The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) that was held at the Mar Thoma Institute of Information Technology, Ayur, in Kollam became a traumatic experience for many women medical aspirants. Female students were asked to remove their bras to write the NEET exam.
The issue came to light when one of the student’s fathers filed a complaint with the Kottarakara police stating that his daughter, as well as others, were asked to remove their bras before entering the examination hall. These students had to sit through a three-hour exam without a bra. The father also stated that his daughter was dressed as per the code of conduct mentioned in the NEET bulletin. But, nowhere in the bulletin had ‘removing bras’ as a mandatory code.
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In the interview with ANI, he shared, “After the primary inspection, my daughter was told that the hook of inners was detected by the metal detector and she was asked to remove it. Almost 90 per cent of female candidates had to remove their innerwear and keep it in a store room. The candidates were mentally disturbed while giving the exam.”
He further added, “My daughter has been preparing for the NEET exam since 8th grade. We were confident that she would achieve a good rank on the test but due to this issue she was unable to concentrate and couldn’t properly write the exam.”
Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu has not taken the issue lightly. She took to Twitter to share, “It is reprehensible that girl students who appeared for the NEET-UG exam in Kollam were made to remove their innerwear before entering the exam hall. It is learnt that this was done by people from the agency conducting the examination…Such an act, carried out without even taking basic human rights into consideration, was completely irresponsible, to say the least.”
The officials at Mar Thoma Institute of Information Technology have stated that none of the staff members was involved in the entire process. It was two agencies assigned by the NTA that took care of it.
The Kerala Government has escalated the incident to the Union Government and has requested that such occurrences don’t happen in the future. The Kerala Commission for Protection of Child Rights has also probed an inquiry on the same.
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