Introduction

The 21^st century world is a galaxy of advancement and innovation where even the space can be encapsulated in seconds,where a work which takes 3 days to be completed can be completed in 3 seconds and where the destruction of planet can be done and prevented too by just a press of button. We have multifaceted advancement which has made the world a global village and made the global life very simple. But these lifestyle has not only influenced our living or related issues,but have also been much effective in influencing the mentality and inner being of a person and there are bi-faceted. On the positive way,we have become more logical,innovative and possess a more reasonable and scientific mind with which even a 3 year old boy can judge his action and on the contrary many global problem like terrorism,poverty,population increase,Explosions had spread out like wild fire. One such Problem is Ragging which is mainly concerned with student circle.

What Is Ragging?

Firstly we should know what is ragging? Ragging is a form of abuse on newcomers to educational institutions in India and Sri Lanka. It is similar to the American phenomenon known as hazing. Ragging is a practice which is growing in colleges & institutes of higher studies where a student or a person is brutally tortured either mentally or physically by their seniors. No doubt it is an inhuman practice more dreadful than “SATI DAH”. But alarmingly the practice & its consequences are growing up day by day,where the sufferer is not only physically beaten but above all,beaten to the soul and mind which is more dreadful than death.

What are its causes ?

One major reason behind the spreading out of this menace is the lack of moral values,especially among the youngsters. This lacking remains a black mark on a person's soul and mentality. They do not know how to act with other fellows like them. In places of higher education,especially where ragging is most prevalent,the senior student try to impose and show off their superiority over the junior ones..Inhuman acts and tortures are being inflicted on the poor sufferers of the menace. They are even made to play with their life. The act is more humiliating among boys than among girls. But ragging marks no discrimination with gender or caste. It is a matter of fun for the imposer to see the victim standing naked in front of the mob or to see him jumping from the 2^nd or even 4^th floor ,to see him eating black shoe polish in front of a mob. The victim thus prefers to close his eyes than to fall prey to these devilish hunters. Since it is fun for all the seniors so it cannot have any particular cause,it is simply an entertainment for the seniors.

Millions of student every year try to get selected in the best institutes but they don't know that it's a hell awaiting them. As soon as admission to technical and non-technical institutes starts, news of suicides starts pouring in from all parts of the country.To our amazement,it has become a nightmare so devilish that youth find more peace in death and they commit “SUICIDE”. But that is no matter at all,for who they are incorrigible can never be cured as “a snake which never forgets to bite even though fed with the costliest milk”.Ragging & their consequence have become the foremost headlines of newspapers these days.Every other day we come across news about suicide,missing and depression from every reputed institutes like IIT's,Medical Colleges,Engineering Colleges etc etc.

Even though we have a great deal about the fact ,still the menace grows.We criticise the authorities and government for having failed in taking appropriate action against such happening,without noticing that the four fingers pointing ourselves.To the utmost shameful act,frankly speaking many students are sexually tormented too and we the mere starers just click our tongue for a while and then forget about everything. And boldly speaking this is a new mentality where a mob gathers just to see a man being beaten up with out a reason.No one just even steps a toe to save such a life.When this is the mentality,do we deserve to be called responsible students?

What constitutes ragging?

Theoretically speaking, Ragging is defined as –“ the doing of any act which causes, or is likely to cause any physical, psychological or physiological harm of apprehension or shame or embarrassment to a student”, and includes–

(a) “Teasing or abusing by playing Practical joke on, or causing hurt to any student. “

b)” Asking any student to do any act which such student will not in the ordinary

course do and which has the effect of causing or generating a sense of shame,

or torment or embarrassment so as to adversely affect the physique or psyche

of such fresher or any other student.”

c) “Any act by a senior student that prevents, disrupts or disturbs the regular

academic activity of any other student or a fresher.”

d) “Exploiting the services of a fresher or any other student for completing the

academic tasks assigned to an individual or a group of students.”

e) “Any act of financial extortion or forceful expenditure burden put on a fresher or

any other student by students.”

f) “Any act of physical abuse including all variants of it: sexual abuse, homosexual

assaults, stripping, forcing obscene and lewd acts, gestures, causing bodily

harm or any other danger to health or person. “

g) “Any act or abuse by spoken words, emails, posts, public insults which would

also include deriving perverted pleasure, vicarious or sadistic thrill from

actively or passively participating in the discomfiture to fresher or any other

student. “

h)” Any act that affects the mental health and self-confidence of a fresher or any

other student with or without an intent to derive a sadistic pleasure or showing

off power, authority or superiority by a student over any fresher or any other

student. “

Death due to Ragging

Ragging have become a daliy herald,following is the list of stuednts died due to ragging and hazing around the world:-

2010

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

2) Sinmoi Debroy, 21, was found hanging from the ceiling fan, dead, in his hostel room in Chennai on 4 April. It was a private hostel shared by students of various colleges. Most of the 42 SMSes in the Assamese engineering student's mobile phone were threats and abuses from seniors, who also demanded money.

