Medical aspirant S.Anitha committed suicide on 1st September 2017.

Anitha 

A 17-year old Medical aspirant girl, S. Anitha, the daughter of a daily wage labourer who had scored centum in Physics, 199 in Chemistry and 194 in Biology, centum in Mathematics, would have secured a cut-off of 196.75 out of 200 in her Class XII State Board examinations, ended her life in Kuzhumur village near Sendurai IN Ariyalur district on Friday as she could not get through NEET, as NEET was made compulsory for medical admissions this year. S.Anitha even went to the Supreme Court last month seeking stay for NEET based admissions in the state run medical colleges saying it would smash the aspirations of many rural students. Her death triggered strong reactions from political parties, social activists and voluntary organizations who had been seeking exemption for the State from NEET. Considering that the MBBS cut-off last year, she had a good chance of securing medical seat', in all probability, bagged a seat in a sought after Government medical college. However, as admissions were conducted solely on the basis of NEET scores, Anitha did not qualify in NEET test. She wanted to be a doctor and she was hopeful she will be assured of a seat if the admission is based on Plus Two marks, she could fight legally even in Supreme Court but every effort of her went in vain due to the introduction of NEET and thus the rural girls from a poor family could not fulfill her aspirations and she ended her life.  “Her dream had crumbled and Anitha took the extreme step dejected over failing to secure a medical seat because of NEET. Her father and brothers supported the girl to the hilt to realise her ambition, but everything has gone waste,” said a sobbing relative of Anitha, residing at Kuzhumur village. Anitha had lost her mother at an early age and her father T. Shanmugam, a load man at the Gandhi Market in Tiruchi, could not afford special coaching for her daughter to prepare for NEET.The public and political leaders claim that the government should at least now exempt Tamilnadu from NEET.As the information of the suicide of Anitha spread, angry villagers thronged Anitha’s house and also staged a road roko at the village for over an hour assailing the State and Central governments for failing to get the state exempted from NEET thereby “crushing the dreams of lakhs of State board students.” The protestors raised slogans demanding immediate withdrawal of NEET.- Kris