NEET UG 2022: Female students asked to remove innerwear at exam centre in Kerala, case registered

NEET UG 2022: Young women and girls who appeared for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) at a private educational institution in Kollam district of Kerala on Sunday (July 17) suffered a humiliating experience when they had to remove part of their undergarments to be allowed to write the exam. According to the father of one such 17-year-old girl, who was sitting for her first ever NEET exam, his daughter is yet to come out of the traumatic experience wherein she had to sit for the over 3-hour long exam without a brassiere. The father, who has lodged a police complaint and intends to move the Human Rights Commission also, told a TV channel that his daughter was dressed as per the dress code mentioned in the NEET bulletin which does not say anything about innerwear.

Reacting to the incident, Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu on Monday said the test was not organised by a state-run agency and what happened indicated a grave lapse on the part of the organisers.

Such conduct of the organisers towards the women and girl candidates without considering their human rights was unacceptable. We will be conveying our disappointment regarding what happened to the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) -- a central government agency which conducts entrance examinations for educational institutions -- the minister said.

Following the incident, Kerala Police has registered a case against friskers who forced girls to remove undergarments.

On Monday, different parties also held protest marches against the college in connection with the incident, police said.

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A senior police officer of the district said that a team of women officers have gone to record the statement of the girl and based on what she has to say appropriate action, including lodging of a case, would be taken.

The officer also said that they were looking into the private agency which was given the responsibility of conducting the test.

The Kerala State Human Rights Commission, meanwhile, on Monday ordered an investigation into the incident. The Commission directed the Kollam Rural SP to file a report within 15 days.

NEET UG Exam 2022: Complaint about girl told to remove innerwear 'fictitious', NTA told

The police complaint about a girl in Kerala asked to remove innerwear before appearing for the medical entrance exam NEET is "fictitious" and has been filed with "wrong intentions", the exam centre's superintendent has told the National Testing Agency (NTA). According to NTA officials, no complaint has been received by them in this regard.

"No complaint or representation has been received by us. On basis of claims in media reports, an immediate report was sought from the centre superintendent and observer. They have informed that no such incident took place and the complaint is fictitious and has been filed with wrong intentions," a senior NTA official said.

The NEET dress code does not permit any such activity as alleged by the parent of the candidate. The code provides for ensuring sanctity and fairness of exam while observing sensitivity towards gender, culture and religion during frisking of candidates, the official added.

NEET UG 2022 sees 95% attendance with record 18.72 lakh applicants

About 95 per cent attendance was on Sunday recorded in the medical entrance exam NEET, which had received the highest number of applications ever, according to National Testing Agency (NTA) officials. Breaching the 18-lakh mark, a total of 18,72,329 candidates had registered for the largest entrance exam in the county of which 10.64 lakh were female.

"About 95 per cent attendance was recorded today," a senior NTA official said.

This was the first time that the number of registrations for the NEET medical entrance exam surpassed 18 lakh, a considerable increase of over 2.5 lakh from 2021.

Last year, the NEET-undergraduate exam was held on September 12, with over 95 per cent of the registered candidates appearing for it. Over 15.44 lakh candidates appeared for the exam, which was conducted at 3,858 centres. Of these, at least 8.70 lakh students had qualified.