Last October, a student of a reputed academic institute had to leave school after facing bullying at campus. Getting no prevention from the school authority, the guardians of the student also sent legal notice to the students.
Another 13-year-old girl developed antipathy towards school as she had to face derision for her skin tone and asymmetrical teeth.
At one point, her school was changed by the guardians but by that time, she was averse to going to school altogether.
The girl, at her adolescence, also became mentally imbalanced. Reportedly, bullying and ragging at education institutes have taken a malignant form.
In many cases, students are afraid of raising the matter to the school authority.
Meanwhile, guardians do not know under which law they can ask for a remedy. Such issues can be settled if academic institutes have active disciplinary committees.
But what is the punishment if ragging leads to loss of mental balance? From this perspective, social researchers say that ragging-bullying need to be identified as criminal offence.
Unless this is addressed, victims may plunge into depression which may, in extreme cases, lead to suicide.
A student of Dhaka University says that ragging at the university has several euphemisms: turning one into chicken, teaching manners, guestroom culture etc.
To safeguard themselves from this sort of oppression, students are forced to tilt towards politics.
Advocate Ishrat Hassan, who filed a whit petition with the High Court on the matter, said: “In the absence of specific laws, victims do not know where they will ask for remedy.”
People need to know that they cannot mock or ridicule anyone for fun.
On Dec 12, the court ordered the formation of anti ragging squads and committees at all academic institutes.
A ruling in this regard was issued by justices, Md Mostafizur Rahman and M Enayetur Rahim.
The ruling has also asked why the government’s inactivity in safeguarding the respect of the students should not be deemed illegal.
There have been allegations of bullying at Jahangirnagar University and the proctor of the institute, Professor ASM Firoz Ul Hasan, said: “Prevention is possible by lodging a complaint to the hall administration or proctor. As per law, we send it to the syndicate for initial investigation and then committees are formed for further investigation.”
Proctor Lutfur Rahman of Rajshahi University, said: “Ragging usually happens in the case of students of first year and we apply extra caution when they come to the university. We also carry out campus wide campaigning to prevent bullying.”
Human rights activist, Khushi Kabir, said: “The academic institute is not an isolated place and since bullying takes place everywhere, work needs to be done within the society. We need social activism on the matter.”
She however lamented that committees to prevent sexual harassment at schools ordered by the high court could not be ensured as yet.