Tag: Bully

September 15, 2022
/ Leave a Comment on Ragging Origin and Growth

6 min
1 year
1,078 word

Tagged Anti-ragging, Bully, Constitutional Law, India, Law

Ragging Origin and Growth

Ragging is a sort of an immoral activity which has widely spread its wings in educational institutions. It has given birth to enmity amongst students.

& Anti – Ragging Laws and Measures

Keywords – Ragging, Bullying, Students

Written By – Tanishka Ranjan

Ragging is a sort of an immoral activity which has widely spread its wings in educational institutions. It has given birth to enmity amongst students.

Ragging has become a menace, cause of fear and shock not only for freshers but for their guardians too. Several intellectual youth have become martyrs of ragging. Ragging can be considered as a heinous practice. It has taken the shape of serious human rights violations and thus has been declared a ‘criminal offence’.

Introduction

Ragging involves abuse, humiliation or harassment of new entrants or junior students by the senior ones. It often takes a malignant form where in the newcomers may be subjected to psychological or physical torture. It is similar to the American form, known as hazing, but is much more severe.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has given a comprehensive meaning of ragging :

“Ragging is any disorderly conduct, whether by words spoken or written, or by an act which has the effect of teasing, treating or handling with rudeness any student, indulging in rowdy or indiscipline activities which cause or are likely to cause any annoyance, hardship or psychological harm or to raise fear or apprehension thereof in a fresher or a junior student and which has the effect of causing or generating a sense of shame or embarrassment so as to adversely affect the psyche of a fresher or a junior student”.

Origin

Several highly reputed educational institutions have a history of ragging. It started in its mild form in the eighth century AD during the Olympics. Later the armed forces of several countries and several student organisations in Europe and the USA started practising this ritual. During World War I ragging underwent a massive transformation.

The tradition of ragging in India was imported along with the English education. It became conspicuous after independence. As higher education became more and more accessible to different communities, ragging became a soft weapon to settle the animosity between students of different caste, communities, religion etc.

Different forms of ragging

Some of the popular forms of ragging are

Dress Code Ragging : The freshmen are asked to dress in a specific dress code which makes the person uncomfortable for a particular period of time.
Formal Introduction : This involves asking the freshmen to introduce themselves in order to make fun of them.
Verbal Torture : It involves indulging in loose talks with freshers.
Sexual Abuse : This is the severest form of ragging. The seniors are mainly interested in ‘juicy’ details such as the anatomical description of one’s body parts, his or her sexual interests etc.
Playing The Fool : The freshmen may be asked to enact scenes from a particular movie or mimic a particular film star with a motive to insult them in front of others.
Hostel Ragging : Outstation students who stay in the hostel are most vulnerable to ragging. They are asked to do all odd acts.
Drug Abuse : The freshmen are forced to try drugs thereby driving them into addiction.

Possible reasons that initiates ragging

Ragging Gives A Sense of Authority:A senior student nurtures a sense of authority which boosts his morale and puts him on a high.
Ragging Can Be A Means Of Retaliation:A senior who has some previous history of ragging may like to get back by venting his frustrations on the freshmen.
Satisfaction Of Sadistic Pleasures: A potential ragger sees ragging as a good opportunity to satiate his sadistic pleasures.
Peer Pressure: Seeing most of their batchmates indulging in ragging, they fear being left out. So in order to avoid isolation, they too join the herd.
Ragging Makes A Fashion Statement: Many senior students live under the misconception that ragging makes a style statement.

Consequences Of Ragging

An unpleasant incident of ragging may leave a permanent scar in the victim’s mind that may haunt him for years to come.
The victim declines into a shell, forcing himself into ignominy and alienation from the rest of the world.

It de-moralizes the victim who joins college life with many hopes and expectations.
Ragging simultaneously causes grave psychological stress and post-traumatic disorders to the victim.
It may lead the victim to commit suicide.

Guidelines for educational institutions to prevent ragging

Anti-ragging movements should be initiated by the institutions right from the time of advertisement for admissions. It must be clearly mentioned that ragging is banned and if anyone is found guilty will be punished appropriately.
Undertakings to be taken from both the freshmen, seniors and parents that the person is aware that ragging is a punishable offence.
Notices should be issued indicating place to approach for redressal in case of ragging.
Management, principles and the teaching staff should interact with freshmen and take them in confidence by aspiring them of their rights as well as obligation to fight against ragging.
At the commencement of the academic session, the institution should constitute a practorial committee.
Ragging-prone zones should be identified and guarded carefully.
The local community and the students in particular must be aware of the dehumanizing effect of ragging inherent in its perversity.
Failure to prevent ragging to be constructed as an act of negligence in maintaining discipline in the institution on the part of the management.
Migration Certificates issued by every institution should have an entry apart from that of general conduct and behaviour whether the student had participated in, and in particular, was punished for ragging.

Substantive laws prohibiting ragging

Presently, there are only four state legislations in India that prohibit ragging. These are:

The Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1996. (Applicable in the State of Tamil Nadu)
The Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1998.
The Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1999.
The Prohibition of Ragging in Educational Institutes Act, 2000 (Applicable in the State of West Bengal).

