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The ragging debate rages
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What do students and teachers have to say about ragging in colleges?
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CAMPUS TRADITION Ragging is usually considered integral to college life
Some of those who haven't been, miss it. Many of those who have been at the receiving end, don't always dig it. While no college permits it, students consider it integral to college life, at some level or the other. The problem with the tradition of ragging, which means to tease or taunt, is that it often includes physical abuse and sexual harassment.
Aditya, a second-year biotechnology student from RMK Engineering College, says he wanted to get ragged but he wasn't. "It helps make new friends even though it is thorough bullying. It may help in bonding over sports with your seniors." Given a chance, he would love to rag, no holds barred. But then, who doesn't?
The IITians have their own funda in college. Chirag Singhal, who just passed out of IIT, tells us: "In IIT, nothing `physical' happens. It's just friendly talk. The seniors initiate the juniors into the college."
"Ragging is good as long as it is not physical. And even then, there must be a limit. It depends on the person. If the person can take things lightly, then good. Otherwise, it should stop at something mild and harmless like dancing. Giving nicknames is also part of ragging, it's an IIT custom. Mine was Infy. It's a long story. In short, it was because I didn't know what Infosys was," adds Chirag.
Harmless fun
In women's colleges, the term ragging is synonymous with harmless fun.
As Sonali, a second-year student of Journalism from M.O.P. Vaishnav
College, reveals, "M.O.P is a very nice college when it comes to ragging. Because it's practically non-existent. Seniors and super-seniors go to the classes of the first years and basically talk to them. There's no serious ragging as such, and even if it's there, it's rare. Extreme cases. The person who's been subjected to it would immediately complain and strict action would be taken against the ragger."
"We asked our juniors this year to say `Hail Senior' whenever they passed by us. Just for a day though. We have an exclusive festival for the freshers, `Abhilasha,' where they can showcase their talent. So we usually scout classes for that," says Sonali.
Ban the practice
Sujatha, a Humanities lecturer, too believes that "Ragging as such is good as long as it's harmless. It's a fine way of getting to know the seniors better and vice-versa. When there's no one to monitor the limit, there's an easy chance that ragging might take an ugly turn. So it's better that it's banned," she says.
Swarna, a second-year student from the Madras Institute of Technology, says most seniors call the juniors over to assert their superiority. "If you give in, you get undermined. If you talk back, you are stuck with a reputation for the rest of your life in college."
Ragging is known to be extreme in medical colleges. Urvashi, a second
year medical student from Sri Ramachandra Medical College, thinks that's an exaggeration. "You expect it to be intense but the cards are always in the junior's favour. They only rag you if they are interested in you and just to establish their authority... I guess there hasn't been any intense harmful ragging, they've been just friendly. Instances that would make you feel stupid."
SUDHISH KAMATH
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