up against its oppressor with double the courage with which he fell last time and neither make the bully realize that society responds to friendship and virtues in a far greater measure than petty acts of domination.

Courage need not be violence and non - violence need not be cowardice if used in the right way.

To stand against sure defeat and then rise from its own ashes as a phoenix and stand back even taller is courage.

Maharana Pratap was not courageous just because he was a good warrior rather he was courageous because he never bowed down before Akbar even though he had to lose his beloved daughter due to the harsh times.

The story just doesn't end here, it is rather the epilogue for what goes on in schools and then in colleges.

Who hasn't heard of the nefarious term "ragging" in his college life. Almost everyone out there has in some or other form always experienced it.

Even though I find multiple government and Supreme Court directives banning and condemning it but there seems no end to this heinous act.

Leave everything aside and take the case of top educational institutions like IITs.

Did people who belong to the top 1 per cent of academic minds of the nation give up ragging? Well according to official statements we despise ragging but on the inside authority turns a blind eye or is lazy enough to crackdown on it seriously.

It is all a big joke to them a casual affair and nobody seems to do anything to stop it. Although I admire the fact that in IIT Kanpur there is a very gentle standard of interaction with juniors compared to other colleges where physical violence and intimidation is the order of the day but it is still far from over and what does it really result in?

A broken individual who has been taught to submit to the wishes of the oppressor and if he can't do so he is either ostracized or brutally ridiculed and given public humiliation as a demotivation for further followers.

The word "consequences" again leaves a deep impact here. Can we as seniors never understand the concept of love and friendship rather than abuse an opportunity where we have the chance to shape the best of lives.

Does inflicting pain and being a sadist seem so irresistible that we forget the joy which we get in forgiveness and virtue. We say that we will treat the juniors in the same way as we had been treated because we also went through that same phase.

What are we and what are we creating? Puppets who will submit whenever somebody gets him in a tight spot.

Trust me people we are the fore bearers of our own destruction.

We are creating a blind army of submissive slaves as we were made by our seniors. And what do slaves do, they follow their masters.

Today you are the one but tomorrow when somebody else controls them it can be very well be used against you. These same bondages of consequences make people forget their humanity and turn a blind eye on crime when they are police officers.

These same people with no original thoughts later become politicians who just know how to work for their benefit. The only ideal they have learnt is being intimidated and in turn intimidating others for sheer personal benefit.

Use abuse and throw seems to be the flavor of our times and then these same puppets jabber around in dingy overcrowded Local train compartments or in the luxury of their air conditioned offices that " It's all society which is guilty you know.

We are ordinary people what can we do?" Well for starters go and get back your humanity which you lost a long time ago.

[DailyNews] The law and the universities

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Punyaratne Edirisinghe

Universities are the institutions that teach and examine students in many branches of advanced learning, awarding degrees and providing facilities for academic research. In short, Universities shall be the learning centres maintaining highest intellectual and academic environment.

Initially, some acts and Ordinances were enacted to be established the Universities and related institutions to achieve these objectives. Unfortunately, the gradual decrease in discipline and the perpetual increase in some other developments compelled the successive governments, University Grant Commission and governing authorities of respective Universities to introduced stringent laws, severe rules and strict by-laws. Universities are not the places that have immunity from law suit or from the country's common law.

The community of Universities does not have the privilege of a President under Article 35 of the so called JR's Constitution. If not, the University community is ignorant unconscious of the regular law of the land that predominates and excludes the arbitrary excise of power by indiscipline groups.

Mmaxim

There is a legal maxim that the ignorance of the law does not excuse (ignorantia juris neminem execusat) when the mistake is pleaded as a defense , the mistake must be one of fact, not of law. This was simply stated in the English judgment of the case R v Bailey (1800).

"Every man must be taken to be cognisant of the law; otherwise there is no knowing of the extent to which the excuse of ignorance might be carried. It would be urged in almost every case."

And also Blackstone, an eminent jurist observed that "Every man of England, in judgment of law, party to the making of an Act of Parliament, being present thereat by his representatives."

These facts are quite applicable in Sri Lanka's context as well. By reason of the ignorance of these facts, some University students recently protested against the Anti-ragging act and demanded its withdrawal.

It was an Act that was passed in parliament without any objection. There are some provisions in the Constitution of Sri Lanka to get involved in the law- making process for the public. In terms of the Article 78(1) of the Constitution every bill shall be published in the Gazette at least seven days before it is placed on the order paper of Parliament.

Within the one week of the bill being placed in Parliament, it is open to any member of the Public to challenge any bill in the Supreme Court by way of a Written Petition. No proceedings can be continued in relation to such bill in the Parliament until it is determined by the Supreme Court.

Effective

Hence it is advisable to get familiarised with laws that are effective in respect of Universities and what laws made established the University system in Sri Lanka.

The establishment of the University of Ceylon, the first ever University in Sri Lanka is really a creation rather than an historical evaluation.

Until the third decade of the past century, the younger generation of the elite community were enrolled for the Universities and the higher educational institutions of the Western countries and obtained their higher degrees in varies fields including law.

Such productions and the English speaking elites played a dominant role in the independent struggle and some of them were involved in the process of the establishment of the University of Ceylon.

And also the governor-generals, higher officials and the distinguished academics of the colonial government, as they did in the field of Public Administration and bureaucratic system, wanted to set up Cambridge, Oxford-type Universities in the inland. And they honestly and frankly did it by introducing two important ordinances.

These two Ordinances were proclaimed in the colonial period to achieve their targets, namely the Ordinance no. 20 of 1942 and ordinance no.26 of 1943.

Even though they are British-oriented laws, it contained some rational and extraordinary provisions which are worth being continued forever within the context of University. Therefore the subsequent law makers were not hesitant to lay down these provisions as those were in original Ordinances.

The section 4 of the Ordinance no. 20 of 1942 states as follows. "The University constituted by this Ordinance shall have its seat in or near Kandy .....''. Later the operation of section 4 was suspended by the Gazette no. 8945 of 12th June 1943.

The suspension of the said section indicates that the location of the University had been concluded and that it was none other than that of Peradeniya. There is no doubt that the honour in selecting such a seat should go to late Sir Ivor Jennings.

Secondly the section 6(a) to (o) had mentioned the powers of the University. All these sub section were fully introduced by the makers of the act no 16 of 1978.

Profession

The most important Section of the said Act no. 20 of 1942 is the section 7 which states as follows; "The University shall be open to all persons of either sex and of whatever race, creed or class and no test of religious belief or profession shall be adopted or imposed in order to entitle any person to be admitted as a teacher or student of the University, or to hold any appointment therein (other than that of Warden of a Hall of Residence), or to graduate thereat or to hold, enjoy or exercise any advantage or privilege thereof: " This section might have been introduced by foreseeing tragic events such as ragging and sexual harassments which are defined in Anti-ragging act No. 20 of 1998.

The two Ordinances (20 of 1942 and 26 of 1943) had not mentioned more about the student's discipline. Section 6 (m) of the Ordinance states as follows; The University of Ceylon has the power "to regulate and provide for the residence, discipline, and moral, mental, physical well-being of officers, teachers, and students of the University.''

The said section is the only provision that mentioned in the ordinances about the discipline and more emphasis had not been given for the discipline or moral conduct of the students. Meanwhile in the present context, more emphasis has to be given for the laws on discipline by reason of several reasons.

