Even as the State grieved for Anitha, it was her village that was the focal point on Saturday as hordes of residents used the occasion to vent their anger at the government for introducing NEET. For Shanmugam, 50, a daily-wage labourer at the Gandhi Market, the untimely death of his beloved daughter Anitha was probably the worst day of his life.
Anitha was a Class II student when her mother Anantham died in 2007. It was Periamma, 80, Anitha’s grandmother, who shouldered the responsibility of raising her and four grandsons. Mr. Shanmugam, with his meagre income, however, instilled and fostered the burning desire in his daughter to become a doctor.
“Despite our best efforts, we could not save my wife. If I had the wherewithal then, we could have saved her. It was then that I took a pledge to spend my earnings to make my daughter a doctor. But, this has shattered me and my family,” says Mr. Shanmugam, with tears rolling down his cheeks.
‘Well-behaved, studious’
Shell-shocked over her death, her relatives, teachers, friends and neighbours, who have gathered here, recall how she was well-behaved and, what the world has come to know by now, studious.
“Sometimes, she used to come to school little late as she had to complete her household chores. However, she was quick to pick things up. She was perfect in studies and discipline,” says Fr. K. Robert, former Headmaster of St. Philomenal Higher Secondary School in Kuzhumur, where Anitha studied up to SSLC.
P. Sekar, a neighbour, said the neighbourhood could never forget her. She was a role model not only among the Dalit students but also among others in studies.
Blaming the governments for the death of his daughter, Mr. Shanmugam said if Jayalalithaa was alive, she would not have allowed the Central government to impose NEET for medical admission in Tamil Nadu.
