03 May,2025 06:56 AM IST | Mumbai | The Editorial
Representational image. Pic/iStock
Three postgraduate students from the orthopaedics department of BJ Medical College, affiliated with Sassoon General Hospital, Pune, have been suspended and evicted from the hostel over allegations of ragging a junior resident doctor. The action was taken following a formal complaint by a first-year resident and his mother against his seniors.
The junior alleged that the seniors forced him to pour cold or hot water over his head repeatedly. After initial complaints to relevant seniors, the student's family approached the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) in Mumbai.
Based on the investigation report submitted by the anti-ragging committee, disciplinary action was initiated, and the postgraduate students have been suspended and expelled from the hostel.
We need to stamp out the ragging culture from all educational institutions. This is not a fun avenue or an initiator into campus life as it is often made out to be. This is bullying and harassment, pure and simple.
It certainly does not foster a sense of unity or togetherness as is often claimed. Why must one humiliate people or juniors who have just joined an institution? One fails to understand what is the aim of this trial by fire, which is a trial by torment.
Give more teeth to anti-ragging rules, and ensure investigations are speedy and fair too, so that no law is misused. Make students aware that there are avenues for redressal if they are facing harassment, which may be physical, mental or both. Make all students aware that there will be serious consequences for ragging. Educate people on what constitutes ragging. Use official social media handles and even posters/notices within college for the same. Let us see ragging, which has existed under different guises for so long, go the way of the dinosaur.
