KURNOOL: First year students of Kurnool Medical College who were admitted through the All India Neet ranks, are complaining of severe ragging in the men’s hostel. Forcing juniors to go for blood transfusions in the middle of the night, physical anatomical examination by senior students, being forced to wash others’ laundry are some of the “torture practices” alleged by junior students. The ragging sessions occur between 10 pm and 2 am. Principal of the college, G.S. Ramprasad has ordered an enquiry.
Eight years ago three students were convicted of ragging related offences at this same college, but this obnoxious and unlawful practice is still flourishing.
The college has an anti-ragging cell, anti-ragging squad, monitoring committee to check ragging, and surprise checks, but none of this has been effective. Kurnool Police have acted on the complaint and registered a first information report by the affected students. The principal has called for an “attitudinal change” and said that “primitive sociological practices” appear to be dominating the minds of senior students.
He admitted that it is disturbing to hear seniors tell their juniors things like “Don’t smile and don’t you dare laugh” or “Look down when you're talking to me”, or “Fold your hands”, “Call me SIR”, etc. Forcing students to donate blood is a peculiarity of ragging in this college. A professor of psychiatry said that every time you obey such commands, you spiral down a regressive path, which eventually ends with you at the bottom looking up at the abuser, who now places himself at the top of the ladder of social hierarchy.
“This is a clever technique to reinforce structural inequality in educational institutions and asserts that some are superior to others,” the Principal said. He called for a “change of attitude” among students. Professor B. Sankara Sharma of the Gastroenterology department said that though more people find this kind of abuse distasteful, ragging is still a deeply rooted problem in colleges in India. “It must be made clear that ragging is not acceptable and must done away with as a “socialising tool”,” he said. A professor at KMC admitted that all the committees created to curb ragging were ineffective and look good only on paper. He says only stringent action against students indulging in ragging will have the desired results.
