Dr A S Bhatia
A nightmare, I have faced was in the year 1983, when after celebrating my admission in the prestigious Government Medical College Jammu , I entered the college building to pursue my dreams to wear the white coat! In those days no Apron wearing ceremony was there , as is the practice at present and we were taught the Hippocratic Oath instead of Charak Shapat, which is sworn to all medicos these days. After the first interaction with the then Principal, the towering personality of his time, most revered late Dr S L Verma, we came out of the classroom cheering, some of us even throwing our aprons high in the air in a jubilant mood, when we were encountered by a group of about ten to fifteen students who, we came to know later, were our seniors in the medical college. “Stand in a queue, you……! Don’t you know how to behave in front of your seniors?” shouted one of the strongly built tall boys. We were taken aback, and were confused as to what we have done that made this boy to shout so horrifically at us? In no time all of us were made to stand in a queue. Soon some girls also joined that group of boys and were laughing uncontrollably, “Waaah.. New bakras…!” And all of them had laughter of their hearts at us. Rest what continued to happen to us physically, mentally, emotionally are the terrible memories of getting admission in a professional college!
The ragging continued for months, we were scared to go to the college. I myself was made to wear necklace of shoes around my neck and walked in the main streets in front of Medical College. I, as the day scholar, was a little bit better placed than the hostellers who were worst affected, where some were forced to dance naked on the rooftop of the hostel during night! Remember, What I am telling was the scenario of most of the professional colleges throughout the country in 1980s, till the Honorable Supreme Court of India came to the rescue of the new entrants in the professional colleges by its land mark judgment of declaring Ragging a severely punishable act!
Accordingly, The Jammu and Kashmir “Prohibition of Ragging Act, 2011” also came into force on 13th April 2011 to prohibit ragging in educational institutions in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which defines “Ragging as any 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 undisciplined 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 student to do any act or perform something which such students will not do in the ordinary course and which has the effect of causing or generating a sense of shame or embarrassment or adverse effect on the physique or psyche of a fresher, or a junior student” That was the historical turning point in the coming years for the all young students seeking admission in higher institutions to see their dreams come true! I, as a student of mid 80s, could guess the impact, this act was going to shower among the student especially fresher’s! All heads of the institutions were made responsible to implement this act strictly in letter and sprit and in case of any non-compliance shown by them, the respective heads were made responsible for the ragging in their institution with specific defined punishments to the Head which may include imprisonment if the Act is not implemented in accordance with the clearly defined subclasses of the Act!
I feel envy, why this law was not in force during our time. It is a bitter truth that many young lives were lost due to this infamous custom of doing ragging of the fresher! Many young girls in past committed suicides and many brilliant brains left the college in-between to escape from the harassment at the hands of seniors.
But a million dollar question is, Are all Colleges taking this act seriously? Now a new trend has been set in the recent past, noticed by me, with an experience of more than thirty years in handling the students affairs and also heading the anti ragging committee at GMC Jammu for more than six years. A very comfortable policy is being adopted by many Heads of the institution. In the unfortunate incident of ragging happening in their colleges, the eye wash procedure is adopted, enquiry is conducted, no reporting to police is done but instead all involved students in ragging will be called in the presence of some senior faculty members, the raggers will be warned, a phone call is made to their parents and the juniors are forced to agree for a patch up and the matter stands closed. May be the Heads are adopting this way of escapism due to the pressure exerted by the parents of the raggers or some influential persons! The raggers are let scot free without any penalty against what actually is prescribed by the “Prohibition of ragging act!” This is a very serious and alarming situation! The juniors are left to live in constant fear of being harassed again, the seniors left with an impression that nothing has happened and it was only a matter to tender an apology and nothing will happen to them in future also if any other seniors also indulges in the ragging of freshers!
In my opinion, a student indulging in ragging has psycho-social problems with violence hidden in his subconscious mind and to set them right they should be dealt strictly and also to deter others not to get involved in ragging. The Act has clearly defined that punishment in the form of banning the entry in the college and hostel premises, expulsion from the boarding homes, hostels and mess of the educational institutions and even recommendation for rustication from college course, so as to act as deterrent punishment and to ensure collective pressure on the potential raggers, even the migration certificate to be issued later on after the completion of the professional course should have a mention on it that this student has indulged in the act of ragging. We, as the head of the institutions, by not strictly adhering to all clauses and subclasses of the Prohibition of Ragging act, are marring the hard work done by the Honorable Supreme Court of India in their land mark judgment declaring Ragging as severely punishable Act, and such people are diluting the impact of Act! We, by not implementing the Ragging Prohibition Act in totality, are committing unpardonable crime to thousands of students who have suffered Psychophysical harm and humiliation and to many who have lost their lives at the hands of seniors as a result of ragging in the past!
Otherwise as Mirza Ghalib said,
Mere Paas Se Guzar Ke Mera
Haal Tak Na Pucha…
Mai Ye Kesse Maan Jau Ke Wo
Duur Jaake Roye…
(The author is Principal Government Medical College Rajouri)
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