By Sarah Hannan
In August, the University Grants Commission (UGC) stated that only 5% of the student population is involved in ragging and that too should be further reduced in the years to come.
Despite the enactment by Parliament of the Prohibition of Ragging and Other Forms of Violence in Educational Institutions Act No. 20 of 1998, it has not succeeded in curtailing this phenomenon.
While the current situation is in much better standards in comparison to the situation 30 years ago, there are still brutal incidents of ragging being reported where victims suffer serious physical and mental distress.
Minister of Education Prof. G.L. Peiris stated that there will be zero tolerance on instigators of ragging. In this regard, the UGC together with the Ministry of Education is looking to establish an intelligence unit to report ragging incidents and also to keep a close watch on instigators of such harassment at universities.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning, UGC Chairman senior Prof. Sampath Amaratunga said: “Vice chancellors of all state universities have been briefed about the necessity to come up with a process for each of their universities with the assistance of anti-ragging communities, parents, undergraduates, the Police, and legal counsels.”
A seven-member committee appointed by the UGC in January, appointed to address the issue of providing appropriate relief to students who have been deprived of their education due to ragging in state universities and higher educational institutions coming under the purview of the UGC during the academic year 2014/2015 and onwards, on the instructions of then Minister of Higher Education Dr. Bandula Gunawardana, published their findings and conclusions in a report by the end of August.
The committee consisted of Chairman Justice Dr. Saleem Marsoof PC, Secretary senior Prof. Janitha A. Liyanage, Ven. Prof. Magammana Paññananda Thera, Rev. Fr. Dr. Benet Shantha Fernando, senior Prof. Narada Warnasuriya, Dr. Chandra Embuldeniya, and Prasantha Lal De Alwis PC.
During the committee’s investigations, they were presented with 88 applications for relief. Those falling outside the terms of reference of the committee set out in the letter dated 31 January 2020 (Annexure A), by reason of being outside the specified admission period of academic years 2014/2015 onwards or because the admission was to a higher education institute not falling within the purview of the UGC, had to be rejected.
All applications were to be supported by affidavit and copies of supporting documents due to their evidentiary value, and failure to comply within a reasonable period even after the attention of the applicant was drawn to this requirement prescribed in the press notification, resulted in the application being rejected. Accordingly, 35 applications had been rejected for the aforesaid reasons.
All applicants considered prima facie eligible for relief were interviewed in depth by the committee in person at the Secretariat of the committee at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH), Colombo 7 on five different days in March. However, the interviews scheduled for 17 and 19 March 2020 could not be held due to the onset of Covid-19 and the consequent lockdown and prohibition on inter-district travel.
The remaining interviews were conducted online on Zoom after the situation had improved. Accordingly, several sessions of Zoom interviews were conducted on eight days in June and two days in July.
A total of 53 applicants for relief were interviewed by the committee, and the time spent on each hearing – whether face-to-face at BMICH or online via Zoom – averaged 45 minutes, after which discussions about the evidence for recommendations took another 15 to 30 minutes. The purpose of the interviews were twofold: (a) To verify the veracity of the claims for relief and to discuss the nature of the relief, and (b) to hear the testimony of victims of ragging with the view to obtain valuable insights into what happens to first-year students who enter these academic institutions.
Of the 53 applicants interviewed, 51 applicants were found to be eligible for relief, and the recommendations of the committee in this regard, as detailed in Schedule II, have been placed before the UGC for its consideration. It is necessary to mention that every interview was recorded using audio equipment and that written transcripts of their testimony will be preserved for at least five years.
Victims request regulation
Suggestions from undergraduates who underwent ragging, who were interviewed by the committee, noted that for the eradication of ragging and related abuses, liquor and opium use should be banned in campus hostels and some Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers must be introduced as freshers to get inside information. Meanwhile, there were some dropouts who noted that they are willing to re-join a degree programme, given the situation is brought under control and they are allowed to attend a different university as they did not want to return to the same environment.
Due to the intolerable situation, a female student dropped out of the university in January 2020 and hopes that she can continue her studies in any other university or higher educational institution to follow the same course.
Another victim noted that although the dean of the relevant faculty in the other university to which she requested a transfer accepted her request, the UGC is yet to facilitate this transfer. She received a scholarship worth Rs. 10,000, but the vice chancellor had turned down the request. She has taken medical treatment and has a report of reactive depression, an impact of ragging. Moreover, she had wanted to get another room in a different hostel, but the warden had refused even though rooms were available. She requests the facilitation of the transfer to the university she had already been accepted to.
Adverse impacts of ragging
Reading through the report, one cannot disregard the mental and physical trauma these victims had to undergo, and their testimonies for relief outlined above show that ragging-related abusive conduct had not only adversely affected the applicants’ health and life, but also applicants’ educational outcome.
The committee noted that the extracts of the testimonies paint a very gloomy picture of the happenings in Sri Lanka’s well-established and publicly funded universities and institutions of higher education, raising questions regarding the functionality of the entire education system.
Victims have also suffered adverse impacts of ragging that resulted in health implications, deprivation of sleep, loss of appetite, longing for isolation, deterioration of academic performance, loss of self-confidence, and impact on personality development.
Based on the findings, the committee had suggested a regulatory mechanism outlined to protect students who have been recommended relief, who will be granted readmission or other recommended relief. The mechanism would also be used by the UGC, if so advised, to seek to prevent a resurgence of ragging in academic institutions in the future.
General conclusions of the committee based on the interviews
- a) A significant amount of ragging and ragging-related abuse takes place at state universities and institutions, and there is no university or higher education institute that has eradicated this social menace fully.
- b) During the initiation period (orientation), new-entrant students (freshers) are approached with friendly gestures to get them into compliance, and things change radically when the ragging starts at the end of the initiation period.
- c) Ragging is perpetuated by the immediate senior batch as a habit and the super seniors (third-year and fourth-year students) join in at a later stage.
- d) Ragging has severity levels ranging from very mild at the beginning and increasing in ferocity with time.
- e) Ragging may continue throughout the first year in the university or higher education institute. In some cases, it continues beyond the first year.
- f) Those opposing ragging will be seen as enemies of the raggers and will be dealt with severely with intense ragging throughout their campus lives.
- g) Some of those opposing ragging will be ostracised even by their own batchmates and labelled “alaya” and subjected to discrimination even beyond the first year.
- h) Raggers use their compliant subordinates as a resource for till collections and show strength during their protestations.
- i) The non-participants at rallies are subject to various types of mental and physical harassment.
- j) The administration in most universities and higher education institutes perform a passive role during ragging and generally do not interfere, and as a result the new entrants feel extremely helpless.
- k) Ragging can be stopped by creating awareness amongst university students and those studying in higher education institutes as well as schoolchildren hoping to enter these institutions, academic staff at universities and other institutions, school teachers, and parents regarding the reprehensible nature of ragging.