College life is very important in every student's life because it not only determines the future of a student but also is a time when most students understand the realities of life. But, do all students enjoy their campus life? Behind the façade of welcoming new students to college, ragging, in actuality, is notorious practices wherein the senior students get an excuse harass their counterparts, and more often than not, make them easy targets to satiate their own perverse sadistic pleasures. Ragging is basically a damaging form of communication between seniors and newcomers or first year students in a college or university. It can be from doing small works that seniors demand to harass in public. Due to the severe history of ragging in local colleges to top ranked universities including medical colleges, engineering, arts & science, commerce and literature colleges, the Indian government has taken steps combat this issue.
The Supreme Court directed the Ministry of Human Resource (MHRD) in 2007 to set up a committee headed by former CBI director Dr. R. K. Raghavan to recommend anti-ragging measures. The Raghavan committee submitted its report in May 2007, thereafter ragging is akin to a serious offence. Following the Supreme Court orders National-Anti Ragging Helpline was launched by the Indian government. Students, who get ragged, can send 'their e-mails to help1ine@antiragging.in to register a complaint. If they are not comfortable they need not disclose their name and other details and they can send mails from anonymous e-mail ids. They can also call to the helpline numbers which are available at all times. Effective actions are always taken, in case of any complains.
These measures have been quite effective in curbing ragging. But a new problem has now risen that the misuse of the Anti-Ragging a recent trend is seen across all colleges that the newcomers are exploiting the Anti-Ragging measures that were meant to protect them.
Had RK Raghavan (the man behind the Anti-Ragging drive in the country) visited Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), he would have been amazed to know how some juniors are supposedly using it against their seniors.
This is obvious from an incident, in which a junior protested of ragging, but further examination revealed that he was allegedly spanked by his seniors for using provoking speech and making racial remarks in an intoxicated condition. To the relief of the senior students the police promised to take suitable action against the person, who complained, after finding the complaint to be false.
But this is not the only case of false complaints. Such hoaxes are likely to affect the studies of senior students who are innocent. The seniors now feel obliged to listen to the demands put forward by the freshers and dare not scold them even for their wrong doing. The has deteriorated the senior junior relationship in many colleges.
Discussing on this, one parent states that “During my time, the seniors used to be like the elders in s family. Any problem arises, be it personal or academic we used to take their help and guidance. After all college and hostel were homes away from homes. But today things have changed. I feel the difference in my child's college.”The Anti Ragging Law has helped many lives that would have been ruined by ragging as in the past. The rates of ragging have surely come down, and today parents can send their children to colleges without any worry or anxiety. But the extent to which it blindly supports the freshers needs to be checked.
The misuse of the power of Anti-Ragging Bill for selfish motives, taking personal revenge or blackmailing is a serious issue that needs to be handled. By serious investigations, on each complaint and making sure of _the legitimacy of the complaints is a task that has to be carefully taken up. The failure of which, innocent people might tend to lose their education in the name of an invalid and false complaint.
This is a tender subject that has to be handled with care. Ragging is a problem of the students and by the students and therefore, the solution to it also lies with the students. With ragging becoming rampant in colleges, it is about time that the student community awakens its conscience to this inhuman practice before more and more innocent students become victims of it and before more and more educational institutes are degraded by it.
The Supreme Court directed the Ministry of Human Resource (MHRD) in 2007 to set up a committee headed by former CBI director Dr. R. K. Raghavan to recommend anti-ragging measures. The Raghavan committee submitted its report in May 2007, thereafter ragging is akin to a serious offence. Following the Supreme Court orders National-Anti Ragging Helpline was launched by the Indian government. Students, who get ragged, can send 'their e-mails to help1ine@antiragging.in to register a complaint. If they are not comfortable they need not disclose their name and other details and they can send mails from anonymous e-mail ids. They can also call to the helpline numbers which are available at all times. Effective actions are always taken, in case of any complains.
These measures have been quite effective in curbing ragging. But a new problem has now risen that the misuse of the Anti-Ragging a recent trend is seen across all colleges that the newcomers are exploiting the Anti-Ragging measures that were meant to protect them.
Had RK Raghavan (the man behind the Anti-Ragging drive in the country) visited Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), he would have been amazed to know how some juniors are supposedly using it against their seniors.
This is obvious from an incident, in which a junior protested of ragging, but further examination revealed that he was allegedly spanked by his seniors for using provoking speech and making racial remarks in an intoxicated condition. To the relief of the senior students the police promised to take suitable action against the person, who complained, after finding the complaint to be false.
But this is not the only case of false complaints. Such hoaxes are likely to affect the studies of senior students who are innocent. The seniors now feel obliged to listen to the demands put forward by the freshers and dare not scold them even for their wrong doing. The has deteriorated the senior junior relationship in many colleges.
Discussing on this, one parent states that “During my time, the seniors used to be like the elders in s family. Any problem arises, be it personal or academic we used to take their help and guidance. After all college and hostel were homes away from homes. But today things have changed. I feel the difference in my child's college.”The Anti Ragging Law has helped many lives that would have been ruined by ragging as in the past. The rates of ragging have surely come down, and today parents can send their children to colleges without any worry or anxiety. But the extent to which it blindly supports the freshers needs to be checked.
The misuse of the power of Anti-Ragging Bill for selfish motives, taking personal revenge or blackmailing is a serious issue that needs to be handled. By serious investigations, on each complaint and making sure of _the legitimacy of the complaints is a task that has to be carefully taken up. The failure of which, innocent people might tend to lose their education in the name of an invalid and false complaint.
This is a tender subject that has to be handled with care. Ragging is a problem of the students and by the students and therefore, the solution to it also lies with the students. With ragging becoming rampant in colleges, it is about time that the student community awakens its conscience to this inhuman practice before more and more innocent students become victims of it and before more and more educational institutes are degraded by it.
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