This has been clearly stated by Higher Education Minister Prof. Wiswa Warnapala, in his article published in the Daily News on 18th August 2007, as follows; "The elitist orientation of the early period has disappeared in; in other words, student belonging to the Urban middle class or the affluent sections of the Sri Lankan society, have declined and the dominant position of the public schools has also decline.''

One of the significant features of the Act no 16 of 1978 is the establishment of the University Grants Commission. And one of the objects of the University Grants Commission, as stated in section 3(iv) of the Universities Act, No.16 of 1978, is "the regulation of the administration of Higher Educational Institutions."

During the past thirty years, the Commission has sought to do this through a number of circulars embodying the decisions of the UGC taken from time to time. There has been no single publication where these decisions have been codified.

Taking into account such decisions (NOT ALL) and the establishments code of the government of Sri Lanka issued by the department of Public Administration, the University Grant Commission some years ago, prepared an Establishments Code only as a guide. The contents thereof must necessarily be changed or refined from time to time as conditions and situations get changed.

Power

By virtue of the power conferred under the section 135 of the said Act No. 16 of 1978, the respective Universities can make by laws as it is a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal.

Accordingly by laws can be made, subject to the provisions of the act, by the councils, the governing authority, in respect of the matters mentioned in the section 135 (!) . The by-laws shall not be made beyond the power granted by the original enactment. If the by-laws exceed the power granted by the original enactment, such by-laws would be ultra vires.

According to the ultra vires principle the action taken under such by-laws, can be challenged in a competent court. For example, the Section 29 of the Act No. 16 of 1978 states the powers of a University. If the respective University exceeds the powers beyond those conferred on it explicitly or implicitly the ultra vires principle applies.

The principal enactment, the Act no 16 of 1978 has been amended by the Act No. 7 of 1985. In terms of the section 76 of the said amendment "University" means. a) The University of Ceylon established under the Ceylon University Ordinance; b)Any university established under the Higher Education Act, No.20 of 1996; c)Any University established under the university of Ceylon Act, No.1 of 1996; and d)Any Higher Educational Institution established under the Universities act, No.16 of 1978.

The above meaning of the University has been expanded by the Anti-ragging Act. In addition to the said amendment, the Original enactment has been amended by the Act No. 24 0f 1988, Act No. 26 0f 1988, Act no 33 of 1988, Act No. 3 of 1989 and Act No. 01 of 1995.

The amendment made by the Act No. 26 0f 1988 is more important with regard to the students Unions. The said amendment repealed the section 117 0f the principal enactment and new schedule was introduced under section 8. The said section has laid down the duties and functions of the university students Union.

Some of them are; To foster the spirit of corporate life among students of the university; To organise and supervise in consultation with the governing authority student welfare activity in the university, recreational facilities , spiritual and religious activities, the counselling of student and the supply of meals and refreshment; To afford a recognised means of communication with the authorities of such higher educational institution on matters relating to or connected with living and working conditions of the students; To be represented on any other body which may, in accordance with the rules made by the governing authority for the purpose, be appointed to undertake student welfare activities in the university; To assist the university authorities to maintain discipline; To foster an interest and understanding in the arts and life and social well-being of the citizens of the country; To foster activity conductive to the social and moral well-being of the student community and promote activity conductive to healthy social life.

The perusal of the aforesaid duties and functions of the University students Union indicates the nature of the immense responsibilities that have been conferred on the Unions of the respective Universities by the said amendment.

This has become a part of the substantive law of the country after being gazetted on 15th February 1985. The present events happening in some Universities may be pointed out as the evidential facts for the unconsciousness of the laws mentioned above.

Argue

Some argue that the main factor for the rumpuses in the Universities is the rapid expansion in the admission. According to the said article of the Hon. Minister of Higher Education, there were only 904 students in 1942 and whereby the annual intake in 2007 was in the region of 18,000 students.

Those who don't agree with the said view argue that the main causes are the politics-related ragging. Anyhow, by reason of the various factors the Universities had transformed into the killing field in the recent past. Considering the gravity of the situation that arose after the Varaprakash (the fresher student who was killed by ragging at Peradeniya University) the Parliament of Sri Lanka, the supreme legislature in the country unanimously passed the PROHIBITION OF RAGGING AND OTHER FORM OF VIOLENCE IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS ACT NO. 20 OF 1998.

The said statute can be defined as the most stringent law that ever imposed upon, not only the Universities but also all educational institutions that are mentioned in the section 17 of the Act No 20 of 1998.

In terms of the said section 17 of the said act the "educational institution means, a higher educational institution, any other institution recognised under Chapter iv of the above-mentioned Universities Act No. 16 of 1978, the Buddha Sravaka Bhikku University, a technical college, a vocational training centre, a pirivena , Sri Lanka Law College, the NIE, a college of education, a government school or an unaided school within the meaning of the education Ordinance.

Sections 2(1) , 2(2) , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 respectively cite ragging, sexual harassment and grievous hurt , Criminal intimidation , Hostage taking , Wrongful restraint , Unlawful confinement as offences and define the punishments for such offences.

Section 9 of the said Act restricts the granting of bail to High Court for person suspected or accused of committing offences under this Act.

Section 10 suspends the operation of sections 303 and 306 in the Code of Criminal procedure Act no. 15 of 1979.

Section 14 of the said Act recollects the memory of the University community that the provisions of this Act shall be in addition to the provisions of the penal code and Convention against torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Act No. 22 of 1994.

Perfect

The penal code can be defined as a perfect masterpiece of substantive law of the country, Act no 22 of 1994 is the law which was certified by the parliament on 20th December 1994 after being ratified the convention which was signed in New York on 10th December 1984

Priyangani Navaratne and others V Chandrasena (1998) The above case was decided before the enactment of Anti-ragging Act no 20 of 1998. In this case the petitioners (16 in numbers) were teachers, training in the Nilwala Teacher training School. Their internship was suspended in the case of males for two months and in the case females for one month having engaged in ragging junior teachers.

After the first punishment was meted out the Secretary to the Ministry of Education amended the disciplinary powers. This gave the principal the power to impose a further punishment. Therefore, he extended the period of suspension to one year for females and expulsion in the case of men.

Although the Supreme Court held that there was a violation of a fundamental right, the Court declined to award them any relief as according to the Court, the petitioners' act amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

Considering the above-cited provisions in the Act No. 20 of 1998 law courts of the land have no complications in dealing with the unlawful incidents within the Universities. Some provisions in the Constitution of Sri Lanka is fully applicable for the University system as those can be made applicable for the whole country.

Accordingly the members of the University community have sought redress and relief through fundamental applications under articles 17,126, 12(1) and 14(g) in the, for the violation of their fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution. Most of the application to the SC and Appeal Court indicate the administrative anomalies based on the ultra vires principle.

Offences

And also the whole substantive law and procedural law provisions are quite applicable for the Universities and for the above mentioned educational institutions. For examples: the provisions in the Commission to investigate allegations of bribery or corruption Act No. 19 of 1994, Offences against Public Property act No.!2 of! 982 and Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law No. 1 of 1975.

Considering the facts mentioned above, the Universities, unlike in the past, have become the entities that are controlled and gripped by the laws and not by the intellectual or academic based principles. The rationality in the environments of the Universities has disappeared.

This is not the situation which is confined to Universities but in the legal fields as well. That was why Hon. Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva used to say once at a gathering of Judges of the Supreme Court and Appeal Courts president's counsels, lawyers and law students that the process needed to be reversed.

