Awareness session on ragging conducted online by Rotaract and “Break The Chain”
View(s):“Stop The Ragging”, was an awareness session aimed towards ending the culture of ragging that has plagued Sri Lankan universities for decades and cost many precious lives.
The session was organised by the Rotaract Clubs of Centennial United, CFPS Law School, NIBM, Ratnapura, Peace City Hatton, Killinochi Town, Nallur Heritage and SLIIT in conjunction with the “Break The Chain” campaign.
The significant lack of knowledge amongst the new undergraduates about ragging and the legal reprisals available to students against any offenders were the main points of focus.
The work-from-home/study-from home options that most students were using provided the programme with a timely opportunity to reach a wider range and volume of university students. The absence of physical engagement between students had protected the newer classes from the exposure to the university subculture.
These sessions were conducted via Zoom and were trilingual. The first session in Tamil was conducted on August 1 and the second and third were Sinhala and English held on August 14 and 15 respectively.
An experienced panel of speakers, part of the “Break the Chain” campaign, addressed more than 350 students across the country. The discussions highlighted several methods by which first-year students could save themselves and effectively report such incidents in their respective institutions.
“Ragging is a social menace that plagues the higher educational institutes of Sri Lanka,” the organisers said.
“Young and vulnerable students who enter educational institutions, due to the lack of awareness, feel that ragging is the only pathway to form supporting friendships – especially with senior students. But must a student’s mental well-being be compromised in the name of a so-called ‘bond-building culture’?” they asked.
As of last year, the team claims that more than 2000 students have been driven out of universities due to the physical and mental consequences of ragging.
“Break The Chain” is a programme targeted at eradicating or controlling ragging at higher educational institutions. Presently, there is no official anti-ragging movement in Sri Lanka. The movement targets an audience that is about to enter universities since we identify their ability to be change makers.
“We have earlier attempted at creating awareness among university undergraduates but have often met with backlash,” the founders of the movement, Gangulali de Silva Dayarathna and Minul Muhandiramge said.
This is due to the fact that students are already exposed to ragging by that point and the culture has been justified before their eyes. An entirely new audience lacks such exposure hence it becomes effective to have educated such groups.
(Tharushi Weerasinghe)