Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURE)

Many of the victims bear emotional scars on self-esteem and self-worth that can lead to depression and suicide in the absence of emotional support. There have been several such cases. Ragging is an attempt to break the esteem of the incoming students and revel in their abject shame and fear.

 

Ragging incidents have included stripping of all clothes, public sexual acts to the extent of sexual intercourse & sodomy. Ragging takes its worst form when freshers are mercilessly beaten, asked to take drugs, made to work 24X7 and forced in rules such as not removing shoes for months.

Severe ragging is widely prevalent in most of the colleges which have hostels, be it the smaller cities or the metropolitans. Nothing speaks louder than ten cases of suicide due to ragging in the last four years. After the Supreme Court Judgment, colleges have geared up to keep ragging incidents under the cover. The problem is not solved yet, it is just hidden.

In many violent cases, colleges have actually denied the incident, or worse, indicated that the fresher had initiated the altercation. The college authority prefers to deny ragging incident for face-saving at the cost of the fresher's trauma. In stray cases, where action has been taken against the seniors, public sympathy towards the perpetrator has made justice difficult.

A disorganized set of freshers face a united front of seniors who ask them to do the most unthinkable things on the name of ragging. A NO from the fresher means public humiliation, beating and infliction of worst torture. Singling out a protesting student is a regular feature of the game of ragging. Complaints may mean facing hostile authorities, threat from the whole senior batch leaving no option for the fresher but to leave the campus and ruin his career. The options for the perpetrated fresher are few, though there are always exceptions, who prove it otherwise. It is rightly said, “Exception Proves the Rule”.