'NEET Destroyed My Family': Brother of S Anitha, Tamil Nadu's First NEET Victim

However, unable to secure a seat through the newly mandated NEET cutoff, she spearheaded the legal fight against the exam, traveling to the Supreme Court as a petitioner to seek an exemption for Tamil Nadu students. Days after the apex court dismissed the state’s plea, on September 1, 2017, 17-year-old Anitha died by suicide, sparking widespread protests across South India and establishing her as the first victim of the exam’s mandatory enforcement in the state.

Recalling the tragedy, Manirathnam spoke of the void left in their household. “Anitha was the only girl in my house. My mother passed away when Anitha was just seven years old, and my father worked in Trichy Gandhi Market. Anitha scored 1,176 out of 1,200, her marks were enough to get into a top medical college in Tamil Nadu under the state board system. But when the Union Government imposed NEET, she protested in the street and filed a case in the Supreme Court. The court didn’t give her justice.”