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Police given stronger role in cracking down on ragging
University ragging offenders will find it more difficult to remain at large until their cases are investigated and police have been instructed to take proactive action against raggers, the Minister of Higher Education, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said, as bullying on campus comes under scrutiny with the start of the new academic year this month and in December.
The Ministry has initiated operations for police to intervene under the Ragging Act.
“This provision will also not allow the magistrate to grant bail for the offenders, and only the high courts can grant bail,” the Minister said.
University vice-chancellors and deans have been given strict instructions to report ragging incidents to police.
“There has been a reduction of ragging incidents last few months. The target is to make it zero tolerance,” Mr. Rajapakshe said.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ruhuna, Professor Gamini Senanayake, said ragging in Sri Lanka was highly politicised, led by extreme political elements.
“Unfortunately, efforts made by the authorities to eradicate ragging by using models from other countries have clearly failed,” Prof. Senanayake said.
Ruhuna University now has hand-picked lecturers increasing student contact hours to provide counselling to those involved in ragging.
“Punishment and counselling must go hand in hand,” the Vice-Chancelllor said, adding that the counselling move amplifies the voice of anti-ragging groups.
Prof. Senanayake claimed the portal for complaints created by the University Grants Commission (UGC) was inefficient and misleading in data collection.
“Their portal allows complaints to be made anonymously. That way we cannot distinguish the genuine complaints from the fake ones. We are often misled by these complaints,” he said.
“The system exaggerates a lot of data. That, however, does not mean that ragging is not taking place,” he said.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya, Prof. Upul B. Dissanayake, said the university tried to keep senior students away from freshers but in some instances this was impractical.
Peradeniya University now had a procedure that has both counsellors and marshals alerted to a situation.
“Apart from the main rag prevention committee, we have set up nine rag prevention committees in the separate faculties, where monitoring and supervision is carried out,” Prof. Dissanayake added.
He said the university has sought police support to coordinate with them when ragging occurs outside university premises.
“We have also drawn up a list of addresses of the houses where university students will be residing so that we can keep track of them and be vigilant of ragging activities carried out in these houses,” he said.
Prof. Dissanayake sees parents as being partly responsible for ragging. “When their children are ragged in the first year they weep and complain but it is their very children who rag the freshers in the following year. The parents must teach their children better or this trend will continue forever,” he said.
Eastern University Registrar A. Pahirathan said senior student counsellors and the Deputy Vice Chancellor have been appointed to look into student discipline.
“As instructed by the UGC, we have set up a separate unit to handle gender-based violence and ragging,” he said.
He said senior students appeared to be more cognisant of the problems caused by ragging and this attitude was shown in the way they organised and handled this year’s registration and welcome event.