His Lordship Chief Justice's reference to reversing the process was in fact an emphasis on the need to have English to be brightened in the field of law. The very same meaning signifies from the reference made by Hon. Minister of Higher Education in the said article.

"The challenge before the government is to convert them into centres of learning. In other words, the culture of learning, for which the Universities were known in the Fifties and Sixties, needs to be restored if the University system is to survive..." As the origin of the system of universities and the system of the judiciary are closely related to the English speaking world, the Hon, Chief Justice and the Hon. Minister are quite correct to speak of reversing and restoring the process.

(The writer is an Attorney at Law of the Supreme Court University of Peradeniya).

[Time] Is Hazing Worse in India?

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Anxiety is a typical emotion for teenagers around the world upon leaving home to take up residence in a college dormitory. They face the daunting challenges of fitting in and making new friends amid unruly roommates and without the comfort of home cooking. But for thousands of Indian students, the anxiety is driven by an even greater menace: the prospect of constant verbal and physical abuse by senior students as part of a hazing tradition called "ragging," which critics say is systemic and far worse than in the United States.

Although the government does not keep exact figures, the Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education, a non-profit lobby group, found 52 hazing incidents reported in India's English-language media between June and September of 2007. The group claims that six suicides and three attempted suicides in the same period can be blamed on harassment, which they say is widespread at engineering and medical colleges — mostly, although not exclusively, among male students. Anti-ragging activist Shivam Vij, who launched the website stopragging.org in 2005, claims that nine out of ten students in India are subject to ragging, but that most cases go unreported.

An engineering student in the northern city of Agra broke his legs in October after seniors allegedly pushed him off a college building during a ragging session. In a suicide note, another student at an engineering college in the northern city of Jalandhar described the constant harassment as humiliating and blamed it for his decision to throw himself in front of a speeding train two years ago. "If education... is to serve as the lever to the great surge forward of the Indian nation, the scourge of ragging which corrodes the vitals of our campuses needs to be curbed," an Indian Supreme Court committee concluded in a recent report. Ragging, it said, is "a form of psychopathic behavior and a reflection of deviant personalities."

The ragging problem is a legacy of the British, who imported the practice to India from elite public schools back home. But while experts say extreme forms of hazing have all but disappeared in Britain, they continue in India and other Asian countries. Like mild hazing in the United States, ragging in its more innocent forms — students forced to address seniors as "sir," answering their questions and doing their menial chores — is defended as a way to create camaraderie and build character. In an essay about his experience at the prestigious St. Stephen's College in Delhi, writer Amitav Ghosh describes two ragging experiences that led to lifelong friendships, saying the relationships later helped launch his writing career.

But critics say Ghosh's sympathetic portrayal of ragging reflects a misguided sentimental view too common in India. "Ragging is sold as part of the tradition of the college," says Vij, who refuses to distinguish mild ragging from harsher abuse. "The idea of ragging — that freshmen have to be made to feel lower — is wrong. And once seniors know they can control students, once they taste that power, mild ragging often turns into something harsher."

That was the experience of Rohit Kaliyar, 24, who was at an engineering college in the northern state of Uttaranchal five years ago. Like other freshmen, Kaliyar was told he could not look seniors directly in the eye but had to stare down at the third button on his shirt. Seniors cursed him, slapped him and struck him with a metal ruler. They also entered the hostel around midnight one day and forced his friends to strip and rub Vaseline on each others' bodies, he said. "It was all for their sadistic fun." But freshmen were reluctant to retaliate, he said, reasoning they needed to befriend seniors for books and jobs. A faculty member was also unsympathetic, telling Kaliyar his ragging experience was not that bad.

Kaliyar, who is broadly built and over six feet tall, fought back, but soon left college fearing retribution. Although his father supported his decision to leave, Kaliyar says others were less supportive. "They said, 'You took it to heart. This is something that always happens. You should not have reacted that much,'" Kaliyar explains. "I was filled with rage and anger toward everyone because it was the rare person who said, 'You did the right thing.'"

The government has tried to clamp down on ragging, but so far its efforts have proven ineffective. Many states have enacted anti-ragging laws, and in 2001 the Indian Supreme Court advised colleges to implement measures such as advising students about the punishment for ragging, and informing freshmen of their rights. But the most recent report commissioned by the Supreme Court notes that ragging has not declined, and found that school officials do not report even extreme ragging cases to police. The report also faults state and central government authorities for failing to implement and monitor anti-ragging provisions. The committee recommends that schools be forced to file police reports if the alleged ragging victims or their families are not happy with the institution's response, and says ragging should be added to the list of punishable offenses in the Indian penal code.

But threats of punishment may not be enough. Harsh Agarwal, co-founder of the Coalition to Uproot Ragging, says the practice will stop only if there's a cultural shift in colleges. The Indian Supreme Court committee agrees, calling for human rights instruction for younger students in addition to a widespread public awareness campaign. "The biggest hurdle is no one believes ragging is a social evil," Agarwal says. "When an entire society believes in this, how is enforcement of the law possible?"

[ToI] The 'R' Word

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Let's start with a confession. “When I joined a boarding school, I was thrown into a completely different world, one that existed far beyond the realms of my confined existence. I was exposed to the perils and wonders of being in an all boy boarding school. In the first week, the seniors confronted the first-year students in the common rooms and as was the custom, one by one we were supposed to come to the center of the gathering, stand upon the trusted wood table that had withstood the weight of generations of schoolboys and speak to the rest. This was 'Intro', a ritual that inducted all first-years into the school, albeit of course from the prying eyes of the authorities.

I nervously awaited my turn as I saw my classmates go up one by one, where they were asked questions ranging from 'What is your name and where do you come from to how old is your sister? All were asked to sing. On my turn, I was able to answer all questions well, and was even spared the usual slaughter owing to that fact that I had a brother instead of a sister. When it came to singing, I was a nervous wreck because I had never sung before, not even in the bathroom. But when I began, I even surprised myself. I realised I could sing just as well as any other. I held the audience captive, discovered a new talent and made myself known amongst the seniors. I even finished off a fine performance with a joke that had my audience in splits. Not only did it help me become a recognised face and won me many friends amongst the seniors, but six years later I went on to become the school music captain,” confesses Agrim Joshi, whose first brush with the term ragging turned out to be a pleasant one.

World over, freshers or first-years at colleges and boarding schools are subjected to some form of ragging, ranging from asking simple questions, to dancing and singing for an audience, professing love to an unsuspecting victim to downright 'servantry' of their seniors. While there are many colleges that deny the existence of this dreaded practice on their campuses, fact remains that most of us do face it in some form or the other during our formative years. Why do students indulge in this practice and what good could possibly come of it?

“It is a good way to get to know your juniors better. Since you will be spending the better part of your school life with them, and sometime, it may involve working together as a group, it is for the best if the ice is broken between both parties. Besides, in a close knit environment such as a boarding school or a hostel, you can't expect people to be mere acquaintances at a superficial level,” says boarding school student, Pranav Kapur. Raghav Puri mirrors this view when talking about a college environment, “Seniors are your best guide to survival in college. They know all about the course, teachers, things that could get you into trouble etc. It helps to have cordial relations with them, and if that involves a little bit of singing and dancing for harmless fun, then so be it.”
While those of us who study in high-end colleges may agree with this view, by no means do we have the right to judge the dilemma of an engineering or medical student. Here, the term ragging is practiced in its worst form.
Often there are reports of students beaten up by seniors, abused over long periods of time, made to carry out menial errands, all under the pretext of ragging.

