Ragging on University Campuses: A Silent Epidemic and the Way Forward

When we hear the word university, a very aesthetic and motivating image pops up in our brains. It is a place of free thinking, intellectualism and higher education. It is a holy ground for many youths who come to forge their career dreams. Students slog day in, and out every single moment to get admission into one of the best universities. They compromise their sleep, comfort and social life for a number of years. Their parents also sacrifice a lot for this one purpose. Others use their land as collateral to borrow money or wipe out all of the savings they kept. They wish for their kids to be successful scholars, doctors, engineers or leaders. An admission test is like an intense war. Hundreds of thousands of students battle for a handful of places. Only a handful of students make it past this brutal barrier. They come into their dream campus with a heart full of hope and happiness. However, for many of those students this tantalising promise becomes a terrible nightmare. A terribly vicious, toxic culture on campus. This bad culture is called ragging.

Today ragging presents itself as a big crisis in our higher education system. It’s not just some harmless fun as many people like to say. Welcoming our new students is not a harmless tradition. It is a major, organized and systemic issue. This is a psychological illness that alters the thought process of our youth. It also is an immediate and violent violation of basic human rights. This is something that we need to scrutinize very closely. To save our academic environment, we need to analyse the causes and effects of it.

We can only imagine the actual horror of ragging if we hear what was actually going on through them. From the first week on campus, are you subject to vicious bullying? Seniors often get them at the residential halls in motion. They reserve some areas for that, called guestrooms or gonorooms. This is where the freshers have a horrible nightmare, in these dark rooms. The freshmen are made to stand for hours without moving. They may not look up or, heaven forbid, anywhere in the seniors’ level. The seniors shout at them and use abusive language constantly. At times this mental torture leads to physical violence of brute nature. They are whacked, smacked and punched by seniors to the point where those getting slapped back have their bodies forced into painful physical positions. However, in the worst cases this leads to seniors making freshers carry out acts that are extremely humiliating and disgraceful. And this isn’t even an education or onboarding thing. This is pure, unadulterated torture.

The suffering caused by this torture lasts a long time in a student life. It cuts such deep and permanent scars in the mind of a student as well as on their body. The victims go through a lot of psychological trauma. They experience high-levels of anxiety, panic attacks and live in perpetual fear. They lose their self-confidence completely. They no longer feel safe going to classes, roaming campus or staring at seniors. Most new students get depressed and fall into a dense clinical depression. That is all because they cannot confide this pain to anyone, making them feel isolated and lonely. You are only as good, if not better than your parents back home. They also feed a fear that if they open their mouths, the seniors will find them even more punitive. This pressure is so immense that many bright students cannot take it. Certain students take the tragic route of suicide to end this limitless suffering. This is an irreparable loss to the families and we as a nation. Some students decide to renounce their well-deserved university seats. They go back home with their bags and broken spirits. Safe enough where they could never get off the ground, let alone flying.

Which raises a serious question. Why seniors torture juniors in such way? These are also seniors after all freshers last year. They endured the same torture and abuse. But then they become seniors and do the same train of cruelty to this year’s group. There is a very complicated and broken psychological mindset that causes this to happen. The ragging is psychologically driven by a corpse craving for victory and dominance, according to psychologists. A student who could be a fresher one moment now becomes the senior and suddenly feels command. He needs to feel like he can exert this power over someone beneath him. The freshers, as helpless and scrawny individuals, are easy targets for him. The result is a vicious cycle of abuse and punishment. But the pain, anger and humiliation of the senior’s first year remain buried in his mind. Well, when he sees the new batch, all his pent-up frustrations spill out. He gets a perverted pleasure from controlling and hurting others.

The same could be said when it comes to peer pressure, as that continues expanding the ambition of ragging too. Most senior citizens do not want to observe ragging in reality for the first time. But they participate because their peers are. They get scared they will be branded weaklings or outsiders if they don’t participate. They fall prey to a false myth that ragging is part of an ancient tradition on campus. They believe puts a kid through pain both physical and mental, but going through this junk makes you smart tough street current on where to score drugs. They think that it prepares the freshers for what they have to face in this jungle called life, outside of college. This is an utterly erroneous and anti-logical idea. Nothing good can come out of cruelty, neither manners nor discipline. Real respect will never be commanded through fear and violence. It can not be purchased, it can only come with acts of kindness and direction by leading others.

