It’s a pernicious campus evil which obstinately defies all efforts of Central and state governments to eradicate it. The tragic death by ragging on March 8 of Aman Kachroo, an undergraduate medical student of the Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College in Himachal Pradesh, and a suicide attempt on February 27 by another ragging victim N. Triveni studying down south in the Government Agriculture Engineering College, Bapatla, Andhra Pradesh, moved the Supreme Court to venture once more unto the breach. On May 8 Arijit Pasayat and A.K. Ganguly JJ of the apex court issued a new slew of anti-ragging directions to supplement its earlier order of May 2007, in yet another effort to stamp out this evil from India’s campuses.
In its latest order, the apex court has suggested that every college appoint a psychiatrist to counsel students and recommend rehabilitation measures in cases of alcoholism (the R.K. Raghavan committee — appointed by the Supreme Court in 1999 to study ragging — which investigated the Aman Kachroo case established a close link between ragging and alcohol consumption).
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The court also directed state governments to give an undertaking that they would take proactive steps to prevent ragging incidents in accordance with its directions, and gave its approval to a suggestion that the Union HRD ministry in consultation with UGC, the MCI (Medical Council of India), AICTE and other Central government higher education regulatory organisations set up a central crises hotline and anti-ragging database. The court ordered that once the toll-free crises helpline and database become operational, state governments should amend their anti-ragging laws to include provisions mandating penal consequences for institutional heads who fail to take timely steps to prevent ragging and punish perpetrators.
Quite clearly the additional directives spelt out in the Supreme Court’s May 8 are necessary. Despite the Raghavan Committee having submitted a detailed report comprising 50 recommendations to eradicate ragging, according to the Delhi-based Coalition for Uprooting Ragging in Education (CURE) there were 11 ragging-related deaths and five attempted suicides on campuses across the country during the period July 2007-June 2008.
Certainly down south in Tamil Nadu, the punitive provisions of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1997 haven’t deterred die-hards from indulging in this sadistic ritual. On March 7, P.S. Akhil Dev (19), a first year bachelor of business management student at the PSG Arts and Science College, Coimbatore was ragged in his private hostel room by five seniors, beaten up unmercifully with a frying pan and steel chair. Today, despite prolonged treatment, Akhil suffers the agony of nine holes in the retina of both eyes, impaired hearing, back injuries and acute mental trauma. Instead of punishing the perpetrators of this heinous crime as per the R.K. Raghavan Committee recommendations and state anti-ragging legislation, the PSG college authorities attempted to “settle the issue amicably” between aggressors and the victim to safeguard the reputation of the college.
“The time when managements tried to bury ragging incidents because they feared admissions will be adversely affected is long past. These days raggers should be expelled without compassion to save institutional reputation,” says Dr. K. Kasturi, dean of the S.S.N. Engineering College, Chennai.
Yet the grim reality is that the great majority of ragging cases are unreported. Therefore doubts still persist in the public mind whether the latest Supreme Court intervention will serve any purpose. The roots of ragging are most likely rooted in ancient caste, religious and class animosities inherent in an unprecedently diverse and plural society. These deep-rooted animosities inevitable surface in the egalitarian environments of academia. Therefore important as are rulings of the courts, to curb this menace in schools and colleges, quality school education for all is likely to prove the more efficacious remedy.
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)