The central government has ordered a probe into the incident in which some girl students were forced to remove their inner-wear before entering a NEET exam centre in Kerala's Kollam district.
Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday ordered an immediate probe into the incident which grabbed national attention on Monday after a girl's father lodged a complaint with the police.
Pradhan has sought a report from the additional secretary, education, in Kerala.
The minister intervened in the matter even as two MPs from the state submitted a notice to raise the issue as an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha. Congress MPs Hibi Eden and K Muraleedharan have given the notice.
Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu has shot off a letter to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, seeking strong against the agency, which allegedly forced girl students to remove their inner garments.
Congress' Rajya Sabha MP Jebi Mather also said she would raise the issue in the upper house.
More girls complain
Two more girls have complained to the police about the harassment they had to face in the name of frisking. A girl from Chadayamangalam in Kollam district told Manorama News that she was forced to remove her inner-wear before the exam and it caused her mental distress.
“It was a mentally harrowing experience and it affected my performance in the exam. The women who did the frisking said inner-wear with metal hooks will not be allowed and forced us to remove them. We were told that it was a rule followed in all exam centres. But only after the examination we came to know that it was done only in that centre,” the student said. She has not yet filed a complaint.
No complaint received: NTA
Meanwhile, the National Testing Agency which conducts the entrance exam said it has not received any written complaint about the incident. NTA officials said removal of inner-wear as part of the pre-test frisking was against its rules.
The Kerala police have started an inquiry into the complaint filed by a native of Sooranad, Kollam against the humiliation his daughter during the exam. The police said they would inspect the CCTV footages from the Marthoma Institute of Information and Technology where the alleged incident happened on Sunday.
In her letter to the Union Minister, the Kerala minister expressed “dismay and shock” at the news of “naked assault on the dignity and honour of the girl students”. indu said an agency that has been entrusted with the conduct of the examination allegedly forced the girl participants to strip before entering the test centre for reasons known only to themselves.
“The shame and shock of this unexpected turn of events have affected the morale and composure of the students whose performance in the test was consequently affected,” she said and strongly recommended action against the agency to prevent future occurrences of a similar nature and sought the Union Minister’s intervention in the matter.
The issue came to light on Monday when the father of a 17-year-old girl told the media that his daughter, who was sitting for her first-ever NEET exam, was yet to come out of the traumatic experience wherein she had to sit for the over 3-hour-long exam without a brassiere.
The father had told media that his daughter was dressed as per the dress code mentioned in the NEET bulletin which did not say anything about inner-wear.
According to him, several other girls who appeared for the examination at the centre also had to face similar harassment.
