A 19-year-old bachelor’s degree candidate in Bhubaneswar committed herself last week, allegedly leaving behind a note alleging senior-level harassment. Since then, it has grown into a topic that is currently being discussed in the Assembly, where the opposition is calling for a CBI investigation.
A medical student in the State’s Balangir district is said to have committed himself by jumping to his death in April, only days after telling his parents about ragging. Not much progress has been made in the case after three months. Approximately 2.7% of the nation’s higher education institutions are located in the state. Its percentage in the pool of ragging cases is roughly 7.5%.
Ragging appears to be progressing at the same rate as other social illnesses in India, much like the propensity for senseless violence that has spread among our adolescent population. The nation’s anti-ragging call centres recorded more than 7,840 cases between 2009 and 2022.
Data tabled in the Lok Sabha late last year showed that just the period from 2018 to 2021 had 2,970 cases. Despite the introduction of online complaint, monitoring, and compliance tools, ragging has persisted like a ghost that no one has been able to exorcise.
Over nine regulating organisations, ranging from the All India Technical Education Council to the UGC, are tasked with keeping an overall eye on the situation. Without accounting for instances that were not reported, the numbers, let alone prevention, have not decreased. And now the issue of internet ragging makes things more difficult.
Unfortunately, Odisha ranks fourth in terms of the frequency of ragging, behind Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh. Committed teams and committees at the institutional level have not resulted in any improvement. A dozen Indian states have explicit legislation to prevent ragging, while Odisha places the entire burden on UGC rules.
In addition to barring offenders from enrolling in other educational institutions for a set amount of time, the anti-ragging statutes of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra also hold the institution’s administrators accountable for carelessness. Odisha should consider anti-ragging legislation at this point.
Prasanta Patnaik 
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