BENGALURU: Nearly 36 per cent students believe ragging prepares them for the harsh realities of the world while 32% enjoyed the experience. More worryingly, 84% of students said they did not complain about ragging. These are the findings of a psychosocial study carried out by a Supreme Court-mandated committee among 10,632 students across the country.The findings were released by the University Grants Commission (UGC).Many of the students that the SC panel — comprising experts from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) — spoke to did not view ragging as a form of harassment. The panel found there was a widespread acceptance of the phenomenon in educational institutions and society at large. Nearly 40 per cent said it helped them forge friendships in college, with 62% saying the seniors who ragged them initially helped them with studies and guided them through college. .The study covered 37 colleges across India.Around 40% of the students said they were ragged in some form or the other by their seniors in college, which shows that the practice is still prevalent in many institutions despite checks being put in place. Many students viewed ragging as a tradition that ought to be continued and passed on.Among the respondents, 35.1% reported mild ragging while 4.1% reported severe ragging. When the students were further questioned about their emotional experience during ragging, their responses were surprising. While 33% of students said they enjoyed ragging, 45.1% said they felt bad initially but later felt it was alright. Many students said they had gone on to become good friends with the seniors who ragged them.The ragging practices they identified ranged from being told to address seniors as “sir” or “madam” to smoking, drinking and even physical, mental and sexual abuse.“One of the most striking findings of our study is the widespread acceptance of ragging in our educational institutions and indeed in our society,” said Dr Shekhar Seshadri , professor and head of the department of child and adolescent psychiatry at NIMHANS and member of the SC panel. “Interestingly, the justification of ragging as a toughening process...is offered more by those who perpetrate ragging and by people in the system who do not want to address the issue for corrective action.”Seshadri added that the notion that students accept ragging and therefore do not report it is not true. “Our findings clearly indicate that ragging occurs in the context of power relationships, in a deeply hierarchical and unequal society and is reflective of these social processes. Non reporting is thus a function of fear, of lack of clarity about systems and lack of confidence in their effectiveness.”The panel recommended strengthening of personal interactions — among freshers, seniors and wardens — on campus and in residential facilities to foster a sense of acceptance and inclusion among newcomers. It also called for zero tolerance to ragging and asked institutions to clearly spell out unacceptable behaviour, be it harassment or discrimination on the basis of gender, caste, religion etc.