The Supreme Court defined ragging following words: “Any
disorderly conduct whether by words spoken or written or by an act which has
the effect of teasing, treating or handling with rudeness any other student
indulging in rowdy or indisciplined activities which causes or likely to cause
annoyance, hardship or psychological harm or to raise fear or apprehension
thereof in a fresher or a junior student or asking the students to do any act
or perform something which such students will not do in the ordinary course and
which has the effect of causing or generating a sense of shame or embarrassment
so as to adversely affect the physique or psyche of a fresher or a junior
student.”
The apex court has taken into consideration while defining
ragging all kinds of acts faced by a fresher or a junior while subjecting to
ragging by the seniors.
Ragging has become a menace, cause of fear and shock not only
for a. fresher but to his parents too who are sending the loved ones for
pursuing higher education by investing a lot of hard-earned money. Several
intellectual youths have become the martyr of ragging, some have suffered a
nervous breakdown, some left the institutes after being suffered from ragging,
some have committed suicide and some were murdered by the seniors on the
pretext of ragging.
The court, the authorities, the principal, and every concern,
have described ragging as a heinous practice, but a very paradoxical situation
is, it still persists in spite o fall the rules, regulations, and directives of
courts, and authorities. None could claim to have stopped it 100%.
The most gruesome incidence of ragging came into light in Nov.
1986, when Navarasu a 17-year-old first-year medical student of Annamalai
University, Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu, was brutal, murdered by a senior named
‘David” who was said to be a Karate expert. He killed Navarasu because he
refused to submit to his whims of ragging.
In Aug. 2003, an engineering student of Engineering College
Jalpaiguri in West Bengal was admitted to hospital after he was subjected to
night long brutal ragging by his seniors. The victim was beaten up with iron
rods and cycle chains for refusing to strip before the seniors.
In Aug. 2003, IIT Delhi expelled five senior students for
they were found indulging in ragging of a fresher who left the college after
being ragged by these seniors. In the same month, a student of Pune Institute
quit, just a few days after joining it in July due to the same reason of being
subjected to inhumane ragging.
The governments, Central as well as States, have taken
positive steps again to stop this practice. In 1997, the HRD Minister, Mr. S.R.
Bommai, apprised the Raj ya Sabha that steps were being taken to ensure that
those found guilty of ragging can be treated as guilty of gross misconduct and
subsequently, the penalty of rustication or removal from the rolls of the
universities could be imposed on the offenders. He also informed in the house
that instruction has been issued to the universities, and institutions and the
State Governments to take stern action to curb this menace and to invoke the
provisions of law if needed.
A few years ago, the Governor of Kerala, promulgated the
“Kerala Prohibition Of Ragging Ordinance” seeking to prohibit ragging in
educational institutions in the State. The ordinance inter alia provides
dismissal of a student from the educational institution, who found indulged in
acts of ragging and that student is to be further debarred for taking admission
in any other educational institute for five years from the date of order of
such dismissal.
The Supreme Court while dealing with public interest
litigation in 2001 said that `failure to prevent ragging by the management
would mean an act of negligence in maintaining discipline in the institution.
The Principal and other authority will be liable to face action in case a
student is subjected to ragging’. The Supreme Court further directed that “If
an institution fails to curb ragging the UGC/ funding agency may consider
stoppage of financial assistance to such an institution till such time it
implements the anti-ragging norms”. A University may consider disaffiliating a
college or institution that fails to curb ragging the court administered a
clear warning. Though the Supreme Court has also issued very strict and
stringent guidelines to curb the menace of ragging yet a point to ponder is why
the students resort to such heinous practice, after all these so-called seniors
are also from a decent home and belong to the intellectual group of students of
the nation.
Why do few resort to such socially unacceptable behavior? Why
the so-called seniors do not understand the problems of their own juniors and
subjecting them to such intolerable inhumane acts?
Serious thought is given to the above questions, we find that
our present education system is intended to create intelligentsia, but they are
absolutely lacking moral and ethical values. We do not teach our students,
philanthropic and moral values. There is no place for ethics in our education,
we are just teaching them the importance of the materialistic value of money.
The result has become meaningless. How alone the students are to blame, for such
acts? Teachers and parents are also equally responsible for they are unable to
cultivate in a good citizen. Academic qualification alone is of no value. If
education does not teach students to share the problems of others to love all
serve all, it would become meaningless.
It shall be important to quote the following words of a great
thinker that
To stop the menace of ragging it is but necessary to
inculcate among the students, importance of good character, the importance of
love, and affection towards their juniors and fellow beings.
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