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Ragging at Educational Institutions is a Menace that Needs to End

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If you’ve gone to school, colleges, and universities, you are probably very familiar with the term “ragging”. For those unaware, it’s a practice in which senior students engage in certain activities to humiliate their juniors, usually during the first few days of a new term at educational institutions. These acts range from verbal torture to forcing juniors to pay a sort of a “tax” to seniors, sing or dance in a humiliating manner in front of the public, and even have their clothes destroyed at times.

Of course, if you’re in your senior years, with your respective institutes about to reopen, you’re probably gleefully rubbing your hands in anticipation of the newcomers that you’ll be ragging in a few days time. However, you should strongly reconsider your approach, here’s why:

What sort of example are you setting?

If you’re in a middle-school or college, you’re likely looking forward to securing admission at a reputable university. If you’re a university student, you’re about to take your first steps into professional life. Either way, what example do you think you’re setting by verbally and/or physically humiliating students publicly?

You are at that stage of life where you are beginning to understand the world around you, and in a few years time, you probably want people to look up to you as an example of excellence. Your actions, particularly at this stage of life, are shaping your character and personality.

As such, do you really want to be seen as the person who takes advantage of those who are vulnerable? Do you want to be regarded as the person who was excellent in studies but couldn’t keep his actions in check on seeing fresh students at the start of a new term? Because trust me, everyone who sees you participating in the vile act or ragging does remember your face. You complain about the corrupt Pakistani politicians, yet you feel no shame in forcing money out of someone’s pocket that you have no right over.

Be the change you want to see. If you want to see Pakistan flourishing and corruption being nipped in the bud, start with changing yourself, even at the level of a student, no matter how insignificant that may seem right now. You are the future of Pakistan, if you feel no shame in indulging in activities such as ragging, how can the next generation trust you to be upright about their money or efforts?

No, it does not improve friendship with batch mates:

Many seniors justify their ragging activities by saying (and believing) that their actions are a harmless and only aid in improving their relationship, or as they affably claim, “friendship”, with new batch mates. Over my ongoing period of education, I have seen numerous physical fights break out in front of my own eyes just because of some senior thought that it would be cool to throw some permanent paint on a newcomer’s uniform.

From people who approve of ragging, I want to ask, how exactly has your ragging helped a junior to-date? Do you even remember their name? Their face? What help have you given them in return for your chivalrous act of ragging? Be honest.

Those who have experienced ragging and abhor it even now, know very well that ragging has only strained their relationships with certain seniors. If you publicly humiliate them, grab their money, or worse, they likely won’t hold you in very high regard, regardless of what you want to believe, or even what they would want you to believe, out of the goodness of their hearts.

Everything affects everything:

Despite the heading, I’m not going to go all 13 Reasons Why on you. This is just to illustrate the fact that you don’t know what is going on in someone’s life. You don’t know if they are depressed on going to a new institute, nervous of the advanced studies ahead of them, or simply undergoing any external unrelated pressure.

Do you really want to be the person, who when ragging, pushes the button that may trigger a junior into doing or saying something that isn’t in their best interest? And no, I’m not jumping to suicide as the possible outcome of this ragging – though it could be – I’m talking about a verbal or physical confrontation or even a mental breakdown.

Not everyone is as tough as they seem and not every action is as harmless as you believe. You may forget that you ragged someone, but there’s the possibility that the latter won’t, and it may affect them adversely for a lengthened period of time. You can never be sure, so why take the risk?

Final words:

Some educational institutes have already been opened and many are about to. With that, I hope my words have had a positive impact on your attitude towards ragging. If you approve of the act, I wish that you reconsider your potential actions. If you, fortunately, don’t approve of ragging, I hope my words have strengthened your resolve in the fight against this degrading act.

Be the change you want to see.

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