Up to five ladies who were on duty for the NEET exam at a Kerala educational institute were detained today on suspicion of urging female students to take off their underwear before taking the test on Sunday.
According to Kerala Police, they were detained following a lengthy police investigation that lasted several hours.
Two ladies work for the private educational institution in Ayur where the event occurred, while three work for an agency contracted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
Following an alleged occurrence, the NTA established a Fact Finding Committee to travel to Kollam in Kerala.
The Ministry of Education has been informed by a number of media reports that an incident may have occurred in one of the NEET (UG)-2022 testing locations close to Kerala’s Kollam district. In this case, NTA has previously provided explanation.
The Ministry of Education announced today that V Muraleedharan, MOS, Ministry of External Affairs & Parliamentary Affairs, and other public representatives from Kerala met with Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday to discuss this.
The Ministry also reported that Dr. R. Bindu, Kerala’s minister for higher education and social justice, had sent a letter to the union education minister.
At light of the aforementioned, the Ministry of Education has requested that the National Testing Agency obtain all the information regarding the occurrence directly from the parties involved who were in the Center at the time.
In order to thoroughly determine the facts, the NTA has established a Fact Finding Committee.
On the basis of the fact-finding committee’s report, additional action will be taken.
The Kerala police had opened a complaint in relation to an alleged incident earlier today. At the Chadayamangalam police station, which is part of the Kollam Rural police area, a case was opened under sections 354 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code.
After the NEET exam for undergraduate medical programs on July 18, a student at Kollam filed a complaint with the Superintendent of Police about the occurrence.
The student claimed in her complaint that she was required to take off her undergarments in order to enter the exam room.
According to reports, the student’s parent claimed that girls were required to remove their underwear before being allowed to take the test, and they had to take it in front of male invigilators and other male students, which caused the girls to feel uneasy and negatively impacted their mental health.
“Since the eighth grade, my daughter has been studying for the NEET test. We were convinced she would perform well on the test, but because of this problem, she was unable to focus and couldn’t complete the exam “a father of a student said.
The parent cited the National Testing Agency’s instructions and said that there was no mention of a ban on any type of brassiere (bra) and hooks in the standards set by the NTA, which administers the NEET.
“They felt awfully uneasy. Bras and hooks were not prohibited in the NTA’s guidelines. We were operating within the rules. However, the staff forbade them from entering the classroom until they had taken off their underwear “Added he.
