At NEET centre in Kerala, female students made to remove bra, slippers
Kannur: In a shocking incident, girl students were made to remove their inner wear with metal buckles at a NEET exam centre in a remote village in Kannur on Sunday.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle on condition of anonymity, a girl student from Kasaragod who attended the examination at the TISK English Medium School, Kunhimangalam near Koovapram in Payyannur, said the officials asked her to remove her brassiere when the metal detector made a beep sound because of its steel buckle.
“They asked me to change the innerwear, but this is mentioned nowhere in NEET instructions,” she said. “It was already 9.20am and I had only 10 more minutes to enter the hall. I asked them to permit me use the toilet to change, but they refused. There were no houses nearby. Thankfully, only lady invigilators and staff were present at the entry point. So I removed it from there itself.”
The officials also asked her to remove the slippers, which too was not a NEET rule. “I have allergy problem and I cannot walk without slippers,” she said. “The incidents shattered my confidence in attending the examination, for which I had been preparing for a year.”
It is reported that many other girls also faced similar situations and many started crying. The students pointed out that NEET instructions did not refer to the removal of inner wear but the school authorities who had conducted the examination remained adamant and forced the girls to remove them at the entry point to the examination hall.
“This is entirely due to the ignorance and lack of common sense from the part of the people who were assigned to conduct the exam,” said V. Rajesh Nambiar, a parent and a witness to the incident. He said he would complain to the authorities. “No student should face such a bad experience anywhere in future,” he added. Kannur district collector Mir Mohammed Ali said the administration is aware of the incident. “But we haven’t received any formal complaint so far,” he told DC. “If they (parents and students) can just write a detailed complaint, it would help us start an inquiry."
