Students perceptions and feedback on ragging in a south Indian medical college

Introduction: Ragging is associated with physical, behavioural, emotional and social problems among victims. Some reasons given by students for ragging are: being ragged by their seniors; sense of superiority; a form of introduction.

 

Methodology: Emerging themes and insights from in-depth interviews and group discussions with senior students helped in preparing a Likert type questionnaire on certain important aspects of ragging and the precautions being taken by the management. This was administered to 240 medical students from the 5th and 7th semesters (batches of 2008 & 2009) of the NRI Medical College at Chinakakani in Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh. Group discussions also were conducted with students to identify issues on ragging.

 

Results & Discussion: Forty-five percent of the students felt that some amount of ragging does occur. Almost all (99%) felt that ragging is necessary to build a relationship between seniors and juniors. Eighty-seven percent of seniors expected the juniors to address them as “Sir” or “Madam”. Discussions revealed that economic background was not an indicator for those indulging in ragging. Many felt that some interaction is needed between new students and seniors, but that any form of interaction may be misconstrued as ragging.

 

Conclusion: Students have to be made aware of the ills of ragging and its consequences. The management also has the responsibility to create safe avenues for healthy interaction of new students with seniors. Some methods include organizing activities under supervision of teachers, individual counselling of students, seminars and workshops on self- esteem.