Tribal girl from remote TN village clears NEET

A tribal girl from Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu has cleared the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), the qualifying examination for admission to a medical course.

M Sangavi, a 20-year-old, tribal belonging to Malasar community, cleared the NEET in her second attempt. She stays in a small hamlet of around 40 families. She is the first person to clear the class XII examination in her settlement.

In her first attempt she scored less than 100 marks, when the qualifying marks for tribal community students ranges from 108 to 137. She now scored 202 and hopes to get admission to a government medical college.

It was a life of struggle for Sangavi, who had found it difficult to get her caste certificate and finally got it after the intervention of the District Collector, following media reports about how she was finding it difficult to get the caste certificate.

She lost her father last year and her mother is partially blind. Some local organisations had helped her secure admission in a coaching class, but she had to return to her village, without being trained at the coaching class, as a result of the lockdown due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

Sangavi aspires to be a doctor, to help the rural people, whom she has seen suffer due to diseases and lack of proper medical care.