One could argue that this stems from the high amount of stress that these students go through in the daily course of their academia, and ragging juniors is a way to vent some of that frustration.

“Being a first-year student in a medical college is hell. We are made to do all sorts of things. You are treated like sub-humans, and it's almost as if the only purpose of your existence is to serve your seniors,” says Arpit Verma, a first-year student at a reputed medical college.

Colleges have begun to take the issue of ragging seriously and have implemented certain counter measures such as severe punishments for those found indulging in the practice, counseling sessions and anti-ragging squads. But in many cases this is not enough.

The solution lies in going into the roots of the problem. It is human tendency to want to dominate over those we consider inferior, and in a college mindset, the senior-junior difference is more distinct, leading the seniors into believing that juniors are there to be ordered around.

The ridiculous practice of calling your seniors 'Sir' is a good example of the dominating mindset of these students. Efforts should be made to eradicate this mentality and re-enforce the point that age difference is no reason to subvert those younger than you. If this is not done, ragging, ideally a harmless way to get to know each other better, may spiral into something much worse than what it already is.

[Telegraph] Raggers, beware

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An official commission’s recommendations may help put an end to ragging. V. Kumara Swamy reports

Jagannath Misra (name changed), an engineering student in Bhubaneswar, was asked to pay a fine by his college when he led a “freshers’ protest” after he and some of his friends were ragged brutally. He was also slapped a notice that threatened rustication from college if he raised the issue any further.

“Although a few seniors were fined, the college’s action suggested that it was siding with the seniors,” he says. “First of all, freshers are a scared lot. If they don’t have any avenue to complain when they are ragged, it adds to their misery,” says Misra.

Misra’s college is not the only one to brush the matter under the carpet. Except for the ones that make the headlines, the majority of ragging cases goes unreported and the perpetrators get away scot-free. Even when the University Grants Commission (UGC) intervenes, college authorities either punish the guilty students lightly or sometimes simply refuse to acknowledge that ragging ever took place, as happened in a recent case in St Stephen’s College, Delhi, when a fresher was allegedly set on fire.

In fact, the UGC — in its submission to a Supreme Court-appointed committee headed by R.K. Raghavan, former director, Central Bureau of Investigation — said that the commission’s guidelines on punishments or preventive measures were not implemented and remained only on paper. It also admitted that college and university functionaries consider ragging a non-academic issue and therefore do not get involved either because of indifference or a lack of commitment. The UGC is responsible for co-ordinating, determining and maintaining education standards and releasing grants to universities.

There have been more than 50 cases of ragging, including six cases of suicide by students affected by ragging, ever since the Supreme Court order to implement the Raghavan Committee’s recommendations in May this year. Helpless, the UGC is asking the government to amend the UGC Act, 1956, so that it can teach a lesson to erring colleges and universities. The UGC now plays an advisory role and its guidelines on ragging are not mandatory.

“We shall be proposing some changes to the UGC Act so that the apex court’s directions on ragging can be incorporated and implemented more effectively,” says Tilak Raj Kem, secretary, UGC. The amendments are likely to take place when the HRD ministry makes changes to the act, including stringent measures against fake universities. “Though the UGC is very serious about ragging, we realise our limitations, which is why we see the need for changes,” says Kem.

Better late than never, say anti-ragging activists. “If the Raghavan committee recommendations are converted into law by amending the UGC Act, it will certainly serve the purpose. But it will have to be seen as to how many of its 50 recommendations are accepted and in what language,” says Shivam Vij, an anti-ragging activist and a consultant to the Raghavan Committee.

The committee’s recommendations include urging the courts to speedily try cases involving ragging, forming anti-ragging committees and squads at all the institutions, the introduction of a subject relating to ragging in school curricula and the involvement of the media and civil society in educating students on the harmful effects of ragging.

One of the closely watched amendments, as suggested by the Raghavan Committee, will be on the filing of a First Information Report (FIR) with the police by the principal of the institution if the victim or the parent is not satisfied with the institutional arrangement for action. But not many are in favour of this.

“Colleges are wary of going to the police even when students get violent, so it is a little far-fetched for either the UGC or the Raghavan Committee to believe that principals will go ahead and file an FIR. It is like inviting trouble along with some bad publicity for the college,” says a Calcutta-based professor on condition of anonymity.

“Principals are obviously wary as they value the ‘reputation’ of the college,” says Vij. “To get an FIR registered is the most difficult thing in India. The Supreme Court has taken note of this. As long as colleges and law enforcement agencies think that ragging is nothing but just a slightly exaggerated version of college fun, filing FIRs will never work. Ragging should be seen as a crime, which is yet to happen,” says Anant Kumar Asthana, a Delhi-based lawyer who runs an organisation that provides legal assistance to vulnerable victims.

Although the UGC is tight-lipped about its recommendations to the government, it is likely to tread a middle path on the issue. “Once the UGC acquires the power to withdraw grants or even withdraw affiliations, colleges will fall in line. The onus of filing an FIR shouldn’t be on college principals,” says an UGC official.

But some universities, which took strict action against ragging, say that there is no problem even if the recommendations of the Raghavan Committee are accepted and implemented by the UGC. “Unless a few examples are set, institutions will never take the issue of ragging seriously,” says Bhagirath Prasad, vice-chancellor, Devi Ahilyabai University, Indore. The university recently expelled 20 students, including two for life, for indulging in ragging.

But Prasad also calls for a ‘softer’ approach. “If the UGC can set aside a fund to run programmes against ragging in universities across the country, and if this provision is included even in the Act, I think that would go a long way,” says Prasad.

Anti-ragging activists are also calling on the UGC to take steps that take a holistic view of ragging as a menace. “Ragging is seen as a social norm and not an evil. This fact has to be accepted and steps taken to act against it accordingly,” says Harsh Agarwal of the Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURE).

Since the UGC currently doesn’t have a dedicated cell to deal with the problem of ragging, activists are asking the commission to create one. “A central monitoring mechanism can improve the implementation of anti-ragging measures,” says Asthana. Victims of ragging could directly report to the central cell.

“Victims are usually so scared that they create a new e-mail ID even to mail an NGO like ours. Unless the students are sure that they can get justice, they will not approach the authorities,” says Agarwal.

“We had sent a questionnaire to universities across the country asking them about the safeguards against ragging, the steps proposed to stop ragging and other details. This would also help us in formulating a policy so that there are better safeguards,” says Kem.

Whatever the steps, action is what the students and activists demand to put an end to ragging forever.

[CentralChronicle] Personal Thought: Ragging & its remedies

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As soon as admissions in technical and non-technical institutes start, news of suicides come from all over the country. In MP too such types of news is a common feature. Recently a ragging incident took place in the prestigious Hotel Management Institute of Bhopal wherein some senior girl students behaved unseemly with their juniors. Two of the students received serious injuries. The police registered a case but without result. Institute authorities have not taken any responsibility of this incident and told the media that this is just corollary of internal dispute between the senior and junior students.

Another incident occurred on Sept 27 at St Stephen's college, New Delhi when a first year student went to a senior student's room seeking help in filling up a university form. Some other students were also present. One of them had consumed alcohol. On the pretext of showing him some magic, a senior student sprayed a deodarant on his palm and ignited it as well. As a result the junior student suffered minor burns. It is high time for the concerned authorities to understand the matrix of ragging and take enough measures to stem the rot that has set in.

Ragging is certainly an anti-academic pandemic. We need to read and understand the Raghavan committee report that is based on problem of ragging. In this report bureaucratic approach has been adopted. We all know that ragging does not exist in simple form. Its shape is changing frequently and dramatically. Sometimes it has turned to criminality as well.

