Two students die by suicide in Tamil Nadu over NEET fear

“All of you have so many expectations from me. I am sorry. If I do not get a (medical) seat in a college, all your hard work for me will go in vain. I am sorry. I am tired.”

These were the last words of a 19-year-old medical aspirant, who was preparing to appear for her second attempt in NEET scheduled on Sunday, from Madurai. A day before she was to appear for the entrance test, Jothi Sri Durga was found hanging from a ceiling fan at her home in Madurai, 465 km from here, on Saturday.

Hours after Durga was found dead, another student who was to appear for NEET, Adithya, also died by suicide. He was found dead by his parents at their home in Dharmapuri on Saturday evening.

Durga, who completed her plus-2 last year, took a year-long break to prepare exclusively for NEET to realize her childhood dream of becoming a doctor. However, the pressure to perform in the NEET exam seems to have demotivated her, leading the teenager to take the extreme step of taking her own life.

A 7-page hand-written letter and an audio message recorded by Durga is now in the public domain. In the letter addressed to her family members, Durga spoke about how her extended family also treated her “like your own daughter” and thanked them for the love showered on her.

The teenager said she feared the NEET exam though she was scoring good marks in the mock tests and asked her parents to forget and forgive her.

The suicide of Durga, daughter of a sub-inspector of police, and Adithya is the fourth in Tamil Nadu in the past one-month over NEET. A 19-year-old girl from Coimbatore and another 19-year-old boy from Ariyalur also took their life due to fear of NEET.

Political leaders, including Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, asked students not to take extreme steps as there were several avenues to make it big in life. DMK President M K Stalin said the party would scrap NEET if it came to power in 2021 and ensure that medical admissions are made based on plus-two marks.

Students in Tamil Nadu, especially from rural areas, find taking NEET exams as they feel it does not create a level-playing field as they are forced to compete with students from urban areas and those who study in the CBSE stream.

The state government says it is against NEET, but two legislations passed by the Assembly seeking exemption from the national-level entrance test have been rejected by the Centre.