Female NEET candidates asked to remove undergarments while frisking, Human Rights Commission seeks report
New Delhi: In a shocking incident, a National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) exam centre in Kerala is being severely criticized for asking the female students to remove their innerwear before entering the exam hall.
As per various media reports, an exam centre near Ayoor in Kollam, Mar Thoma Institute of Information Technology, made around 90 female students to take off their underwear while frisking before entering the exam hall.
Furious with the incident, the parent of the student filed a complaint before Kollam rural SP. Taking cognizance of the issue, the State Human Rights Commission has asked the Kollam rural SP to submit a report in this regard within 15 days.
Kollam rural Police has already collected statements of the students and the matter will be probed by Kottarakkara DySP. Meanwhile, the Higher Education Minister R Bindu has assured that the State would take up the matter with the Centre.
Protesting against such a horror, students unions including SFI, KSU and AISF organized protest march to the exam centre.
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As per the latest media report by the New Indian Express, the complainant parent mentioned that around 90 students had to undergo such a humiliating experience where they were asked to remove their innerwear over a metal hook. He also mentioned that the female students had been taken to a separate room for removing their inner garments.
Speaking to the daily, the parent mentioned, "After completing primary search, my daughter was asked to remove her inner wear because the metal detector has found some metal in her innerwear. When she refused to comply, she was told that she won't be allowed to appear for the exam, thus forcing her to do so. After the humiliating experience he lost all confidence. Her hard work has been wasted. We don't think the exam will be conducted again and probably my daughter may not make it."
"Our children were forced to write the exam under such painful circumstances. It is mental torture. I don't know when my daughter will recover from the trauma," he added.
Questioning such a procedure, the parent pointed out that the NEET exam notification never mentioned about such search procedures. Talking about his elder daughter, who also is a medical student, the parent mentioned that his elder daughter never had to face such a trauma while appearing in NEET exam.
However, the college, where the exam was conducted, has denied being involved in the matter. The authorities of the college said, "It was members of an NTA agency who conducted physical search of the aspirants. None of our staff were part of the frisking processes. During the NEET exam, the NTA staff have the authority to conduct all exam procedures. Generally, the college will only have authority to provide logistical support."
Assuring to take up the matter to the Centre Government, Minister R Bindu told the daily, "Definitely such incidents will psychologically affect the students. We will take up the matter and convey our anguish to the National Test Agency (NTA) and the Union Government."
Meanwhile, the National Testing Agency (NTA) in a recent statement has clarified that no such incident had been reported from the said centre. The Print adds that NTA mentioned in the statement, "On the issue of a media report that a candidate appearing for NEET(UG) at the Mar Thoma Institute of Information Technology, Ayur, Kollam, on 17 July was asked to remove her innerwear, it is informed that — on the receipt of the report, immediate comments of the Centre Superintendent and the Independent Observer as well as the City Coordinator, Kollam district, were obtained. All three of them have, inter alia, stated that they did not find any such incident happening in the centre. The candidate did take the examination."
"There was no representation/ complaint to any one during or immediately after the examination. Nor has the NTA received any email/ complaint in this regard," further read the statement.
Despite continuous pleas from the aspirants to defer the exam, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for the Undergraduate medical courses was conducted as scheduled on Sunday i.e. July 17 with around 95 per cent attendance.
PTI reports this year NEET witnessed the highest number of applicants ever. Breaching the 18-lakh mark, a total of 18,72,329 candidates had registered for the largest entrance exam in the county of which 10.64 lakh were female.
About 95 per cent attendance was recorded today, a senior NTA official said.
This was the first time that the number of registrations for the NEET medical entrance exam surpassed 18 lakh, a considerable increase of over 2.5 lakh from 2021.
Last year, the NEET-undergraduate exam was held on September 12, with over 95 per cent of the registered candidates appearing for it. Over 15.44 lakh candidates appeared for the exam, which was conducted at 3,858 centres. Of these, at least 8.70 lakh students had qualified.
