A horrific incident of ragging surfaced from Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore, Tamil Nadu after a student’s Reddit post detailed the inhumane treatment being meted out to students. Screenshots of the now-deleted Reddit post explained how freshers were mercilessly ragged by the senior students at CMC, as the first-year students were forced to display themselves in their underwear. Earlier in March, an incident of ragging was reported from the Kozhikode government medical college in Kerala where senior MBBS students were accused of harassing first-year students and not allowing them to sleep at night. The incident came to light after a teacher questioned a few of the first-year students who fell asleep while attending class. Following this, the students filed a complaint to the principal.
Taking a serious note of the incidents of ragging, the Supreme Court in 2001 had issued a series of guidelines to be followed by educational institutions. A bench comprising Justice RC Lahoti and Justice Brijesh Kumar said that an anti-ragging movement should be initiated by the institutions right from the date of admission of new batches. Stating that the prospectus, admission forms and other literature of the institutions should clearly define that ragging is banned, the bench said that the punishment for violators could range from expulsion to suspension.
In 2006, a Supreme Court-appointed committee headed by former CBI director Dr RK Raghavan was constituted. The committee submitted a series of recommendations later that year, which included a series of recommendations including central bodies taking ragging into consideration before awarding accreditation to a particular institution.
Several states in India have introduced their own legislation on ragging, making it a criminal offence while the central legislations tackling ragging in India are implemented through various sections of the Indian Penal Code. For example, the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1997 states that anyone who directly or indirectly participates, abets or propagates ragging will face punishment of up to two years imprisonment and be liable for a fine of up to Rs 10,000.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has also formulated strict rules with respect to ragging including the behaviour of students according to which, if a comment is made on the appearance or dress of the student or if his/her self-respect is hurt, then it will be considered ragging. Also, if a student is insulted on the basis of his region, language, caste or race, it will be an offence and if any student is forced to do any work, that too will be deemed as ragging. The All India Council For Technical Education (AICTE) and the Medical Council of India (MCI) have framed their own regulations under their respective acts, with those indulging in ragging facing punishments ranging from suspension to expulsion depending on the nature and gravity of the offence.