 "Medical student undergoes dialysis after being ragged in Rajasthan: What does the law say?")
Another distressing incident of ragging has come to light in India. A first-year medical student in Rajasthan’s Dungarpur was allegedly ragged by senior students to the point where he developed an infection in his liver and kidney and had to undergo dialysis.
The shocking instance has once again put the spotlight on the menace of ragging in India’s higher educational institutions. Despite anti-ragging laws in place, the toxic ritual continues to flourish in colleges and varsities.
Let’s take a closer look.
Medical student ragged in Rajasthan
The 20-year-old fresher from Dungarpur’s Government Medical College (GMC) was among the 50-70 other first-year medical students who were taken to a hill, where they were allegedly ragged by seniors, the police said, as per Indian Express.
The victim’s father told the newspaper that the first-year students were taken to the hill on May 15 in blistering heat. He said the seniors forced his son to do 300-350 sit-ups, while some others had to do more.
He said that the severe strain led to damage in his son’s muscles, triggering infection in his kidney and liver. The father told Indian Express that his son initially did not reveal the ragging incident but when he “complained about pain”, they got some tests done.
According to the SHO of Dungarpur Sadar police station, Girdhari Singh, the victim was hospitalised in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad for a week during which he underwent dialysis four times, reported PTI.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsHe recovered nearly a month and a half later and returned to college in June.
An FIR was filed against seven students on Tuesday under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 149 (offence committed in prosecution of common object), 341 (wrongful restraint), and 352 ( assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation).
The college administration took action only this week after receiving a communication from the National Medical Commission (NCM). The victim had lodged a complaint with the NMC’s anti-ragging cell, as per a Times of India (TOI) report.
GMC principal Dr Balamuruganvelu S told Indian Express, “We formed a committee within 24 hours and investigated (the case). We suspended seven students who were involved in the ragging and also lodged an FIR at the local police station.”
This is not a standalone case. Last August, a first-year student was found dead after being subjected to “intense ragging” by his seniors at Jadavpur University in Kolkata.
Several other ragging incidents have made headlines in recent years. In July 2022, a video emerged of students of the government medical college in Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam slapping their juniors, who were standing next to a wall, with their heads down.
What does the law say?
Before delving into the law, let’s understand ragging.
It is an act targeting another student, especially freshers, that causes them physical or mental discomfort or harm.
The Supreme Court had banned ragging in 2001. At the time, the apex court had described it as “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 is 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 student 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 cause of indulging in ragging is deriving sadistic pleasure or showing off power, authority or superiority by the seniors over their juniors or freshers.”
In 2009, Aman Kachroo, a first-year medical student died after being assaulted by his drunk seniors in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district. The tragic incident prompted the Supreme Court to appoint a committee headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director RK Raghavan to tackle the ragging menace.
Based on recommendations of the Raghavan Committee, the University Grants Commission (UGC) formalised guidelines for universities against ragging.
As per the UGC, ragging constitutes teasing, treating or handling a fellow student with rudeness; causing physical or psychological harm; causing or generating a sense of shame; any act that prevents or disrupts the regular academic activity of any student; exploiting a fresher or any other student for completing academic tasks assigned to an individual or a group of students; financial extortion or forceful expenditure; homosexual assaults, stripping, forcing obscene and lewd acts, gestures, causing bodily harm.
These regulations were amended in 2016 to expand the definition of ragging to include “any act of physical or mental abuse (including bullying and exclusion) targeted at another student (fresher or otherwise) on the ground of colour, race, religion, caste, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, appearance, nationality, regional origins, linguistic identity, place of birth, place of residence or economic background.”
The UGC guidelines also mandate higher educational institutions to take active steps to stop ragging, including making students sign an undertaking that they will not engage in ragging.
“The institution shall set up appropriate committees, including the course-incharge, student advisor, Wardens and some senior students as its members, to actively monitor, promote and regulate healthy interaction between the freshers, junior students and senior students,” according to the rules.
If the anti-ragging committee finds the accused guilty, any member of the panel can “proceed to file a First Information Report (FIR), within twenty four hours of receipt of such information or recommendation, with the police and local authorities, under the appropriate penal provisions,” the UGC says.
Ragging is still not a specific offence but the guilty could be punished under several sections of the IPC, including Section 340 (wrongful confinement).
The guidelines by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) state that institutional authorities must report every ragging incident to the local police.
Many states, including Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, have their own anti-ragging laws.
Why ragging remains a menace
India has not been able to successfully put an end to the ragging issue even after all the rules and regulations.
According to the UGC’s annual report, it received 858 complaints of ragging on its anti-ragging ‘helpline’ number (1800-180-5522) in 2022-23, compared to 582 in 2021-22, reported Free Press Journal.
As many as 1,240 ragging incidents were reported in higher educational institutions between January 1, 2023 and April 28, 2024. Of these, 82.18 per cent of complaints were flagged by male students, 17.74 per cent by women and 0.08 per cent by transgender people, reported The New Indian Express (TNIE).
Last August, the UGC revealed in a Right To Information (RTI) reply that at least 25 students died by suicide due to ragging between January 2018 and August 2023.
A 2017 survey found that nearly 40 per cent of students in India have been subjected to some form of ragging and bullying, with most cases coming from medical and engineering colleges.
But why is ragging so rampant? Many students, seniors and juniors, perceive ragging as a rite of passage. Junior students, especially freshers, generally do not complain about their harassers due to fear.
Prasanna Shukla, an Indore-based activist, told Article 14, “Junior students don’t complain against ragging due to fear of tarnishing their social image, or being isolated in the institution.”
Dr Ajay Saini, a professor at IIT Delhi, said the current laws are not enough to curb the menace of ragging due to external factors. Speaking to Outlook last August, he said, “Although the laws are in place in every institute, local politics play a very important role (in ragging). Especially in state universities, instances of ragging are more because the students are either members of a union or they have friends in the union, or they know a local MLA or people of the ruling party. And the student getting ragged is often from the weaker section of society.”
While just a few ragging cases are reported, police probes and arrests are limited to rare incidents. Accused students usually do not get strict punishments as victims fail to step forward.
Gaurav Singhal, vice-president of the anti-ragging non-profit Society Against Violence in Education, told Article 14, “Victims are afraid to complain against seniors as they have to live in the same college premises and hostels over the next few years. There is no way to provide protection to victims.”
Anti-ragging committees are also, in many colleges, “limited to paper only”, teachers and activists said, as per the digital news outlet.
Experts call for a Central law on ragging and say it should be made a “cognisable offence”.
It is societal conditioning that fuels ragging, and until colleges and authorities become proactive in dealing with the toxic practice, we will keep failing to nip it in the bud.
With inputs from agencies
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