When anti-NEET activists repeatedly kept shouting about over their lungs that test will only make the cut the prospects of reserved category students, they were right. At least that is what reflects in the top 50 ranks list released today. According to the list, not a single SC, ST student figured in the top 50 ranks. Among the 50 ranks, 43 students belonged to the unreserved category which mostly comprises of upper caste students. Only 7 students were from the reserved category and they belong to the OBC category and only one of them is a female student.
The total number of OBC students who appeared for the exam was 6,31,473 and about 59 percentage of the students qualified the exam. However, as we mentioned only seven managed to find rank in the top 50. Another point to consider is that they comprised about 45 percent of all the students who appeared for the exam. Last year 58 percent of the students managed to pass.
The number of scheduled caste students who appeared for the exam was 2,11,303 and about 99890 students passed which is about 51 percent. The least number of candidates from the categories is the ST students. Only about 86210 students appeared for the exam about 35272 passed which is about 40 percent. Last year, the results were pretty much the same as well.
On the other hand, students from the unreserved categories made up about 36 percentage and managed a pass percentage of 57.27. Which is about one percent less than the OBCs who made up 45 percentage of the total number of candidates.
Prince Gajendra Babu, General Secretary, State Platform for Common School System is one of the activists at the forefront of the anti-NEET protests in Tamil Nadu. He has repeatedly said that SC, ST students will lose out of seats and pointed out how those who do usually qualify are the ones who are on their second or third attempt. "Students who do qualify are the ones who have money and therefore have the access to the best coaching centre and resources. Students coming from backward castes, do not have the same resources and cannot perform on par with the privileged students in such a highly competitive exam," he explained.
Besides inaccessibility to resources, SC, ST students also don't have the option of taking a year or two to prepare for the exam because they are usually not financially well off and are forced to choose their next option. This is disregarding the thousands who have given up on the dream because they know how competitive the exam is and how they don't have the resources to even consider attempting it.
Prince calls the NEET exam a filtration process that basically filters out underprivileged students. "Now with the 10 percentage reservation for economically backward students, the open category students have extra seats to their name. This will make it all the more difficult for SC, ST students to find a seat in the medical colleges," he said.
Since only the top 50 rank list is out so far, we are unsure about the way the reserved categories have performed. However, if the pattern persists then, SC, ST students don't stand a chance of getting admitted in any of the top medical colleges. If the unreserved category students end up taking up most of the spaces in the top colleges, SC, ST students will have to get admitted in the poorly ranked colleges. "Most of the top medical colleges are government colleges, which means that they will be free. The private colleges are the ones who are ranked lower and so SC, ST students will also have to pay much more than their unreserved counterparts," he explained.