Conclusion

Indeed, ragging has become a dreadful affair in the educational institutions of higher learning. This issue can be dealt with only when we make society more sensitive towards each other and also empower students not to be victimized but raise their voice in the face of ragging in any form. It is the time that the student community awakens its conscience to this inhuman practice before more and more innocent students become victims of it and before more and more educational institutes are degraded by it. A policy of ‘zero tolerance’ on ragging is essential.

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The Relationship Between Bullying and Development

Article

January 28, 2022
/ Leave a Comment on The Relationship Between Bullying and Development

6 min
2 years
1,107 word

Tagged Bully, Bullying, Mental, Physical, Psychological

The Relationship Between Bullying and Development

Author: Lavanya Murali

Many students across the world face bullying and violence and it is an important problem that must be addressed. According to Owens, bullying is intentional oppressive behaviour against another person that causes physical and/or psychological harm. This behaviour is repeated over time and the victim is often the same person or people.

School Bullying

School bullying affects the victims, bullies and bystanders negatively. It affects their academic, social, emotional, mental, and psychological functioning as well as physical health. Psychological as well as physical problems arising from bullying may extend well into adulthood. Many studies have found correlations between bullying and the environment of the child. The child’s accessibility to violent examples, relationship with peers – parents, school performance and instability of emotions are related to bullying.

School climate is also an important factor involved in bullying. Research has found that a harmonious school environment is effective in reducing bullying. Students are at a greater risk of engaging in such acts if there is tension and conflict in the school environment; with low morale among teachers as well as students. Victims may not understand how to deal with this situation and could develop anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses. They could avoid social contact and close themselves off from the world. In other cases, they may displace their anger by bullying someone else, leading to a vicious cycle of persecution. Adults must educate the children with effective strategies to cope with situations at home or situations with bullying to break the cycle of hate. The school plays an important role in this aspect.

Steps taken by Schools

There are currently three key approaches taken by schools to curb the incidence of bullying. These are remedial, preventative and developmental.

Remedial guidance is intervention-focused. It offers programs and therapies to students who are experiencing emotional, psychological or behavioural struggles. When dealing with cases of bullying, the remedial approach caters to the victims as well as the perpetrators; curating programs and interventions for each individual, as a response to bullying. This approach is more responsive than precautionary.

Another approach is the preventative approach, and in contrast to the remedial approach, this is more a deterrent of the act or incidence of bullying itself. This approach is highly proactive and is focused on the anticipation of problems like bullying. It also enhances the student’s awareness of bullying and provides them with strategies to handle such problems in case they ever encounter such a situation.

The development approach takes it one step further. It is not problem-driven. Rather, the idea behind this approach is to guide the students’ development as people of the society; including their moral, social and moral selves. This approach is more holistic and positive. Addressing issues such as self-knowledge, self-responsibility, interpersonal relationships, and bonding is characteristic of this approach. This education is delivered using a guidance curriculum at the classroom level in schools. By providing education about the need to respect oneself and others, the understanding of differences, self-determination and decision making responsibly. The students will be able to develop themselves positively, and this will also have a positive impact on their interpersonal relationships. This has proved to be the most effective method in reducing juvenile delinquency.

Strength and Capacity of the Students

The strategy of using positive development of the youth to tackle bullying targets the strengths and capacities of the students. Their character, their interpersonal relationships and their interest and ability to contribute to society. This is done using carefully curated academic programs and curriculums. Such programs are targeted at increasing the psychosocial and societal well-being of adolescents by strengthening their assets and capacities. In a study done by Catalano et al, fifteen psychological constructs and capacities were identified as crucial for the successful development of children. These include constructs such as bonding, recognizing positive behavior, fostering prosocial involvement and prosocial norms. And those which promote emotional, moral, social, and behavioral competence, all of which promote healthy interpersonal relationships contribute to building resilience and strength in adolescents. This will serve to counteract bullying as well as other forms of school violence.

Tackling Bullying

Adopting this method to tackle bullying has proven to have several advantages. First and foremost, it addresses bullying from a positive developmental archetype and stresses the importance of skill and competence construction. Bullying and the associated problems are used as the lens or contexts through which students view, learn and understand appropriate social behaviour, management of emotions, empathy and understanding others’ emotions, appreciating others and forgiveness. The focus is on helping students. Explore the appropriate values and attitudes while being exposed to unjust and even violent situations and environments. To help the kids move from an egocentric perspective and understand the emotions and the viewpoint of other people and evaluate the best responses to events or stimuli. The approach towards reducing bullying is hence through enhancing students’ moral, social, and behavioral competence.

Second, this is a conscious decision to incorporate anti-bullying elements into the classroom curriculum and the school’s regular syllabus. As an intervention strategy, enhancing the knowledge of students about bullying and effective ways of handling it using classroom activities and discussions is highly efficacious. Students can be equipped with the knowledge and skills to foster a positive and culturally appropriate learning environment. Group activities involving cooperation also serve to magnify the interpersonal and intrapersonal skills of students and reduce the extent of victimisation of students. This will be effective in promoting a respectful, peaceful and loving classroom and school environment. Which highlights the third advantage – promoting a harmonious school environment. Building the assets and strengths of the students in interpersonal relationships, bonding and competence will aid in creating a caring school culture.

Conclusion

The development approach to tackling bullying, hence, is the most effective strategy, since it addresses the problem as a whole, is preventative as well as remedial and also encompasses all the problems and causes related to bullying. It also helps in the creation of competent, socially proficient and empathetic individuals through education in the classroom.

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