TRICHY:
S Anitha, a 17-year-old
medical aspirant from Ariyalur committed suicide on Friday. She was in distress after failing to secure a medical seat as NEET was made compulsory in Tamil Nadu for medical admissions this year.
Read this story in Tamil If admissions were made this year based on plus two marks then Anitha, a state board student from Tamil medium would have been the first doctor from her community in her entire village of Kuzhumur.
She even went to the
Supreme Court last month seeking stay for
NEET based admissions in the state run medical colleges saying it would shatter the aspirations of many rural students. But she chose to finally give up after admissions were made based on NEET this year.
The Supreme Court implead Anitha as a respondent against the petition filed by Nalini Chidambarama, dvocate and wife of former union finance minister P Chidambaram. She had urged the Apex Court to direct the state government to admit students in the medical colleges based on NEET.
The state government had maintained till the last minute but failed to ensure NEET exception this year which led to NEET based admissions in the state.
Ariyalur superintendent of police Abhinav Kumar confirmed TOI over phone that Anitha had committed suicide by hanging herself at home.
Though she could not crack NEET but a meritorious student from poor dalit family, she had secured 1176 marks in the plus two exam this year. With a medical cutoff of 196.75 she was assured of a seat if admissions would have been made based on the plus two marks.
Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary of State Platform for Common School System - Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN) expressed deep shock over such a decision by Anitha. Prince had accompanied her to the Supreme Court last month.
Anitha studied in an aided school till class 10. Among the toppers in the district, she could have got admitted to a self-financing school with partial fee waiver.
Her father working as a load man at Gandhi vegetable market in Trichy, comes home once in a week. Losing her mother at an early age, Anitha was raised by single parent and four siblings as the first medical aspirant in her community in the village.
Speaking to TOI last month over phone, Anitha had said that her father did his best to give education and raise her to this level but he could not afford NEET coaching. She has come all the way to New Delhi to represent many aspirants like her in the state who may have to bury their MBBS dream if NEET based admission are made in the state.
Read the story in Tamil Read Kamal Haasan's speech on Anitha's suicide in Tamil