3)Ajub Ajith, 19, hanged himself to death from the ceiling fan in his house in Thiruvananathapuram on 31 March. He was a student of at the Sarabhai Institute of Science and Technology. He had told his mother that he was being ragged badly, but prevented her from complaining to the principal as, he said, that would make matters worse for him.

4)Satwinder Kumar, 28, ended his life on 3 March. He was a student of the Advanced Training Institute, Mumbai. In his suicide note he named seven seniors who had ragged him so much that he left for home for Kurukshetra rather than take mid-term exams. Before he could reach home, he committed suicide by throwing himself before a goods train in Rajasthan's Jhalawar district.

5)Premlatha, 22, committed suicide by consuming sulphuric acid in the chemistry lab of the B S Abdur Rahman Crescent Engineering College on 5 February. Her brother singled out one senior, Yogesh, 22, a fourth year student, as the person ragging her the most.

6)Gaurav Sadanand Raut, 22, strangulated himself to death on 9 February in his hostel room in Nashik's Maratha Vidya Prasarak Samaj Medical College. His father named his roommates Mandhar Monde and Anil Kavade as the culprits.Although the police detained four students, the local NCP MLA, Vasant Pawar, also the general secretary of the college body, denied that the student had been ragged.

2009

7)On 7 March, Aman Kachroo, 19, a first year student of Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College, Tanda, Kangra, HP, India, had repeatedly complained to his parents about the brutal ragging that took place on the Medical College campus — often by completely drunk third-year students. On Friday night and Saturday morning (March 6–7, 2009), the boy was beaten so badly that he died of brain haemorrhage.

2008

8)In September-December, 2008, a student of Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad was ragged by 3 of his seniors, namely, Ravi Shankar, a resident of Vadodara; Naveen Tomar, from Hisar; and Ajmer resident P C Gupta. The victim (name withheld) complained that three fellow management students at IMT-Ghaziabad forced him to undress and threw lit matchsticks at his private parts in the campus on September 27. The Ghaziabad police initially refused to register his complaint, but finally lodged a case on Thursday (December 4) after intervention from the Ghaziabad SSP.

2007

9)On 18 September Durgesh Shukla hanged himself from a ceiling fan in his hostel room in Pioneer College, Bhopal. He blamed seniors in his suicide note.

10)On 8 August Manjot Singh, an MBBS student, committed suicide by consuming a poisonous substance. He did so at his residence in Chandigarh, due to ragging in his hostel at the Government Medical College, Chandigarh.

11')On 20 September Chetan Raj, 18, committed suicide in Mysore. His body was found hanging from the roof of his lodge room. He had already complained to his parents that he was being ragged in his college.

2006

12)In November S. P. Manoj committed suicide in his hostel room at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad.

13)On 5 November Azad Nair, 22, a cadet at the Officer's Training Academy(OTA) in Chennai. He had hanged himself from the fan of his room. Prior to his suicide he had told his brother Soumendu over telephone that he was being ragged and humiliated at the OTA and he had pleaded to his father Padmanabhan Nair to rescue him from the OTA.

2005

14)On 14 December C Abraham, a first year engineering student, hanged himself to death at his residence in Hyderabad. In his suicide note, he mentioned that he was not interested in studies. His parents suspected that his suicide to be a result of ragging.

15)On 5 December Sridhar, 18, hanged himself to the ceiling fan in his hostel room in Chennai. In the English press, only one newspaper in Mumbai reported the incident.

16)On 11 October Amit Sahai committed suicide by jumping before an approaching train in Jalandhar. He was a student of NIT Jalandhar, Punjab. In his suicide note he blamed nine senior students of the National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar for having mercilessly ragged him.

17)In July Kamlesh Sarkar, 19, committed suicide in a private hotel management institute in Kalyani, Nadia district, West Bengal. The police filed an unnatural death case and not one of ragging.

2004

18)On 19 December Mohan Karthik Tripathy,19, hanged himself from a ceiling fan in his hostel room at the SKR Engineering College in Tambaram, Tamil Nadu. His written complaint about ragging to the college authorities had gone unheeded. He had been forced to bathe in his own urine.

19)In June, Sushil Kumar Pandey, 18, hanged himself to death after the humiliation of being paraded naked by his seniors at the Madan Mohan Malviya Engineering College, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh.