According to the report, time has come to treat every case of ragging separately and award proper punishment to the guilty students. Isolation and rustication of guilty students is the main tool of punishment. But it will push away students from the teachers; erode basic and tandem structure of college ambience. Hostility and distrust will spread in the education sector. It will ruin the very spirit of living and learning together.

Stress should be on a caring culture and mutual trust among the newcomers, seniors and the college authorities must be nurtured on regular basis. Our college is not a carry home knowledge outlet. It is an academic family. College is not the place where police go on a regular basis and lodge FIR against the students.

As per the Raghavan report, the college authorities could lodge FIR at police stations against the guilty students. The panel is also concerned about erroneous punishment which may push the guilty students to even more crimes. Hence there is need to make ragging a punishable offence.

Somil Chhaya

[Yahoo] Taking the bully by its horns

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By HT
Saturday October 27, 01:52 AM

Those were the best days of my life." That's how many of us refer to our school days. But for some, memories of school include teasing, taunting and ragging. For some, it was being on the 'fun' side of the fence, while others have gone through the torture of being victims. Why do people bully others in the first place?

Arvind Mehta elaborates, "I guess, when I bullied people in school, it was all about showing how powerful I was. You can't deny that every foyer has a particular hierarchy. Along with my friends, I exploited that." Jai Mehrotra remembers his days of being bullied in school. "The guys in my class would watch wrestling shows, practice those moves on me in school the next day, and hit me with all types of classroom furniture. Finally came a point when I had had enough. I began fighting back. If they hit me, I hit back."

Stooping low
Jai compares his situation to a double-edged sword. He knew that he was stooping to the level of those who bullied him, but at the same time he knew that this was the only means of getting through to them. Bullying, however, isn't always equated with hitting and beating up people. For Adam Fernandez, it was more verbal. He says, "I was the butt of all the jokes. I was a very shy person, and found it difficult to speak to girls. So, I was picked on and referred to as 'gay'"

Adam chose to retreat, and didn't interact with the people who bullied him. "I didn't give them anything to feed off, so they soon got bored and stopped."

Wrong attitude
When girls are bullied, it assumes completely different proportions. Like in the case of Namita Joshi, who was bullied in college. "I came to Mumbai from Bangalore. I'd heard a lot of great things about colleges here, so I chose Mumbai to pursue my higher studies. When college started, I knew it would take me time to make friends, because I'm a shy person."

But soon Namita realised that she was being silently bullied in her class. "People would laugh at the way I dressed and the way I spoke. They would completely ignore me and I could see the way I was judged every single day." She chose to work through the problem, taking her own time, and even confronted some people about their attitude. "Now, things are much better, and I have made some really good friends in college. I guess this is something we all have to go through at some point. I take it as a compliment to having a nature different to the rest."

Only regrets
Gautam Hingorani deeply regrets bullying people in his school. "I now realise that I couldn't cope with the fact that I was an overweight, average student. I picked on the smarter kids, using my brutal force to compensate for my other weaknesses."

Bullying is an extremely complex phenomenon, and affects the bully as well as the bullied. There's a false sense of superiority for the bully, and a sense of inadequacy in the bullied. No matter what situation or form it comes in, bullying can make you feel depressed, hurt, and alone.

It can keep you from enjoying activities that are an integral part of your life. It serves no useful purpose for either of the parties. The only good it does is help strengthen some people, and force others to take a more critical look at themselves.

[Indiatimes] Ragging – far from fun

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Ragging – an informal way for junior and senior students to get acquainted with each other or a means of deriving sadistic pleasure and a show of power? Severe ragging is very much a violation of human rights writes Aparajita Jamwal

How is severe ragging any different from other human rights violations like racism, caste discrimination, dowry, policebrutality, rape or slavery? All of the above are considered criminal offences, have judicial legislation and laws against them, and are considered morally wrong. However, there are many people who still think of ragging as harmless fun.

The Oxford Dictionary definition of ragging is -“to make fun of loudly and boisterously or rebuke severely,” while bullying is described as“deliberately intimidating or persecuting those who are weaker.” The lines between the two blur when you consider the kind of criminal offences committed under the pretext of ragging. Some of the harsher ragging offences include forcing fellow students to strip publicly, touch their genitals, sing abusive songs, masturbate publicly or eat faeces.

Psyche of Victim and Oppressor

“The proof of dominance for the senior is when the fresher breaks down. Therefore ragging has to hurt.‘The fresher has to be stretched like a rubber band until he snaps,’ and that is the point of the exercise according to one student,” writes Dr. Shobna Sonpar, student counsellor at Delhi University, in her essay on the incidence of ragging.

The Supreme Court recognizes that,“The cause of indulging in ragging is deriving a sadistic pleasure or showing off power, authority or superiority by the seniors over their juniors or freshers.”

Junior students who are sometimes helpless bystanders or participants often get caught in the ragging circus because they feel they have no options, that the senior students will make life even more difficult if they do not comply, or that ragging is a necessary if annoying part of college life.

It has been noted that professional colleges like engineering and medical institutions or schools and colleges with dormitories are more proneto ragging on campus.

Waving the Red Flag

The argument in favour has long been that ragging is a‘fun’ way for junior and senior students to become acquainted with each other. Perhaps this opinion is a result of lacking induction programs in colleges.

In 2001, the Supreme Court passed a landmark judgement against ragging, a result of a public interest litigation filed by the Vishwa Jagriti Mission.

Since then, many anti-ragging organizations have surfaced, such as The Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURE), founded in 2001. CURE believes that education and awareness, alternate means of interaction and strict implementation of deterring laws can combat ragging.

Definition by law

The Supreme Court of India, in its landmark judgement to‘curb the menace of ragging’ in 2001, defined it as:“Any disorderly conduct whether by words spoken or written or by an act…..or asking the students to do any act or perform something which (the)..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…..”

Does your college follow SC directives?

The Supreme Court also called for a number of measures. It remains to be seen the extent to which educational institutions follow these, and if they have had any effect in reducing the incidence of ragging.

1. All educational institutions are supposed to have an anti-ragging cell, body or faculty assigned.
2. Admission forms are supposed to have a section that mentions that ragging is a punishable offence, with signatures required from students as well as parents.
3. Failure to curb ragging and spread awareness about its dehumanizing effect is considered an act of negligence on the part of the institution, the principal, hostel wardens and the faculty.
4. Hostels and dorms are to be carefully guarded

Why are we still ragging?

In a country which professes to value respect for elders, teachers and the act of learning, it is surprising how ragging continues to be flaunted as part of the educational system.

The Supreme Court order also mentions that colleges guilty of allowing or ignoring ragging offences will be disaffiliated from universities and funding to such colleges may also be cut.

Scholarships of students guilty of ragging may be withheld, they may be debarred, suspended or expelled. For someone with a lot of money, power or political connections, is this enough of a deterrent?

In a press release in September 2007, CURE announced–
“CURE research has revealed52 cases of ragging incidentsreported in the online editions of national English media since May 21, 2007 till date…. Preliminary analysis of the cases reveal6 suicides, another 3 attempted suicides, 17cases of reported physical abuse, and several other cases involving sexual, verbal and drug
abuse.”

Ragging will persist as long as students, parents, educational institutions and the general public tolerate it. So the important question is this: What are you going to do about it?

