CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury.
Expressing his grief over the suicide of a young Dalit girl, who had moved the Supreme Court against NEET-based medical examinations in Tamil Nadu, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Saturday accused the Centre of “imposing a uniform exam” without taking state governments into consideration.
“A Dalit girl, a bold petitioner against the imposition of NEET instead of the existing School results for admission to MBBS – has to unfortunately kill herself as she did not score well in NEET,” Yechury said. “Without taking state govts on board how does the Centre think it can impose a ‘uniform’ exam? Lives of our Dalit and other marginalised youth are too high a cost to pay for such insensitive and inconsiderate policies.”
S Anitha, a 17-year-old Dalit girl, committed suicide on Friday.
On Friday, 17-year-old Anitha had committed suicide by hanging at her home in Ariyalur district near Trichy. Her death came nine days after the apex court directed Tamil Nadu to follow National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) for admissions to medical courses and finish the counselling process by September 4. Although the Centre had backed the move from the Tamil Nadu government, seeking exemption from NEET for a year, it subsequently decided that the move was “bad in law”.
READ: Dalit girl who went to SC to block NEET in Tamil Nadu kills herself
Daughter of a daily-wage labourer, Anitha had secured 1,176 marks out of 1,200 in Class XII, and had scored 199.75 out of 200 for engineering and 196.75 for medicine, as per the state education department’s evaluation. These marks would have ensured Anitha a seat in either stream without NEET. According to her family, she could secure only 86 per cent in the NEET and it was then that she decided to move the top court against the implementation of NEET for admissions to medical courses.
ALSO READ: ‘What wrong had she done, who will answer?’: Father of NEET petitioner Anitha who hanged herself
Earlier in the day, political parties and pro-Tamil outifts had staged state-wide protests over the suicide of the teenaged girl, demanding the immediate withdrawal of the entrance exam.
With PTI inputs
