HORROR ON CAMPUSES

The persistence of ragging, despite a seemingly robust legal framework, is fueled by its dangerous normalisation as an 'initiation ritual' or 'bonding exercise' or 'ice breaking session'

- Bhaskar Nath Biswal

As India's universities reopen after summer holidays, campuses brim with the energy of returning students and new arrivals carrying dreams of academic achievement. Yet beneath this veneer of renewal festers an old terror: ragging.

Countless newcomers face humiliation, violence, and psychological torture at the hands of seniors, their educational promise swiftly curdling into trauma. This systematic abuse shatters confidence, extinguishes futures, and tragically drives some to suicide, leaving families devastated and aspirations unfulfilled. Despite decades of Supreme Court directives, UGC regulations, government pledges, dedicated helplines, anti-ragging cells, and stringent penalties under laws like the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the menace persists - a damning indictment of systemic failure.

Legally, ragging is defined with damning clarity: any disorderly conduct causing teasing, hardship, psychological harm, fear, or apprehension. Established by the Supreme Court in 1999 and elaborated in UGC regulations (2009), it explicitly encompasses physical assault, verbal abuse, psychological humiliation, sexual harassment, and financial extortion. This is not benign tradition; it is criminal depravity violating fundamental human dignity. The watershed moment came in 2009 following the horrific ragging death of Aman Kachroo, a medical student in Himachal Pradesh. The Supreme Court's intervention led to the UGC Regulations on Curbing the Menace of Ragging, making it a cognizable offense and placing primary responsibility on higher education institutions (HEIs) for prevention and action.