Our country has anti ragging laws and guidelines in place quite explicitly. The University Grants Commission has laid down strict laws for all institutions of education. In fact, ragging is a criminal offense as defined in the law. If found guilty of ragging, the student may be permanently expelled from the university. The authorities can further refer the perpetrators to police for criminal prosecution. Q: Why, in spite of these stringent laws, is ragging still not eliminated? This is primarily due to the apathetic and weak administration of the universities. The authorities typically disregard this issue. Nor do they enforce existing laws with appropriate rigor.

Ragging and student politics are deeply, darkly intertwined. Most ragging occurs in the presence of politically dominant networks who provide them active protection. Those groups control the allocation of seats in the residential halls. Through these guestinns, they brainwash and operate new students. Freshers are made to attend political rallies and programs. They all see ragging as a tool to destroy the individual will of new students. The university administration is often terrified of these powerful political figures. They do not wish to politicize the campus. So, they just turn a blind eye toward the grievances of students. Unfortunately, they frequently request solid physical evidence from the petrified victims. However, you can not expect a fresher to be able to get evidence in a room filled with abusers. If the freshers complain, torture will be met with threats to throw them out of halls. They usually threaten to ruin their academic career. Thus these freshers decide to suffer in silence. At times, even the teachers and hall provosts fault the victims themselves. The freshers should blend well in campus culture. This impudent attitude emboldens the offenders further.

An immediate stop must be put to this silent epidemic in actual ragging for our education system. We require a holistic, robust and Murthy Plans focused long-term action strategy. The university should begin with a water-tight no-tolerance policy on ragging. This policy should be applicable to all students equally and without discrimination. But it does not matter if the abuser is from a strong political party or influential family. Any student guilty of ragging shall be expelled from the institution immediately and a criminal case against them lodged. The entire campus will clearly understand the message by way of a few examples deployed with judicious severity. Nothing will stop potential abusers from doing harm to someone.

Second, we need to create an environment where there is a safe, simple and fully anonymous but also digital reporting system. But, freshers are unable to complain out of safety fear. The university must start a separate phone application or online portal. Allow students to complain via text, audio clips or photo evidence without attaching their names. An independent committee of teachers and legal experts should run this digital system. Quick action is ensured by direct reporting to the Vice-Chancellor.

Third, we need to substitute the pernicious culture of ragging with constructive socio-political initiatives. There needs to be some way for seniors and juniors to get in contact with each other, simple. But this is an introduction which ought to reflect respect and friendship. More formally, universities can develop academic mentoring programs. This successful system is flawlessly applied by top-level universities across the developed power. In this, a responsible final year student is assigned to be the mentor of a few freshers. A senior mentor assists the freshers with studies, class notes and all things related to campus life. It makes a brotherly bond so healthy such that there is no room for fear.

Fourth, The University needs to rework its welcome sessions. The authorities should hold a seven-day orientation festival just after admissions. All through this week, the legal experts and psychologists should hold workplaces on human rights, compassion fatigue and gender sensitiveness. It is very important that new students are made completely aware of their legal rights and university anti-ragging policies from the first day itself.

Fifth, mental health needs to be prioritized. You should carry at least one proficient psychologist as a counselor, it ought to be the best work place for every university or campus. Drastic Therapy for Victims of Ragging to Overcome Emotional Trauma and Self-confidence Simultaneously, abusers must have psychotherapy to correct destructive behavioral patterns.

Finally, an end to the desperate shortage of housing must be achieved in tandem by both government and university. Residential Halls are one of the breeding grounds for ragging. Freshers continue to stay in congested rooms overseen by political groups because of a shortage of legal seats. The university needs to guarantee that there is a genuine and lawful seat afterward for admission for each first-year student. Once we take student political groups out of room allocation, ragging will stop instantly.

All in all, a Nation engine is the genuine development of locales and colleges. They create the scientists and thinkers, teachers and leaders of tomorrow. We cannot let ragging destroy these seats of excellence which should be free from such primitive and cruel practice. Ragging is not a petty campus prank; it is an appalling crime that devastates young lives, wrecks families. It must not be allowed to continue: it is a matter of collective social conscience. The government, university administrators, faculty members of all disciplines and students in general as well as parents need to act against this common evil. We must end the toxic culture of silence on our campuses. Speak up and defend our youth. Come let us create an ambitious, cocoonless safe space for every single student to breathe through freely and achieve their dreams.

Md Shihab Uddin

Volunteer, UNICEF Bangladesh

The author is an independent researcher and a student of Folklore and Social Development Studies at the University of Rajshahi.He may be contacted at shihab.fsds@gmail.com