Two tribal girls from Tamil Nadu to pursue dental and veterinary courses

TIRUVANNAMALAI: It is certainly not easy to get admission to medical courses in the State, and for students from tribal community, the odds are much higher.

However, for the first time in Jawadhu Hills of the district, two tribal girl students got admission into dental and veterinary courses through National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) this year. Both of them underwent government NEET coaching for over a month in Polur. One of them scored 135 marks while the other student scored 101 in NEET.

M Sumithra, the girl who scored 135, finished her schooling from Jawadhu tribal higher secondary school. Despite being eligible to pursue dental at Rajah Muthaih Medical College under Annamalai University in Chidambaram, which she got through counselling, her dreams were almost on verge of collapsing owing to financial issues. “For over a week, I was crying. I could not eat food properly,” Sumithra said. But, the period of disappointment soon vanished as her school headmaster and the administration referred the situation to Collector K S Kandasamy.

Upon his intervention, help poured in from different quarters in the form of `17 lakh for the girl. “This is the first time a tribal girl from Jawadhu Hills is getting medical admission and we made sure she got it,” the collector said.

Another student, Saritha R, another student of Jawadhu tribal school, also got merit-based admission to pursue Bachelor of Veterinary Sciences at Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University in Chennai.