Ragging in Universities: A Symptom or a Disease?

Ragging in Universities

There are numerous problems facing our educational institutions, especially public universities. But nowadays harassment in the name of ragging is the most-talked about one.

The problem has installed itself at some of the country's public universities. Unlike eve-teasing, anyone regardless of sex can fall victim to ragging. In this sense, ragging is worse than eve-teasing. The students of public universities often face different forms of harassment on the campus while pursuing their education, which gives rise to a question: Are they really approaching a congenial atmosphere at their educational institutions, or just leading themselves to a dark and dangerous situation?

Even a layman will find how ragging is making negative impacts on the minds of the brilliant students. There are allegations that the authorities concerned are not playing any effective role to end ragging on the campus.

Aminul Islam Uzzal, now a student of Statistics at Chittagong University, fell victim to ragging said, "In late 2007, when I along with some of my friends, went to Jahangirnagar University for admission tests, I had a horrible experience during my stay there. I was staying at Al-Beruni Hall where there was a temporary hall room for admission seekers to pass the night. It was a cold winter night and the clothes we wore were not enough to protect us from the biting cold. Moreover, we had to stay on the floor as the number of beds in the room was insufficient for such a good number of candidates. At around 10:00 pm came some senior students of the university and ordered us to follow them. We all out of a kind of hesitation followed them silently. They took us to a nearby pond that was close to the hall building and told us to put off our clothes in an unusually rough tone. Shahed, one of my friends, got so afraid that he immediately took an U-tern to escape, but it was too late. He was caught and all of us were forced to stand still in the icy water of the pond. They took our clothes and we had to stay in the cool water for more than 15-20 minutes. Besides, they in a mocking tone told us to look for fishes in the pond. It was a terrible night indeed...".

শিক্ষা সংক্রান্ত খবরাখবর নিয়মিত পেতে রেজিস্ট্রেশন করুন অথবা Log In করুন।

Account BenefitThis is not new at all at Jahangirnagar University where ragging is a kind of entertainment for some students. And ragging is done in different ways, leaving negative impacts on the minds of freshers. Here a group of students are chasing one another, and doing different violent activities. They force a junior student to sand still in cold water of ponds, snatch their money and cell phones, and coerced them into doing weird activities.

Nowadays female students, as we have come to know, are not lagging behind male students in terms of ragging. We cannot understand why the authorities concerned are not taking proper steps to stop harassment in the name of ragging. The recent news of sexual harassment in the name of ragging must be taken to serious consideration. Those involved in ragging should be brought to book.

If we think that a congenial atmosphere can be created on the campus overlooking all these problems, then we are living in a fool's paradise. This is high time we took these problems more seriously. The authorities concerned must play their due role to address these problems, especially ragging, before the situation goes beyond control.