For years now, every year, unfailingly, when the new academic year begins across the country, newspapers report horrifying examples of ragging in our colleges and universities, specifically in residential medical, engineering and technical campuses.

Let me give some examples of this horror: stabbing someone with a divider in a nursing college hostel; tying youngsters to cots and hanging dumbbells from their genitals; being lashed with a belt by a senior; being hit on the head with a steel bottle; being forced to stand for hours; stripping young students and forcing them to perform sexual acts against a wall and other similar incidents. In recent years, ragging has further expanded into discrimination, harassment and bullying based on the caste, class, and sexual orientation of new students.

According to a report released in March 2024 by an anti-ragging NGO, Society against Violence in Education (SAVE), during the period 2022 to 2024, the National Anti-Ragging Helpline received 3156 complaints from 1946 colleges through phone calls and e-mails. The report clarifies that this number is not the total number of complaints regarding ragging because a large number of complaints were directly made to colleges and to the police. Further, only a small number of victims muster enough courage to actually complain. Thus, the actual number of ragging incidents in the country is much higher.

The report identifies medical colleges as the hotspots of........

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