'Ragging' in medical colleges shed light on a culture rooted in misogyny, gender violence

With India still reeling from the aftermath of the gruesome rape and murder incudent of a junior doctor in Kolkata's state-run R G Kar Hospital on August 9, a rather alarming state of affairs in Indian medical colleges has come into the limelight.

Protests have been staged and concerns have been raised over deteriorating safety standards of healthcare professionals at the workplace. But, what if the dangers stem from within, and are much deep-rooted than it is thought to be?

Cases of ragging are not uncommon in colleges of our nation; however, ragging rooted in misogyny, vulgar sexist abuses, and skewed gender dynamics can have far more debilitating consequences.

In a shocking revelation, a TOI report has showed that seniors in a number of medical colleges across the country compel their juniors to read, memorise and recite vulgar excerpts from booklets that glorify sexual aggression against women in general, often in the garb of ragging.

Usually, these are mostly directed against their female classmates and nurses. Experts in the field of sociology and gender violence have expressed concerns as according to them, these 'ragging' sessions play a huge part in fuelling rape culture.

Freshers of a number medical colleges are instructed by senior students to study the material written in these booklets which are refered to as 'personality development program' or 'medical sahitya'. They are also forced to carry copies of these materials at all times. These practices promote the idea of sexually objectifying women, irrespective of their age and proffession, which can be extremely detrimental to the society at large, as per the experts.

One of the many distasteful acronyms that are part of the so called 'medical sahitya' is 'BHMB' ('badi hokar maal banegi'), often used to refer to women in the college campus.

Nurses, and other female staff and students are constantly thought of as "being available" and "willing" to be sexually assaulted by doctors. Moreover, every allusion to women in these booklets, including their classmates, include violent, aggressive sexual activities and the crudest conceivable descriptions of genitalia.

"As students, we stood around male doctors asking young women to take off their clothes while they showed us how to do a 'breast examination'. The women were touched without consent and unnecessarily," said a doctor to TOI while recalling experiences from her medical college.