International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue X, October 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Ragging; Its Evolution and Effects: A Literature Review with a Special Reference to Sri Lanka

Hemamalie Gunatilaka

Department of Business Administration, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka

Abstract: – Ragging in basic sense consists of use of humiliation to socialise new comers who enter in to educational institutions. It is an international phenomena dates back to hundreds of years. The article attempts to bring together literature relevant to ragging, paying more attention to the Sri Lankan context. Although it is an act of humiliation, in extreme conditions it can cause physical, behavioural, emotional and social problems among victims. In Sri Lanka state universities are known as a common place of ragging and currently more attention is paid due to the incidents reported regarding extreme conditions that are highly traumatic. Literature highlights that ragging is associated with student politics in Sri Lankan universities. There are many negative outcomes of ragging and stress is of the significant negative outcomes. However, according to existing literature ragging has positive effects such as socialising students coming from deprived backgrounds.

Key Words: Ragging, Universities, Sri Lanka, Negative Effects, Legal Sanctions

I. INTRODUCTION

‘Ragging’ is a term that makes new comers of institutions frightened and its severity can vary from a simply cracking a joke to a traumatised incident. At present a huge emphasis is paid in combat ragging in the public sector universities in Sri Lanka. This is because of some of the critical incidents occurred with in ragging in universities that either made the victims commit suicide or became critical mental patients. Accordingly, To begin with the article presents a discussion on the definitions of ragging followed by its history and its presence in the international arena. Next it presents the literature relevant to ragging in the Sri Lankan (SL) context, ragging as a University sub culture and reasons for prevalence of ragging. This will be followed by a discussion on literature pertaining to different forms of ragging and negative and positive effect of ragging. Finally, the paper presents the Sri Lankan legal and policy related matters pertaining to gender, youth and violence and universities.