Anitha’s suicide woeful

S. Anitha, an aspiring 17-year-old girl was the daughter of a daily wage labourer and had been one of the respondents in a Supreme Court case challenging NEET. Anitha had paid a heavy price with her life for being not able to fulfil her ambition of getting a medical seat to become a doctor. Peoples are amazed to hear that Anitha had scored 1,176 out of 1,200 marks in Class XII (she having scored centum in Physics, 199 in Chemistry and 194 in Biology, also scored centum in Mathematics, would have secured a cut-off of 196.75 out of 200) and had a cut off of 196.75 for medicine. Even after that she was unable to join the MBBS course as admissions were conducted solely on the basis of NEET scores, and Anitha had scored just 86 marks (the cut-off mark of 130) out of 720 in the test. After her death, some unrest occurred in Anitha’s village and protesters not only raised slogans demanding immediate withdrawal of NEET but a section of protesters set on fire an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi (unable to understand what is his mistake). The sad part is, not only Tamil Nadu but in all states in India, that schools don’t teach us how to handle failures, rejections and disappointments which are more important than getting good marks in schools. Our children should not forget that he/she can shine well in academic should also have a courage to fight till the end - by preparing well for the next exam. All doors are not closed with only one attempt. Sympathies go out for Anitha.

— Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee