The NEET gave a clear advantage to students from cities, as the quality of education in rural pockets was not up to the mark, said President of Association of Healthcare Providers (India) Tamil Nadu Chapter, S. Gurushankar here on Tuesday.
In a press release, he said that with NEET, the policy makers had introduced a system in which students were evaluated on a higher standard. Rural students had to study extra hours and take additional coaching to merely compete with their city-bred counterparts in the race to become a doctor, he said.
Almost all NEET coaching centres existed in cities and none in villages. Against this background, how could one expect a rural student to become a doctor except with superhuman efforts, he asked.
The tragic death of Anitha should not be seen as just another suicide, but a symptom of denial of equal opportunities to students from rural areas. The urban bias of NEET would lead to a situation where students from cities would gradually monopolise medical admissions, Dr. Gurushankar said.
Upon graduation, they would have a tendency to shun rural areas which offered almost no opportunities to earn money or build a career. Over the coming years, NEET may seriously undermine the rural healthcare system, he feared.
Patients in villages would have no access to even primary healthcare, as not many doctors would be available to staff rural hospitals, he said.
Under such circumstances, policy makers should understand that NEET was not merely about medical admissions, but had wider ramifications. It was a big risk for healthcare entrepreneurs who were already struggling to open hospitals in rural areas in the absence of any incentive from the Government.
At a time when many villages had already lost the battle for water and agriculture, they may be deprived of basic healthcare facilities too. The Centre should understand the limitations and come out with amends to the policy, he urged.
