[Reader-list] request for Sarai and Sarai list members

[Monica Narula]

Dear Shivam

The issue that you are raising and discussing is obviously something 
that is often elided over and considered a 'rite of passage', not to 
be talked about once the time is past.

I think that if you want to create a site that people can go to for 
info as well as to be part of an extended community, you should think 
of one that is not the standard static html, but is dynamic and where 
many people can post, their experiences for example. So, a static 
site with a few html pages may not be the best thing to setup. There 
must be people on the list who work with zope or other cms who could 
setup such a site and where you and others would simply be able to 
put data? i think the best solution would be to find out about the 
ilug (linux users group) in Lucknow, and see if they could 
participate. I will try and see what i can find out from here.

best
M

At 9:18 -0700 27/6/04, shivam wrote:
>Dear friends,
>
>As you know, PACE has been running an anti-ragging
>campaign. It is very important for us to have a
>professional website, for which we humbly request all
>of you for help. If you are a web designer or are
>willing to fund one for us, we want to put up a
>website about ragging. At the momemnt we have no
>funding whatsoever, and shall hence be using free
>space at Geocities.
>
>We request Sarai-CSDS and all members of this mailing
>list to take a moment to consider this request. The
>lack of a website is a great hindrance in our work at
>the moment. The designer can build a basic structure
>and upload some of the pages, all content shall be
>provided by us, and thus build a basic structure so
>that we can upload and add pages on our own
>thereafter.
>
>
>
>What we have done so far:
>
>See our anti-ragging mailing list at
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anti-ragging
>
>A heart-wrenching first-hand account of a ragging
>victim (a sample of the kind of case studies the
>dossier will have):
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anti-ragging/message/13
>
>'Horrible Ragging At Vikhe Patil College Of
>Engineering , Ahmednagar, Maharashtra':
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anti-ragging/message/26
>
>The myth of mild ragging:
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anti-ragging/message/25
>
>PACE Dossier on Ragging in India, a book in the
>making:
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anti-ragging/message/44
>
>Survey on ragging in India:
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anti-ragging/message/31
>
>Volunteer appeal:
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anti-ragging/message/45
>
>
>This is the sort of stuff that has to be put online,
>and a lot more waiting in our hard disk. A few ours of
>your help can save some lives.
>
>
>====================================
>Society for People's Action, Change and Enforcement
>(PACE)
>Post Box No. 20, Ram Sagar Mishra Nagar, Lucknow - 16,
>India
>Phone: 0 94152 55042
>Email: pace4change at yahoo.com
>====================================
>
>
>PACE (Society for People's Action, Change and
>Enforcement) is a registered, not-for-profit voluntary
>organisation.
>
>
>
>
>
>   Indian action group all set to uproot ragging
>
>   By Sharmila Banerjee
>   Hindustan Times / New Delhi, June 11
>
>http://www.hindustantimes.com/2004/Jun/11/181_819473,000600010001.htm
>
>
>With college admissions in progress across the
>country, flickers of fear have already struck the
>minds of freshers.
>
>Despite a Supreme Court ruling in 2001, in exercise of
>the jurisdiction conferred by Article 32 and 142,
>ragging is a reality of Indian campus life.
>
>But a group of young minds -- onetime victims of the
>menace from across the country -- is determined to put
>a stop to the menace.
>
>All this when the SC ruling allows the UGC to cut off
>funds to an institution, which fails to curb ragging
>on campus.
>
>Using the platform of the People's Action for Change
>and Enforcement, three students from institutions of
>repute across the country (names withheld on request),
>supported by PACE secretary, Sachin Agarwal are now at
>helm to unite ragging-victims from across the country
>and to generate a nationwide stir to free campus life
>of cruelty.
>
>"Students all over India continue to leave their
>colleges, destroy their careers, turn to drug abuse,
>suffer from post-traumatic stress disorders because of
>ragging. There are about 415 universities in India and
>thousands of hostels, many of which look like mini Abu
>Ghraibs" says Agarwal.
>
>And thus the strategy to brush it out too is well
>laid.
>
>For a start, the group has floated an online platform
>to help victims voice their experiences. While an
>online discussion on the issue is on at
>ttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/anti-ragging/ since last
>week, a 'Dossier on Ragging in India' is expected to
>be released in July when the group would float a
>Website with exhaustive information on ragging, its
>sociological implications, the role of caste, class
>and regionalism, issues of sexuality, memory, its
>presence beyond India and other related issues.
>
>This aside, ragging victims are invited to post their
>experiences at pace4change at yahoo.com or
>anti-ragging at yahoogroups.com where students may
>discreetly write detailed articles on the nature of
>the torment if they faced it and what drove them to
>rag if they initiated it.
>
>Later, the group is hopeful that they would be able to
>establish a "permanent monitoring and advocacy
>institution to oversee the implementation of the
>ragging laws, aid ragging victims with legal and
>psychiatric help".
>
>So far so good -- yet, the question that lurks is what
>at all turns a young student to seek pleasure out of
>ragging juniors in the first place.
>
>"It's an issue of power equation" says Psychologist
>Divya S Prasad of VIMHANS.
>
>"When as child someone is exposed to poor-role models
>at authority levels, he is not able to handle the
>power of authority himself. So in the independence of
>campus life, when he tastes a seat of authority by
>going to the second year, he mishandles power. It
>reflects the poor mental health of the student".
>
>Freshers, she adds do go to college with a "kind of"
>expectation of 'humorous encounters with seniors',
>trouble begins when seniors cross limits and daunt the
>self esteem of the student by affecting his security
>or inter-personal relationships.
>
>"It is mostly then that these victims in turn have a
>feeling of giving it back to the next years'
>new-comers to enhance their own mental status" says
>Prasad.
>
>Thus starts the vicious cycle.
>
>"In most campuses, it is the students who come from
>beyond cities who become easy victims due to a certain
>urban-rural divide. It is a pity because the first
>fifteen days on college can be the most pleasurable
>memory in a students' mind for a lifetime if the
>interaction between seniors and the newcomers is on a
>healthy note!" says sociologist Sunita Reddy.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Monica Narula [Raqs Media Collective]
Sarai-CSDS
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054
www.sarai.net