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Suicide attempt sparks rebuff of ragging as ‘culture’
A young woman’s attempted suicide due to ragging at the University of Jaffna, has again sparked debate on whether the archaic student “indoctrination” practice should be banned altogether from the country’s campuses.
Three students of the university’s Faculty of Technology have been suspended on suspicion of involvement in the latest incident in which a father said his daughter tried to kill herself after receiving derogatory messages on her mobile phone from third-year students.
The father laid the complaint before the Governor of the Northern Province, Mrs. P.S.M. Charles, who directed the university to investigate the incident.
Following a report from a team of academics, three students were suspended pending a University Council decision to conduct further investigation.
If the allegations are proven the university will file action against the students under anti-ragging legislation, a faculty spokesman said. The students could face up to eight years’ suspension; the university was out of bounds for them in the meantime.
The incident has shocked parents and students and other authorities. While those in favour of ragging argue it is a sub-culture that goes back a century and helps newcomers familiarise themselves with their new environment, others say the culture has exceeded its limits and resulted in student deaths.
Although there are strict laws in place against ragging the practice is perpetuated every year because of the lax attitude of university management and university councils,an anti-ragging activist said, adding that the law was rarely used by universities or students.
Universities have been lenient with raggers, often letting them off with a slap on the wrist. Several students who have been suspended from universities have been allowed to come back and finish their degrees after a while.
One rare instance of when action was taken occurred at the University of Ruhuna where, last year, using the law, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sujeewa Amarasena, remanded 19 students for four months without bail and sacked them from the university.
Now, he claims, the university is functioning smoothly without any complaints about ragging. “It is a happy and peaceful environment,” he said.
Professor Amarasena asserted it was the duty of the vice-chancellor and the University Council to stop ragging on campus. “The VC and academics should control ragging. Politicians cannot control universities,” he said.
If Ruhuna University can act, so can others, a former higher education secretary, Mr. P.K. Mayadunne said. “‘There are no separate laws governing universities,” he said.
“Every year, around 2,000 – 7 per cent of the intake – drop out and another 2,000 students do not register because of the fear of ragging. People talk about the students’ right to rag but what about the rights of students who have left universities because of the severe ragging by senior students,” Mr. Mayadunne asked.
He said it was important that the deans, marshals and academics of universities take the problem seriously and stand against it. “If stern action is taken at least once students will be afraid to indulge in ragging,” he said.
Sadly many deans and teachers have been found to support the political parties behind the ragging, Mr. Mayadunne said. Some who witnessed ragging remained silent. Anti-ragging unions were formed but their numbers were small and they were not encouraged to take action.
When students enter universities for the first time they are made to sign declarations together with their parents that they will not participate in any form of ragging but despite this, once they are in their second year, many begin harassing freshers, Mr. Mayadunne said.
It has been reported that fringe political parties use these students to fund their political activities, forcing victims to go out begging from the public to collect money for political parties. Students are beaten, ridiculed and insulted in the hands of student union leaders who are trained by parties to come up with innovative ways of ragging.
The Frontline Socialist Party, accused of directing ragging in universities, defends itself by calling ragging a sub-culture that has existed for more than a century.
“These are cultural habits that are historical,” the party’s Propaganda Secretary, Pubudu Jagoda, insisted.
He claimed men and women who enter universities are “backward” and ragging helped them come out of their “cocoon”. He qualified his assertion by saying any ragging should be only in mild forms such as a request to sing a song or perform a task. “We are against sexual harassment,” he said.
He said since 1998 (the year the anti-ragging law came into being) his party had been talking to students, giving them advice. “The university vice-chancellors and the government do not talk to students. They are only intent in punishing them and taking disciplinary action, making them more rebellious and inclined to take part in intense ragging,” he said. “We cannot stop ragging by force,” he said.
Prof. Amarasena, who has been strict in his anti-ragging stance at Ruhuna University, said universities could instal CCTV cameras to ensure safety on campus and even deploy personnel with body cameras to patrol university compounds. He urged particular rigour in investigating cases of sexual violence against women and punishing perpetrators.
“Every incident should be publicised instead of being pushing beneath the carpet as if nothing has happened,” he said. Use mainstream media and social media – Facebook and Whatsapp,” he said.
“I have about 350,000 followers on social media who support anti-ragging. They include students, teachers and even the police,” Prof. Amarasena said.
The University Grants commission has designated help desks for ragging complaints. Complaints can also be made to the Attorney-General’s Office. A Fundamental Rights case against an aggressor can be filed at the Human Rights Commission. Every university has a 24-hour anti-ragging hotline – 2123700.
