Ragging tarnishes sports

The recent death of a girl student in a suicide pact of four at the Water Sports Centre in Alappuzha has once again resurrected memories of ragging menace that refuses to die despite anti-ragging laws and regulations, guidelines, help lines and moral and police watch. It also raises a big question on senior-junior relationship in institutions of learning.

The training centre in Kerala is one amongst the 250 training centres under the Sports Authority of India (SAI) having 10,000-odd athletes. Junior athletes often face harassment in the hands of seniors, and the suicide note now making news, points to ragging. Since this incident, a number of students have come forward to openly speak about the in-house harassment in these centres. It seems that bullying junior athletes is common. Harassment of juniors for various reasons gets mixed up with ragging.

While the state Sports Minister has directed his Secretary to probe the incident, the Home Minister has ordered a police investigation. Besides, the State Human Rights Commission is also seized of the matter. As in cases of suicide, the circumstances leading to the extreme step, people responsible for athletes’ desperation, conditions of life in sports hostels, and the role of tutors and management needs to be investigated.

No less important is the general senior-junior relationship and trainer-trainee interaction in the premises of the sports centre and outside. Ragging, as practiced in Indian educational institutions, is not an indigenous ‘game’, but an imported one. The foreign origin is presently forgotten as the game is Indianised. A section of youth, seem to be over-willing to adopt and play undesirable, unwanted, and indecent roles and to graciously admit ragging as part of their culture.

Ragging means any conduct – written words or act, which has the effect of teasing or treating with rudeness another student and indulging in activities to cause annoyance, hardship, physical or mental or psychological harm to another student (s) or create fears and apprehensions of such harm. The actor is senior(s) and the victim junior (s) or fresher in an institution. The victim is compelled by force or threat to do certain acts which he/she won’t do voluntarily. Thus, ragging causes traumatic experience to the victim.

Worse, public shaming, made more public through social media, may permanently unnerve them. Interestingly, the practice of ragging was originally linked with sports and games. It is traced back to ancient sports culture of Greeks to receive and admit new entrants to the sports community by senior members. The idea then was to inculcate fraternal team spirit and not to inflict pain and hardship. The practice spread to military academies and later entered educational institutions. Team spirit was lost in the course leaving seniors to bully and torture juniors and force them to do their bidding.

In the West, ragging is known by different terms--hazing, fagging, bullying, pledging, and horse-playing etc. – all referring to the crude form of welcoming new entrants by seniors. Hazing is actually a technique of imparting team spirit in place of self-interest brought by soldiers who returned to their colleges to continue education after World War I. In India, ragging came with the English education during the British rule.

The origin of the word “rag” is obscure, and its connotation is associated with reveling, and rough, indecent and noisy behaviour. The word has no desirable connotation and has come to denote rude harassment inflicted on juniors by seniors in colleges. Very often, such acts cross the limits of decency and jokes and amusement and become painful and demeaning and create physical, mental, and psychological wound on the victim.

Way back in 1998, the Tamil Nadu Government passed the prohibition of Ragging Bill followed by Kerala after the gruesome murder of a medical student in a hostel. The Acts prescribed punishment for ragging which included imprisonment, fine and rustication for three years. The Karnataka Education Act made ragging a cognizable offence and started the practice of maintaining a Ragging Register in all police stations. The anti-Ragging Act was adopted in Andhra Pradesh as well.

The Supreme Court too stepped in and in 2001 banned ragging throughout the country. In 2006, it directed the Human Resource Development Ministry to form a panel to prepare guidelines to help educational institutions curb this growing menace. The recommendations included that all higher institutions should include information about all ragging incidents in their brochure/prospectus for admissions.

In 2009, the University Grants Commission came out with regulations on curbing ragging in all universities, deemed universities, and higher educational institutions. These applied to all premises, residences and hostels, sports grounds, canteens, etc. Further, these placed the responsibility for checking ragging on the institutions and suggested formation of anti-ragging committees and surprise visits to hostels by anti-ragging squads.

Indeed, it triggered an anti-ragging movement in the country, but ineffective to prevent the cruel nightmare of young students. Sadly, India has indeed become notorious for ragging. A few years ago it was reported that the Malaysian Government warned Indian students against ragging. However, in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Philippines, ragging is as bad as here.

As against this, US State universities strictly condemn hazing, wherein pictures are put on websites to wean students away from this cruel behaviour. High school hazers are said to be inspired by the American professional athletes who seem to delight in tormenting and humiliating “rookies” – raw beginners.

In the Philippines, Anti-Hazing Law is in force, and an Anti-Hazing Interagency Task Force has been created. One of its activities is to visit colleges and universities and ascertain the prevalence of hazing-related student violence in their campuses and also gather first hand information on the views and sentiments of students, teachers, and administrators.

Ragging cannot be considered as a sport in which two or more parties enjoy their participation. It has one or more offenders and one or more victims. It is unwarranted intrusion into a person’s liberty and is violation of human rights. As such, it has to be treated as a crime and not as sport or fun. Unfortunately, there is no reliable data on ragging in any country.

In India, there is a general impression that rural students become victims, more than urban students. During admission season every year it becomes a serious topic for discussion in colleges. However, one can confidently assume that students opposed to ragging far outnumber those in favour. For, one of the considerations of serious students in choosing colleges is the reputation the institutions hold in checking ragging.

Ironically, despite laws and rules, ragging continues. We, therefore, have to understand the culture of violence prevailing among student youth – its causes, nature, and remedies. More cultural shows and activities may help establish cordial relations in the student community and promote a constructive team spirit. Cases of serious incidents leading to death, suicide, and physical and mental damage to victims must be treated as crime.

Anti-ragging committees composed of senior and junior students, faculty members, parents and an eminent member residing in the locality may be formed in all colleges to prevent unruly behaviour of students. After all, places of learning are educational institutions. (The writer is a former director, ICSSR, New Delhi)

By Dr S Saraswathi