Distressed calls from NEET aspirants to TN government's helpline number increases

After the NEET UG 2022 results were announced on Wednesday, September 7, it has been reported that the Tamil Nadu government's helpline has received many distressed calls. The helpline was set up for counselling NEET aspirants after many students allegedly died by suicide for failing to crack the exam last year.

The helpline started functioning from July 19 this year. As the number of calls increase, the state government is trying to extend the services of this helpline. As per an IANS report, the staff working with the 104 helplines informed that callers were in a distressed state of mind and many callers wanted to know how they could cope up with the reality that they could not crack NEET.

They also added that most of the students who approached them were those who had gotten more than 90 per cent marks in core Science subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Biology in their Tamil Nadu Plus II Board examinations. The staff said that they had also tried to reach out to the 19-year-old girl from Ambattur in Chennai who died by suicide immediately after the results were out.

One of the counsellors from the 104 helpline who attends to the calls said, "Most of the students who are calling have been doing consistently well in academics and scoring high marks in core Science subjects. However, they failed to clear the test and, hence, are dejected and in a highly disturbed and distressed state of mind," as per IANS.

According to the counsellor, the students feel that all their studies have gone in vain and that there is no option left except ending one's life. This year, about 1,32,167 students appeared for the NEET UG examinations from Tamil Nadu and 67,787 of them qualified.