[IE] A very modern rage

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We need a reformative rather than a sledgehammer approach to ragging

Ragging needs to be seen, primarily, as an academic issue; although, prima facie, it may seem a ‘law and order’ problem. It involves, besides, the question of one’s upbringing and cultural ambience. The emotional deficit in which children grow up has a direct bearing on this social illness. It was as part of my effort to ensure that St Stephen’s remained free of ragging that I sought to implement the time-tested residence rule that every resident student should be in his room by 10 pm. The events of September 27, the focal point of the media storm, prove the relevance of this rule. To my utter surprise, however, this provoked a media outcry. I was accused of ‘dictatorial inclinations’ and condemned for bringing St Stephen’s under ‘curfew’!

The foremost question on my mind, on returning to St Stephen’s after a lapse of four years, was, ‘How can a sober academic culture be nurtured without dampening the exuberance of Stephanians?’ The main stumbling block in achieving this was, I believe, the re-invention of St Stephen’s as a ‘brand name’. The college was not a brand name when I was a student there in the early seventies or for the greater part of my 30-year-tenure as a member of the faculty. Its evolution as a coveted academic object of desire (not an object of ‘academic desire’) is somewhat a recent invention.

The more affluence spreads and the less students’ physical and intellectual energies are engaged in academic pursuits, the margin for mischief will increase. More stringent legislation and sledgehammer punishments may not be the most appropriate response. Even those who victimise others are victims: victims of a spurious culture.

Ragging is also a mirror to the level of violence in our society. The ‘most ragged person’ in India today is, possibly, the hon’ble Speaker of the Lok Sabha! The culture of robust parliamentary debate is being displaced, increasingly, by violent forms of protest which help to reassure oneself (and one’s party). A similar psychology seems to be at work when ragging takes place. This is not to justify brutal violence. But to assume that educational institutions, and teenagers studying in them, will remain insulated from the cultural climate is naïve. Stringent punitive measures are required, but they are inadequate in themselves to eradicate the malady.

A strategy to contain ragging cannot sidestep the issue of parenting. Increasingly, parental affection gets expressed not through quality time spent with children. Money and what it buys are its preferred expressions. As parents we mistake indulgence for caring and bribing children into compliance for obedience. We care for them, but do not train them to feel and care for others — not even ourselves.

It is not my call to defend ‘raggers’. Nor is it an option for me to abandon my students to stigma and life-long trauma merely because it pleases some to insist that what is nothing more than a reprehensible act of indiscipline is an instance of ragging. I have studied the various aspects of the event that occurred in St Stephen’s College on the night of September 27. I have no doubt at all that it is not ragging.

I am as keen as anyone else to eradicate the menace of ragging. But I do not believe that stern policing and destructive, rather than reformative, punishment are the only solutions.

The writer is officiating as principal, St Stephen’s College, Delhi

editor@expressindia.com

[ET] With apologies to Bob Dylan ...

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14 Oct, 2007, 0205 hrs IST,Mythili Bhusnurmath, TNN

Last Thursday, 11 October, was ‘No raging day’. Two years ago this day Amit Sahai, a bright student with a promising future who’d joined the National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, committed suicide by jumping in front of a running train. He could no longer handle the severe physical and sexual abuse he’d been receiving at the hands of his seniors. Amit could not be saved. But there are countless other Amits whose lives need not be cut short! Or like ....of Apeejay Institute of Architecture and Planning, Noida go through life traumatized by the experience of their first few days in college! But as far as the general public in India is concerned the Amits and .. are just statistics, unfortunate freshers who fell victim to high jinks gone wrong.

Consequently ‘No Ragging Day’ came and went. Unheralded! There were no powerful advertisements of the kind commonly seen on World Literacy Day, World Heart Day, World Standards Day and so on. How many people knew about ‘No Ragging Day’? Or cared? Apart, of course, from the few hundred families who over the years have lost their sons/daughters or seen the future of their children blighted by the actions of some anti-social, nay criminal, youngsters?
And that is the tragedy. Despite the efforts of non-government agencies like the Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURE), the Supreme Court’s strictures to colleges following the recommendations of the Raghavan Committee, ragging continues to claim young lives/destroy bright futures.

Sadly such incidents are not limited to institutions of dubious repute but afflict prestigious institutes like IITs, NITs and most recently to the capital’s elitist, St Stephen’s College as well. The problem is the authorities, far from acknowledging the existence of the malaise, and taking stern action, are reluctant to admit the incidents as ‘ragging’ for fear it will sully their reputation (as indeed it should).

In the St Stephen’s case, for instance, the authorities insisted on calling it a ‘prank’. A prank? When a first year student receives burn injuries on his knees and hands? This despite the fact that under the Apex Court’s ruling earlier this year ‘ragging’ is now a cognisable office, requiring the college authorities to lodge an FIR. Instead the perpetrators of the crime got away with suspensions and that too for fairly minor periods. Why? Is it because they have powerful parents?

The Human Resources Minister, Arjun Singh, described higher education in this country as ‘sick’; nowhere is this sickness more manifest than in the abuse, both physical and verbal, meted out to freshers in the name of ragging. Yes, ragging is the symptom of a deeper malaise in society. Students under pressure seek an outlet for their anger and frustration, which is why such incidents are more in professional colleges where the pressure to perform is greater. And as pressures of everyday life increase, anger and frustration levels are bound to increase as seen from the increasingly common incidents of road rage and other violence. People seem ready to resort to violence at the drop of a hat.

Is it any wonder then that from May 21 to September 21, more than 50 cases of ragging, including physical, sexual and verbal abuse were reported in the national English media? In contrast to only 15 incidents were reported in the same period last year, according to CURE. And mind you, ragging is like rape. What gets reported is only the tip of the iceberg.

But it is not as though it cannot be tackled. Simple things like putting all freshers in one hostel, routinely done in RV College of Engineering, Bangalore and IIT Mumbai can do much to reduce such incidents. Staggered entry of fresher and seniors is another simple measure that could help since it gives freshers time to find their feet and make friends among their peer group, thus ensuring some collective strength. Migration/degree certificates could have a provision for incorporating remarks wherein mention can be made regarding the student’s involvement in ragging.

Alternatively, punitive action of the kind suggested by the Raghavan committee of holding back UGC assistance, withdrawing AICTE, MCI, DCI recognition could help. While creating awareness is important, it must be backed by strong deterrent action. The argument of the St Stephens’' authorities that the victim was satisfied with the punishment is no defence. Law must be allowed to take its course.

[GreakerKashmir] A torture called Ragging

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MANTASHA BIN RASHID

I asked, “is it your uniform ? “, when I saw some dumb looking guys coming out of The National Institute of Technology (NIT), Hazratbal, while I was waiting for a bus. I spotted a bunch of students who were juniors to me in the school. Today they appeared very awkward by their very behaviour. I went forth and picked up a friendly chat. They said , “It is no less than a hell inside. From day-one only we are given the set of instructions....Plaited trousers, black school shoes, plain shirt, army cut (one inch hair ), no bags.....either carry your books in a poly bag or in your hand “. We are told to suffocate ourselves by fastening even the collar button of our shirts, one among them said. The other added , “We are made to walk with our heads bowed down as if sinners or some outcasts and to top it all we have to greet every damn senior every damn time we see him “. They said that they walk in to the college surreptitiously like thieves and select the most isolated path to their classroom, so that they are not spotted by the seniors and put to an unjust treatment.

