Nearly 100 female students were humiliated on Sunday when they were asked to remove their bras before taking the exam. As per the dress codestudents are not allowed to wear any metallic object or accessories while entering the exam hall. This is said to be an anti-cheating measure. While the advisory talks about belts, it does not talk about undergarments such as bras which can include underwiring. The incident took place in the exam center at Kollam.
Students complain that they had to face mental trauma right before entering the exam centre. Parents file a complaint with the police. According to primary information, nearly 100 girls had to face this situation. A complaint has been filed with the Kottarakka Deputy Superintendent of Police.
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The undergarments were found dumped together in cartons after the examination on Sunday, according to the students.
The center in Kerala’s Marthoma Institute of Information Technology, Ayur Chadayamngalam has denied responsibility stating that frisking and biometric checking were done by external agencies.
This is not the first time that women students had to face harassment at the NEET exam centres, over the past years too similar instances have surfaced.
In 2017, a female student attempting the medical entrance exam in Kannur was also asked to remove her inner-wear. At that time CBSE used to conduct the exam. The incident had started a debate about being over-cautious during exams, and then Education Minister C Raveendranath said that the government would investigate the matter. Now, the exam is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). The exam conducting body is yet to issue any statement in this regard.
According to the NEET dress code, students are not even allowed to wear long sleeves during the exam. While slippers and sandals with low heels are allowed shoes are not permitted in the exam hall.
A total of 18,72,329 candidates had registered for the largest entrance exam in the county of which 10.64 lakh were females, according to the data shared by NTA. The exam was conducted at 3,570 centres in 497 cities, including 14 cities outside India.
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