Freshers no longer seniors' 'ragdolls' in city institutes

While seniors from city-based arts, design and architecture institutes are starting to go easy on their juniors, ragging remains an essential part of induction at most engineering and medical institutes here. Some seniors claim the institutes are losing their culture, even as the juniors rejoice in the decline of ragging incidents.

With greater sensitivity towards ragging as well as introduction of preventive measures like setting up anti-ragging cells and an anti-ragging helpline by the University Grants Commission (UGC), incidents of ragging have been pulled down significantly. Many institutes even get their students sign an undertaking promising not to resort to or encourage ragging.

The changing scenario has led to the development of less violent means of ‘interactions’ at a city-based arts college. “Some practical jokes and pranks are carried out on our campus by the seniors. A junior was asked why he was wearing pants that were torn at the rear, even though they were perfectly fine.

The guy, feeling embarrassed had to cover up his rear using walls and slid into one of the washrooms to check. When he realised he had been pranked, he emerged red-faced but smiling from the toilet,” said a St Xavier’s College student recalling one such incident.

According to him, such pranks are a far cry from earlier times when they were even made to fetch tea and water for their seniors.

“However, the juniors use the (anti-ragging) helpline to warn senior students if they are stepping out of line nowadays. So, the interactions only last as long as the juniors don’t take offence,” he added.

Meanwhile, NID students state that the current crop of students, who can pay the annual fees of around Rs2.5 lakh come from a particular social strata, as against earlier when lower fees enabled a larger variety of students to be admitted here. “Students who come from well-off families have low resistance and can get easily offended by remarks or behavior of their seniors. A girl recently complained to her parents after her seniors made her sit with them for an hour,” he said.

Most severe ragging incidents take place inside the boys’ hostels.

Students at medical institutes say that they come prepared for some sort of ‘initiation’ ceremony. In a local medical institute hostel, two male students were made to act out an intimate scene from their favourite movie. Many comply as they don’t wish to offend their seniors, who can help out a lot with studies and advice, he said.

At the same time, girl students and their seniors are more casual.

One such student says that female hostelites of a medical institute are asked to sing Bollywood songs, or to oil their hair and wear salwar kameez instead of shorts or jeans.

At institutes such as Cept, guards are now employed to be bouncers and prevent any ragging from taking place. The result is that no incidents have been reported this year. An engineering college hostel in the city used to be the hub of ragging activity earlier, with juniors forced to enact their seniors’ fantasy scenarios. However, now, if a junior wishes to, he simply walks off from an introduction session threatening action from the anti-ragging cell.

RECENT RAGGING INCIDENTS
GNLU
In July this year, a first year law student had called the UGC helpline number to complain against some seniors. The student alleged that his seniors were targeting him owing to his ethnicity and caste. Later, the institute stated that the student was just testing if the helpline worked and that a committee was investigating the case.

BJ Medical College
Students of first year complained to UGC’s anti-ragging helpline that post-graduate students called them in the hostel room at 10 pm. The junior students were made to get water and tea for two senior students who ragged them. First year students also complained that they were forced to do the same till 4 am.

NID
In 2011, three students of product design and exhibition design were suspended from the institute as allegations of ragging junior students were made against them. First year students alleged that three students barged into their room, passed lewd comments and forced them to smoke.

A few years ago...
Earlier, the whole batch of seniors and juniors at a city design institute would assemble every night after college and have night-long introduction sessions. For instance, a girl who was not comfortable speaking Hindi would be asked to give a commentary in that language and even taught to sing Bhojpuri songs.

A city-based medical institute student said, “Some students were once asked to strip down to basics and made to race across a stretch of the boys’ hostel where the lights were turned off.”

An architecture student recalls a ‘talent night’, where the students would be asked to sing and perform for their seniors and irrespective of their performance they would be applauded with rotten tomatoes and eggs.

First-year students of a hotel management institute were taken to Ellisbridge at 3 am and made to race in their undergarments.