But that is oppression, I thought .” How can you bear that? Why don’t you complain against it ? “To that, one of them smirked saying that the college people have their wonderful bundle of rules. He said , “on the day of my counseling I discovered on the notice board , in there , a notice which read....’ The guy namely this, class this, roll number this was found being harsh and unkind to this and this fresher, therefore his ten E.C marks are deducted”. He said that he was elated, heaved a sigh of relief but today only he came to know that E.C means “extra co-curricular activities” and of course, those marks count nowhere !!!

Finally I spotted a bus coming and stepped in. Their disturbed moods irked me. I said to myself, if in an institute for higher education such mindless acts take place, what is expected of uneducated people? Their saying that they are greeted with third class abuses and teases, because of which a weak hearted friend of theirs decided to quit the course, even after depositing the fee for it, sprang anger in me. I could not believe myself. If educated youth behave so vulgarly, then what purpose does education serve, except for being a license to a job.
I was lost in these thoughts and one more memory stuck in. There is this friend of mine who qualified JKCET and got an admission in the very famous medical college , Srinagar. The other day, she broke down on a senior guy’s remarks who had told her that there is no need to wear a head-gear (scarf) when tomorrow she would elope with someone. How indecent a remark and much poorer the mindset that made him talk such for a person whom he never saw before ! Invasion of liberty, curbing of independence, subjugation, mental torture....we just have a word to define this torture.

My disturbed mind recalled a number of disgusting remarks and provocative words, related to me by my friends in various colleges and the university also. I very well remember that my next door neighbour, who studies in an engineering college, here in the valley, was admitted in hospital after he tried to protest against stripping off his friend on their college campus. Pity. Sheer pity!! We are the people who talk of wrong politics, corruption, our rights as humans; as students, but when we are given a flash of power we become wild beasts! How could the same students turn so hostile to the newcomers, when once...say a year or two back they were standing in their shoes or may be it is just exacting revenge on the poor juniors of what was done to them, some time back.

The whole concept of ragging is inhuman and the worst example of madness in the young community. The same idea of interacting with freshers can be made friendly, hospitable and kind and I believe, that is what humans stand for and should always stand for. When we can’t put off this portrayal of violence and hostility in our lives, how can we dare dream of a better society or a beautiful world?

The bus rattled to last stop for a halt and I realised that I had gone very far in my thoughts and got down from the bus, made a U-turn on my shank’s pony, thanking God that I study in a less famous academic college not in the one famous for this infamous act of ragging.

[Hindu] Ragging and its remedies

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Valson Thampu

Ragging is an anti-academic pestilence. A recent incident at St. Stephen’s College was something else, an offence of a different kind that led to swift disciplinary action. Correction and reformation, rather than an indiscriminate, iron-fisted approach that advocates handing over college discipline to the police, will be the right answer to ragging — except where serious criminality is involved.

It is necessary to sketch the factual matrix of an event reported by the news media that is sought to be branded as a case of ‘ragging’ at St. Stephen’s College. Late in the night of September 27, 2007, a first year student went to a senior student seeking help in filling up a university form. Three others happened to be in his room and, regrettably, all but one had consumed alcohol. In this less than sober state, it occurred to them to ‘show a magi c’ to their junior. It involved spraying a deodorant on the palm and igniting it. The young man was told this would not hurt. It turned out to be otherwise and, most regrettably, he suffered minor burns on his palm and leg. By 4 a. m. on September 28, the Deputy Dean of Residence visited the affected student and duly informed me at 5.45 a.m. about what had happened. By 8.30 a.m., an inquiry was initiated. Disciplinary action commensurate with the seriousness of the offence was taken soon after.

The following aspects of the event need to be noted. The affected student did not complain to the administration; instead suo motu cognisance was taken of the event. Secondly, the alleged ‘victim’ did not feel ‘ragged.’ There are at least three reasons for it. (a) He went, on his own, to the room of the senior student and participated in the so-called ‘magic’ voluntarily; at no stage and in no manner was he forced or coerced. (b) The event was not pre-meditated whereas ‘ragging’ is always pre-meditated. (b) In ragging the initiative is with the ‘raggers’; in this event the initiative, up to the ‘magic’ stage, was wholly with the affected student. Thirdly, it was evident to the student that three of the four seniors in the room were not in a sober state. It would have been wiser for him to leave the room and report the matter to the block tutor or the Dean, as drinking is strictly prohibited in residence. Instead, he stayed on. Fourthly, it was past midnight and residence rules required him to be in his room by 10 p.m. Fifthly, a science student at the college level should have known that fire hurts, and not lapped up the canard that it doesn’t. The event would certainly have amounted to ragging if he was forced against his will to participate in the ‘magic.’ Insisting that an event that issues from voluntary choice and participation is ‘ragging’ amounts to semantic inexactitude. The foregoing assessment is in sync with the Supreme Court’s definition of ‘ragging’ cited in the Raghavan Committee Report.

Ragging, undeniably, is an anti-academic pestilence. St. Stephen’s stands in full solidarity with the University and the University Grants Commission on this issue. But we are concerned about, indeed deeply disturbed by, the overall approach and the prescription in the Raghavan Committee Report. The recent case of alleged ragging makes it necessary, and opportune, to place on the table some of these concerns. It is done to ensure that the remedy we embrace does not become, in course of time, worse than the malady we seek to eradicate.
Indiscriminate overkill

The real problem with the Raghavan Committee Report is that it prescribes a heavy-handed, bureaucratic approach to the menace of ragging. Admittedly, ragging in its extreme and barbaric form moves into the zone of criminality and needs to be dealt with as such. But ragging varies in form and degree of severity quite dramatically. Also, not every case of indiscipline amounts to ragging. The indiscriminate overkill implied in the Raghavan Committee’s approach is a cause for alarm. According to its Report, the “time has come to treat every single incident of ragging, however isolated or ‘mild’ or ‘positive’ it may appear, with the heaviest hand possible” (emphasis added).The consequences of such an indiscriminate, iron-fisted approach are bound to be highly damaging in practice.

It will alienate students from teachers; erode institutional authority; infect the life of institutions with hostility and distrust; and ruin the very spirit of living and learning together. The harm this can do may vary from institution to institution. Colleges like Stephen’s that are strongly residential stand to suffer the worst. We believe that a caring culture, marked by mutual trust, concern for each other’s well-being, a profound sense of belonging together, and an abiding sense of institutional solidarity, collegiality, and shared responsibility, comprises the essence of life in Stephen’s. Our college is not a carry-home knowledge outlet. It is an academic family. Seen from its ethos, the obligation to file First Information Reports (FIRs) against students each time a prank is played or an act of indiscipline is committed is like forcing a father to call in the police each time his children quarrel with, or hurt, one another. The very idea is hopelessly out of place. In fact, it is out of place in every educational institution that values the student-teacher relationship as the hub of education.

In point of fact, this is not what the Raghavan Committee Report envisages, although this is the notion that most people, including some who ought to know better, seem to entertain. What the Report says is: “Where the victim or his/her parent/guardian is not satisfied with the action taken by the Head of the institution or by other institutional authorities, or where the Head of the institution is of the opinion that the incident ought to be so reported, it must be mandatory for the institution to file a First Information Report with the local police authorities.” The Committee was also concerned, quite rightly, that dealing with ‘raggers’ should not result in ‘criminalising’ them. So it recommended that “rather than subjecting each incident of ragging to a different penal treatment under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, a new section should be added to the IPC, making ragging a punishable offence on the analogy of section 498A dealing with cruelty towards women [against dowry related incidents].” Until this is done, filing an FIR against ‘raggers’ will amount to an abdication of responsibility on the part of the heads of institutions. It is unthinkable that educators can be indifferent to the stigma and trauma inherent in criminalising students in this way, which will be all the more lamentable when the ragging in question is ‘mild’ or ‘positive.’ Filing an FIR is welcome, of course, in instances of brutal or excessive ragging.

