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By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Dec 17 1997 (IPS) - More than 20 years after a young woman jumped from the second-floor window of her university dormitory unable to cope with the sadistic ragging by her seniors, there is murder on Sri Lanka’s campuses.

Rupa Ratnaseeli, who took that death-defying leap, was crippled for life. She now moves around in a wheelchair selling flowers for a living in a southern village.

Last month, a 21-year-old student was murdered on the campus. Selvanayagam Varapragasam, a first-year engineering student, died after being brutally ragged while another student is at death’s door and may be permanently disabled — once again triggering a debate on the issue of banning ragging in Sri Lanka.

Ragging has become brutal, sadistic, even leading to serious medical problems. Varapragasam, despite being a strongly-built youth, was unable to cope with the 300-odd push-ups that the senior students demanded. He began coughing out blood and failed to recover after several days in hospital.

“No … laws are useful but legislation must be the last resort,” argues eminent sociologist Professor S.T. Hettige who is among a growing band of university teachers who are against laws banning ragging.

Hettige, head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Colombo, said that the university system must evolve ways of solving its own problems of which ragging is only one.

“Universities have to address problems faced by students. But unfortunately, the university system does not pay much attention to the problems,” he said. But Hettige and his university colleagues are isolated in their opposition to legislation.

The media, politicians and the public — shocked by the recent ragging incidents — have in unison called for a ban on ragging and criminal prosecution of those involved.

“The victims have done no harm and the tormentors have nothing to gain except sadistic delight … It is very doubtful that humanity has ever sunk to the depths of perversion as Sri Lankan undergraduates,” said the independent ‘Island’ newspaper, after the latest ragging incident chilled the nation.

Twenty-two-year-old Kelum Wijetunga, a fresher at the Hardy Technical Education Institute, was forced to consume excessive quantities of arrack (local whiskey) and perform a “forward and backward roll”, earlier this month.

He was admitted to hospital in a critical state and doctors are battling to save his life. “Even if he survives, he would be subject to various after-effects due to the kidneys not functioning,” said Dr A.M.L. Beligaswatte of the Kandy General Hospital, where Wijetunga is admitted.

“Who is responsible for murder in the universities?” asked a former university graduate in a letter to the editor of the ‘Island’. “As a university graduate in the early nineties, I lived through the ragging culture and have tried to fight it with little success. The major reason is the absolute indifference of the university staff on this issue,” he wrote.

Plagued by calls for a ban on ragging, the government appointed a high-level committee to study the issue in depth and recommend draft legislation to stamp out ragging.

The committee comprises Professor W.D. Lakshman, Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo, Savithri Gunasekera, Professor of Law at the Open University and a Deputy Solicitor General.

Education Minister Richard Pathirana, speaking in Parliament when the ragging issue was raised last week, said the perpetrators would be brought to book.

Opposition MP Sarath Kongahage told Parliament that the government should introduce tough new legislation to ban ragging of any form, expel students involved in this and institute criminal proceedings against suspects.

Before the 1970s, ragging was much less painful for freshers on college campuses. Some of the things they had to do were sing songs, carry the books of seniors, buy them tea in the campus canteen and shave one side of their head.

Dr Lareef Zubair, a former university lecturer, says that students use five types of arguments to support ragging: ragging socialises and orients new students from deprived backgrounds; it helps freshers find mentors; it brings the arrogance and influence down to size so that others can get along with them; it builds student unity; and even abusive ragging – as long as it does not lead to injuries — is good as it toughens the freshers.

Dr Diyanath Samarasinghe, associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Colombo, says most victims of ragging are “innocent” village girls, though ragging is aimed at cutting to size of “swollen-headed and posh Colombo freshers”.

He said vicious ragging was often reported from the Jaffna University, where it is very brutal given the violent environment of the war. “It would be an unusual thing for them to sing a song or have fun in an environment marred by tragedies of war.”

The young in Jaffna have seen nothing but violence since Tamil separatist guerrillas launched their campaign from there in the 1970s. Since 1983 — when the rebels stepped up their campaign, more than 50,000 people have died and thousands more maimed in the fighting.

Samarasinghe says that the views on ragging change from time to time, and trying to prevent ragging through laws could be problematic. He suggested that there should be an open discussion with students to prevent ragging.