Anitha, Tamil Nadu Girl Who Fought Against NEET in SC, Commits Suicide

Chennai: S Anitha, the 17-year-old Dalit girl who was the face of the fight against NEET, took her life on Friday just over a week after Supreme Court ruled that medical college admissions in Tamil Nadu will be based on the national admission test.

The SC directive came as a huge setback for thousands of students who had hoped for a positive response, including Anitha. Daughter of a daily wage labourer, she had failed to secure herself a seat in medial course leaving her disappointed. Anitha, who was one of the respondents against the plea in the Supreme Court, committed suicide at her residence in Ariyalur district in Tamil Nadu.

Anitha had secured 1176 out of 1200 in her board examination, but she secured just 86 out of 700 in NEET which is why she didn't get an admission in a medical college. After scoring a high cut-off of 199.75 for engineering and 196.75 for medicine, she was offered a seat in aeronautical engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology. The young girl also secured a place for Bachelor of Veterinary Science in Veterinary College at Orathanadu. Anitha, however, wanted to do something else. “I want to be a doctor,” she’d been reported as saying.

Coming from a poor family, Anitha moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on MBBS admisisons in state-run medical hospitals based on NEET scores. In her petition, she said NEET implementation will destroy the ambitions of many students from rural Tamil Nadu.

"Had the State government helped fight the case, she would have pursued her ambition and become the first doctor from the Dalit community," said a relative of hers.

Anitha’s relatives, distraught, said the family had lost one of their their kindest, strongest souls.

Tamil superstar Rajnikanth took to Twitter calling the incident ‘unfortunate’.

Kamal Haasan put the blame on the politicians for being busy 'bargaining', instead of arguing in the court.

"Is there anything more vile than this? I don't care about the girl's hometown or caste. She is my daughter. We must forget which political party we belong to and fight for her. We have missed a good would-be doctor. We formed the government instead of arguing in the court, we are bargaining. Only if such incidents will teach them a lesson. People must fight for her," said Haasan

M.K. Stalin, Working President of the DMK, said he was 'shocked' on hearing about Anitha's suicide.

"On behalf of the DMK party, I offer my heartfelt condolences. Though she scored 1176 with 196.5 cutoff and was anticipating medical seat, she lost confidence due to the NEET exams and filed a complaint with the SC. After this, she met me and requested me to urge the government on this issue. Heeding to her request, I voiced out my opinion in the Assembly. Due to unfortunate circumstances, she committed suicide," said Stalin.

State Health Minister C Vijaya bhaskar told Network18: "Anitha supported the TN Government in this case but unfortunately it happened like this. It is very saddening and heartbreaking. Though other Governments supported NEET, we opposed it. Due to the SC order, we had to abide by NEET. We appeal to students to be brave and strong in times of distress.”

It may be noted that the state health Minister met the Union Health Minister JP Nadda many times in the recent past urging the Centre to consider their plea against NEET implementation, but the meetings failed to help students from rural areas and the NEET implementation apparently dealt a blow to many medical aspirants.

The State pressed for Presidential assent to two bills adopted in the state Assembly in February - one was to exempt NEET. Even the Centre on August 13 said it is willing to exempt Tamil Nadu from NEET for a year but later took a u-turn saying the Ordinance route would not be legally valid.