Ragging is a practice that India inherited from Britain which has assumed serious proportions so much so that much legislation at the states and central levels have been introduced.
I was all along under the impression that this must be something peculiar to our educational system till I read about the horrendous suicide of a young Irish immigrant to the USA who was bullied by her schoolmates. Very similar to what Indian raggers do to some younger students – drive them to suicide.
It seems so pointless and cruel, but today I have been jolted out of my complacency about the matter with a devastating indictment of parents by Richard Cohen in the Washington Post who throws a very interesting point of view, perhaps not shared by to those it should matter most, the parents. I particularly am fascinated with his statement “As could be expected, some people do not think that either the kids or their parents (if any) are responsible. They point instead to the lack of funding for sufficient youth violence prevention programs. Mine, as I recall, was a withering look from my father.”
How apt and what a shame that we are not willing to stand up and accept this single factor being important. On reflection, it is true in India that the parents have not done their job with the raggers, as otherwise, ragging cannot take place. We too have gone overboard with legislation, taking the teachers and heads of institutions to be responsible and have not attempted to address the parents squarely for this development.
What makes it so? Is it that our establishment is taking away the responsibility of bringing up children from parents and giving it to the state with penal provisions rather than any preventive measures? What is it that we are not doing right here?
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