Uncertainty prevails about where indiscipline ends and ragging begins. The Raghavan Committee presumes that the moral formation of teenagers should be complete and perfect by the time they enter the portals of higher education — so that there need be no margin for error or mischief for them. One wonders when and where such an ideal world existed. Surely, all of us have learned also through our mistakes. If at the first mischief perpetrated we were branded or blasted out of sight, not many of us would have survived to tell our hallmark stories. Of course, memory keeps poorly. If only we would recall our own teetering teenage steps, we would be less sanctimonious and more compassionate and argue for a humane and corrective approach.

The ‘deterrence’ approach rules out scope for correction and reformation. This, not less than ragging, is a serious hindrance to education. Perhaps there is a way (even though it may lack the attraction of being a short-cut) of dealing with the menace of ragging other than that of destroying the raggers. Shouldn’t we try, first, to reform the young men and women who indulge in ragging, except when serious criminality is involved? Are we sure that enough is being done in this regard?
Simplistic approach

Discipline, not destruction, building up, not bludgeoning, is germane to education. A college does not exist for eradicating ragging. It exists primarily to impart education. It is to preserve the academic culture of our educational institutions that ragging needs to be eradicated. The Raghavan Committee Report, arguably out of a laudable intention, appears at times to assume the contrary. Its approach to the problem of ragging is simplistic; structured operatively on the dogma of deterrence; insensitive to the nuances of the learning milieu; and blind to the enormous variations among educational institutions around the country. The cavalier abandon with which it advocates the handing over of college discipline to agencies extraneous to it, especially the police, is alarming.

Let it not be overlooked that in the first nine weeks of the first term, hardly any instance of ragging occurred at St. Stephen’s College. The facts of the case show that what happened at the end of the first term was not ragging by any stretch of the imagination. There has been a tremendous improvement in this respect in college life owing to the many imaginative measures and exercises undertaken. It is a pity that all the constructive measures undertaken through the term are brushed aside and the spotlight is put solely on a stray incident that is stretched and distorted to fit the bill of ragging. By doing so, a gross injustice is being done not only to the four young men involved, but also to an institution that has served this country with devotion and distinction for over a century and a quarter.

(The author is Principal [OSD], St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.)

[Chowk] Ragging: A Sickness in our Educational System and Society

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Rohit Chopra
October 9, 2007

Over the last few months, the Indian media has carried stories about incidents of ragging at Indian colleges, including at some of India's most prestigious and well-known institutions (1). The incidents, several of which involve acts of brutal violence perpetrated on helpless first year students by groups of senior students, raise many disturbing questions: why does this culture of violence exist among Indian students and Indian society? It is an article of faith among the Indian middle classes that only the Indian masses are capable of irrational violence. Yet the children of the middle classes, fed on a steady diet of ambition, trained in the best schools and coaching classes, deprived of very little compared to millions in India, are the ones, who, like characters in The Lord of the Flies, commit these acts of savagery. Why do these students think that they have the license to humiliate their fellow students? For that matter, why does an individual think that he or she has the birthright to denigrate or assault another individual?

Clearly a deep-rooted malaise in Indian educational system, ragging is simultaneously a symptom of a deeper sickness in Indian society. The website and blog No Ragging(2), bears testimony to the urgent response necessitated by the situation.

I had the unpleasant experience of being ragged on two occasions, when I joined Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, as a high school student in 1989: the first time when I started attending the school, and the second time, when I joined the boarding attached to the school a couple of months later. It was supposed to be something that all 'freshers' went through. In retrospect, it seems that my experience of ragging was not very severe, at least not compared to the incidents that I read about in the Indian press. That experience, which somewhat soured my years in the otherwise highly rated school and hostel, has given me some clear insights into the nature of ragging and the mechanisms by which it perpetuates itself.

First, the objective of ragging is humiliation. It allows an individual or group to express and savor a sense of power and control over another individual or group. It was not surprising that the most active participants in the ragging exercises in the DPS hostel were the two biggest thugs and bullies in the boarding school: one, from Bihar, was pathologically violent and the other, an international student from Bhutan, was a self-appointed dada type who saw it as his moral duty to regulate all behavior in the hostel. I do not mean to single out any community as especially guilty in this regard. Everyone in the hostel, including Jats, Biharis, Manipuris, Bengalis, and Punjabis, participated equally in the activity. If these two individuals had not been there, two or four others would have taken their place. In general, the most obnoxious individuals at the forefront of the ragging exercises were chronic bullies, who would boast about their wealth and their family and political connections, which, they believed and claimed made them immune from any punishment by the school authorities.

Second, in the absence of clear institutional rules about ragging, which are regularly and consistently enforced against offenders, individuals will violate the rights of other individuals. It is a myth that individuals will regulate themselves in accordance with the principles of non-violence, amity, and harmony. Human beings may not be innately violent. They are not necessarily intrinsically peace-loving either. A clear and consistent policy about punishing anyone who oppresses another person and well-defined mechanisms for accountability are an absolute must in Indian schools and colleges if ragging has to stop. I believe that Indian educational institutions have a lot to learn from the American educational system in this regard. It is not the case that there are no incidents of ragging--termed 'hazing' here-- in American educational institutions, but policies, response measures, campus safety provisions, and the threat of lawsuits ensure that such incidents are kept to a minimum and offenders are adequately prosecuted.

Third, and related, educational spaces in India have to be immunized from outside interference by powerful people, whether politicians, businesspersons, or criminals. In several of the conflicts that I witnessed as a resident of the DPS hostel, the parties involved—often students from different Indian states or regions— would threaten to bring in 'manpower' from Delhi University, or get the help of some politicians and their goons, to sort out the other side. A lot of this was bluster, but it was not clear how the school authorities negotiated the impact of such external influences on the everyday functioning of the school. Even if the school did possess autonomy from such external influence, it was not clearly communicated to all the students.

Fourth, the violence of ragging is structured to perpetuate itself. It is not uncommon to hear some college students say that they enjoyed being ragged and that it was a part of the college experience. Accordingly, these students say that they want to have the chance to rag others, to make them feel at home, if you please. This is sophistry. The desire to rag someone else is a desire to shake off the humiliation of having been ragged. That anger comes out on the next
innocent victim. The claim that one's experience of being ragged was fun, likewise, is a shallow pretence that the experience did not involve any sense of an abject inequality of power.

I am proud to say that when the 11th standard (1989) batch of the DPS Mathura Road hostel moved to the 12th standard, we decided by consensus that there would be no ragging from then on. At the same time, the school authorities were also whittling down the number of students admitted each year to the hostel, partly to renovate the hostel, but partly, I believe, to get an opportunity to change the culture of hostel life. Almost two decades have passed since then, and
I do not know what the situation is like now. And, while my experience of ragging was relatively mild, it has lingered in my memory at least to the extent that reading an article about ragging compelled me to write this piece. I should also add, I have only been back to DPS Mathura Road once since graduating in 1991.


Links:

1.www.ibnlive.com/news/st-stephens-students-suspended-for-ragging--be-a-cj/49931-3.html
2.http://noragging.blogspot.com/2007/08/ie-ragging-cept-takes-action-against.html