Kill 'ragging' menace, not students

Bangalore: Sangeeta was restless the whole night and could not sleep. She could not wait to see her dream college next morning, meet new friends and pursue her dreams. But her excitement faded away as she entered the college premises. She was ragged severely by her seniors leaving her with no option other than discontinuing with her studies. This is the story of one college student's dream being shattered, but there are thousands of ragging cases reported till now that have led to deaths and suicide attempts.

'Ragging' is described as an extreme physical and mental torture of the first year students by their seniors.

On Mar 10, 2009 a 19 year old Medical student of Dr R P Govt Medical College (Himachal Pradesh), Aman Kachroo was brutally beaten to death by seniors of third year. The victim was punched on his chest, head, face from night to day. The victim succumbed to injuries and died. Ragging menace is increasing day by day.

On Dec 1, 1998 a first year student of Sri Venkateswara Polytechnic (Tirupati), Krishna Naik tried to commit suicide when he was severely ragged by his seniors asking him to have unnatural sex with his fellow beings. He was saved by a RPF personnel when he tried to jump before a running train.

According to a report of 2007 by CURE (Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education), even after Supreme Court's emphasising the need for educating the society and spreading awareness on this issue, nothing seems to be done regarding this. Despite the SC's emphasis, there are 52 cases of ragging reported by online English media as on May 21, 2007, CURE reports.

Ragging started off in 8th century AD during Olympics in Greece and slowly armed forces of various countries started practising this. Students who returned from the World War I took ragging to their colleges. India imbibed the phenomenon of ragging with the British entering India. By 90's ragging was rampant with several private medical , engineering colleges cropping up in India. Ragging has been rampant in India from then on.

Whether North or South India, there have been reports of young students becoming victims of ragging, mental torture and losing their lives. Each time a death due to ragging is reported, there will be a probe and for a certain period of time there could be a dip in the ragging incidents. It is hi-time to take action against menace rather than speaking.