13-07-2025
Body shaming, forcing liquor and drugs, online ragging made punishable in Kerala draft anti-ragging bill
Body shaming, asking a student to do any act or perform something, which he/she will not do in the ordinary course and forcing a fresher to use tobacco, liquor and prohibited/scheduled narcotic substances will be deemed as an act of ragging, according to a draft bill being considered by the Kerala government.
The draft bill, the Kerala Prohibition of Ragging (Amendment) Bill, has also brought 'any form of ragging committed through the internet or in any digital mode' under the ambit of the criminal act of ragging for which severe punishment has been prescribed.
Ragging including any form of ragging committed through internet or digital mode shall be a cognizable offence.
The drat Bill, while amending some of the key provisions of the principal act, Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act, has widened its ambit to cover all the educational institutions including universities, deemed to be university, including teaching departments, higher educational institutions, schools and other institutions under general education department, elements and constituent units of such institutions, all their premises in Kerala.
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Teaching branches of all government departments, institutions of national importance established by an Act of Parliament, Central Universities, and all coaching and tuition centres have been brought under the definition of educational institutions.
The draft legislation also covers academic and residential premises of all such institutions, besides the playgrounds, canteens located within and outside the campuses, bus stands, home stays, all means of public and private transportation facilities accessed by students for the pursuit of studies in such institutions in Kerala.
A host of criminal acts committed as part of the ragging including abetment to ragging, criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, rioting, public nuisance, and committing obscene and sexual acts committed while ragging will come under the ambit of the draft Bill.
Causing bodily harm during the act of ragging, stripping, theft, extortion, dishonest misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust, criminal trespass, criminal intimidation will also come under the scope of the Bill, according to the draft legislation.
The State had witnessed a series of public protests following the death of J. S. Sidharthan, a 20-year-old student. He was found dead at the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pookode, Wayanad, in February 2024, allegedly following brutal ragging.
Recently, the Kerala High Court had asked the State government to provide a copy of the draft Anti-Ragging (Amendment) Bill, 2025, to the Kerala State Legal Services Authority and the University Grants Commission on a petition filed by the Authority.
