Rooting out ragging

There has been a discourse again in society and in the media about the severe ragging taking place in universities and how politics has also been well mixed with it. In fact, the situation in some universities is very pathetic and a trend of students leaving their courses has risen to an alarming level in public universities.

When considering the students who become the victims of ragging, it is clear that they are from urban popular schools, middle or upper middle-class students. When it comes to raggers, it is seen that they often come from lowincome family backgrounds and are associated with ultraradical political parties.

According to my experience as the Chief Marshal of a state university, the common characteristics of raggers include their weak personality, intolerant nature, indifference towards education, lack of understanding of good and evil, as well as strong class hatred mixed with jealousy.

In the situation where the society has some respect for them as “ugath daruwo”, it is seen that these students behave in an arrogant and arbitrary manner, misusing that common feeling of the people without giving thought to their illegal behaviour. Due to various political and personal reasons, some university dons too have also become pawns of student unions that promote ragging, disrupting the smooth functioning of state universities.

Inhumane ragging is a barbaric act that is not acceptable in a civilized society. Students who are severely affected by ragging may suffer from various mental and personality disorders later in their lives. The unfortunate situation is that a considerable number of students are leaving their courses because they unable to bear the brutal ragging. Although there are legal provisions to control ragging, many university authorities are reluctant to take action. In this situation, until all the university authorities implement the well formulated legal provisions given in the Ragging Act to the letter, eliminating this wild practice from our universities will be just a dream.

Major General Keerthi

Kottawaththa (Retd)