According to a complaint made by the parent of an aspirant with the Superintendent of Police, Kollam Rural, the students were told not to take the NEET exam if they refused to remove their underwear.
Students at a National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) Undergraduate (UG) examination center in Kerala’s Kollam district were forced to remove their bras before entering the exam hall, reportedly due to ‘metal hooks,’ in keeping with a bizarre and invasive practice that has become an annual horror story for female medical aspirants.
The event, which occurred on Sunday, July 17, at the Mar Thomas Institute of Information Technology in Ayur, came to light after a student’s parent filed a complaint with the Superintendent of Police, Kollam Rural.
The student’s father, Gopa Kumar Sorena, stated in his complaint that the official information bulletin published by the National Testing Agency (NTA) did not specify any ban on bras with metal hooks.
When his daughter refused to remove her underwear, he stated she was urged not to take the exam. “My daughter had been studying for this exam for quite some time.
But she couldn’t even write the exam correctly. She came back to us, distraught, crying. They had forced the female students to remove their underwear.
The youngsters were really uneasy. Many of them were in tears. If it is the policy, they may inspect the innerwear when frisking. But why should they be removed?
The NEET bulletin has no such rules,” he informed TNM.
Furthermore, Gopa Kumar stated that the children were asked to trash their innerwear in a room without even following the COVID-19 protocol. He described the encounter as “mental torture,” and claimed he filed a police report to prevent additional youngsters from going through it.
Meanwhile, Mar Thomas Institute of Information Technology officials told TNM that none of its employees were part in the frisking process.
“The NTA had assigned two agencies to frisk and record biometric attendance.
” We have no idea what the regulations are. All of this is checked by the agency’s staff. “In some situations, when youngsters came to us crying, pleading for permission to wear a shawl, we intervened and enabled them to do so,” an institute official explained.
It should be noted that the NTA’s official information bulletin about NEET (UG) makes no mention of a ban on bras with metal hooks.
The bulletin states that “light clothing with long sleeves is not permitted.
” However, if candidates arrive at the examination center dressed in cultural/customary attire, they should arrive at least an hour before the last reporting time, i.e., 12.30 pm, so that there is enough time for proper frisking without any inconvenience to the candidate while maintaining the sanctity of the examination.”
The bulletin, on the other hand, indicates that applicants are not authorized to bring “any metallic item… in the test hall/room,” while the NEET admit card states that “garments with large buttons are not permitted.”
This is far from the first time in Kerala that such an invasion of privacy has occurred in the name of dress code. Five years ago, in May 2017, a candidate complained about a similar, but more elaborate ordeal at an examination center in Kannur.
The candidate stated that she arrived at the exam center at 8 a.m. dressed in a half-sleeved top and black pants. “At the gate, they told me that dark-colored pants were not permitted and that I needed to change before entering the exam hall.
” Because it was a Sunday, most stores were closed.
“My mother and I had to walk for at least 2 kilometers to find a shop, change clothing, and return to the exam center,” she told TNM.
Sadly, the nightmare did not end there. The detector beeped ten minutes before the exam began as she walked through the metal detector to enter the hall.
“I told them it was my bra strap with a metal hook on it, but they still wouldn’t let me in.” They insisted on my removing it. Despite my protests that the guidelines make no mention of innerwear, they refused to listen to my appeals.
Then I went to the other side of the room, took off my bra, and presented it to my mother, who was standing outside the gate. “I had little confidence left in me as I entered the exam hall to write the test,” she admitted.
The candidate’s mother had pointed out at the time that, while Kannur had three centers, this issue with the clothing code only occurred at one of them.
A year later, another 18-year-old applicant in Palakkad described a similarly traumatic event. Though surprised when she was requested to remove her bra, the youngster had little choice but to comply with the request.
Later, in a complaint submitted at the Palakkad North Town police station on May 8, 2018, she claimed that a male invigilator at the center constantly gazed at her chest during the exam. This violation “humiliated” her, according to her complaint.