2002

20)In September Anup Kumar, 19, committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his residence in Kanpur. In his suicide note, Anup said that he was going through mental agony due to the sexual harassment by second-year students of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, Lucknow, in the name of ragging.

1984

21)On the night of September 13th/14th, 1984, TK Chidambaram Raju Iyer, 22 years old, was killed by his seniors at the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. He was ragged by 4 senior students (Ashok Kapadia, Ajay Batra, Sujit Gopal, and Rajnish Jain), who remain scot-free to this day. Also, no action was taken against the Director of IMT, Ghaziabad or the warden of the hostel. Unless strict criminal proceedings are carried out against such people, the menace of ragging will continue to haunt India.

It proves that Ragging is not a new phenomenon in India,it has a dark history that dates back long ago.This article only proves that how so many people became the daily meal of this devil.And yet the government remained silent for so many years.Is it necessary that a tragic event has to occur to wake up the government?

*The actual data can vary.It  be far more dreadful and long(in terms of list of names) than the data provided.

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Interviews of Experts

Interviews of experts

1

In order to get the opinion about ragging from those colleges and universities where ragging is dominant( mainly medical and engineering colleges). We took the interview of Mr. Tapas Ray , lecturer of Behrampore Medical College.

Q. Sir what is your opinion about Ragging?

Ans:- Ragging is Characterized by violent forceful activity by 2^nd or 3^rd year students on 1^st year

students. It's a brutal torture on the freshers.

Q. Do you think Ragging helps in breaking the shyness of the students?

Ans:- No, I don’t think Ragging helps in breaking the shyness of the students

Q. If you were the authority then what steps you would have taken against Ragging.

Ans:- a) I would have launched an awareness campaign first.

b) I would have formed a 3 member committee against ragging. In this committee college

principle,teacher representative,1^st year student and hostel superintendent would have been

the members.

c) I would have kept constant monitoring whether any incidence occurs in the college campus/hostel.

d) I would have taken strong action if ragging happened.

Q. What advice you would like to give to a person showing depression and suicidal tendency

and what measure should be taken to stop the suicides of these students.?

Ans:- Life is a struggle ,its all about fighting at every point. Don’t waste this life by killing yourself.

Measures to be taken to stop the suicides of students:-

a)Constant mental and psychological support.

b)If the depression is severe then admit the student in mental hospital and treat accordingly.

2

To get the experts Comment ,we also took the interview of our Principal Sir as he is an intelligent man and has a better sense and experience of life and people.

Q.1 Sir what is your opinion about Ragging?

Ans. Ragging in no form is good,Ragging in the older days was taken in different and positive way. It

was a mode of introduction. The purpose was to bring the freshers to the mainstream. It was for fun

.Over the year it has changed because of negativity.

Q.2 Do you think that Ragging helps in breaking the shyness of the Raggers?

Ans. Yes it really does,but not now .it used to be. It should be positive and not reactive,it should be

proactive,it should be acceptable and up to a limit. Ragging is good up to the extent of acceptance.

Q.3 Have you ever experienced Ragging in your College Days?

Ans. No ,fortunately because I never attended any technical college although it was there in general

colleges. It was very rare and not so severe.

Q.4 What kind of Ragging it Was?If no then if something like that would have happened with

you that time then what would have been your reaction?

Ans. Definitely I would have reacted but its difficult to say how as I never experienced it.

Q.5 If you were the official authorities then what steps you would have taken?

Ans. I would have tried to take control in the beginning and would have taken precaution. If even after

that things are uncontrollable then I would have involved the Police or rusticated the students.

Q.6 What according to you is the main reason behind Ragging and does it have any outcome?

Ans.(1) Student don't understand the meaning of Ragging

(2)Students have developed negative attitude,

(3)Some people join it for sadistic pleasure,sadism is a mental disease.

(4)Some time students take drug and alcohol and then do

these things called Ragging without having control over their body and mind.

Q.7 If something like Ragging happens with your near and dear one then what advice you would like to give him/her?

Ans. If students are not crossing their limit and ragging just for fun in a positive way then I would

advice him/her to adapt it. If its severe then report it to parents as well as college authorities.

Q.8 If someone is suffering from depression due to ragging or showing suicidal tendency then what steps should be taken?

Ans. All moral as well as legal support should be extended which will result in confidence building.

Q.9 Do you think its good to publish news of Ragging in print and Digital Media?

Ans I don't say its wrong but just for awareness,the role of media is to expose the cruelty and truth. Its

not their role to judge. There’s nothing wrong but media should not project them as heroes or

idolize them or present them as criminals.

* due to shortage of time we could only ask some basic but important question from Mr. Tapas Ray.