It is clear from a TV footage that Anitha had overcome her failure to clear NEET. Then how come she committed suicide?
Radhika
The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) which was implemented on May 5, 2013 for entrance to undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses,has seen several protests and opposition from the states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka on the ground that the respective states have syllabus different from the syllabus proposed by the Medical Council of India(MCI). So the year 2013 was a disputed time. And it was told that NEET was unconstitutional and illegal, but the Supreme Court on April 11, 2016, allowed the Central Government and the MCI to
implement this entrance exam.
There have been numerous allegations against the Central Government for supporting NEET. With the incident of the suicide of a Tamil Nadu girl, Anitha, protests have become widespread. A majority of people in Tamil Nadu are pinpointing the NEET to have been responsible for the death of Anitha. Hence they are completely blaming the Central government for having supported it. But actually, all parties have been targeting the BJP government in the Centre in view of elections. This incident has become successful for political parties for stirring people’s emotions against th BJP, even though it is the result of the Supreme Court’s direction that NEET examination should be held.
Now, talking about Anita’s suicide she had scored a total of 1176 out of 1200 in her 12th Board exams and she had been aspiring to be a doctor for quite a long time. She was born in a poor family where her father has been the only source of income. She had expressed the desire to follow agriculture for her higher studies in some TV show which shows that she was not upset with NEET result. This footage was the last one shot before her suicide. It clearly shows that the girl wasn”t hopeless or discouraged and that she had found her other career options. So the question here is, how could such a girl commit
suicide, who was just clear with her path of career? I think this is the point which the people should focus more on instead of blaming the Central government and NEET and this is where people should analyse as to who was responsible for brainwashing or driving this little girl to the path of suicide. I would say that this girl”s life has been a play for political vengeance and a dirty play enacted by dirty political minds to subdue the ruling party.
Suicide cases of students have been a common issue for the past few years in Tamil Nadu. Whenever the Board exam results are announced, there have been two or three cases of suicide every year. So, this is a matter of the mental strength and capacity of the youth. In the footage that Anitha had spoken, she hasn’t portrayed anything like suicidal tendencies too. So how could people call this incident as a result of the NEET? No it’s not! Her mental weakness has been dominated and used up by certain people or group to turn the whole scenario against the BJP, claiming that the BJP is more dominant in the Northern India and so this is the reason why the people from the North are getting selected in this entrance exam, with the people from the south struggling to get a pass mark in it. This only indicates the bad education system and it’s inefficiency to promote quality of students in the South India for a long time in comparison to the North. Here in the South, syllabi have always prepared with a focus on scoring marks and so there is no adequate attention given to the concept side of the
theories. So the solution for this problem lies in improving the quality of education gradually instead of blaming the government.
We must understand the after-effects or the consequences that will have to be faced by a single act. Here the society must not exploit the victim and start protests against the Government which is trying to bring in some kind of
development. While introducing new methods, there will be some difficulties to be encountered in the beginning, but this ultimately is for a good cause. With this introduction of NEET, there has been a unified criterion for selection. So such entrance exams will have the capacity to filter students. This could actually select students with the passion to take an MBBS or an MD, in spite of several entries which include students who aren’t keenly interested in it. So, the students who are wishing to pursue medicine must prepare themselves earlier and also, students must be educated to face competitive exams like these in the future.
(The writer is Coimbatore-based student)
