Five people have been arrested for allegedly forcing students at an exam centre to remove their bras before entering the hall.
Three of the arrested people worked for an agency hired by the National Testing Agency and two worked for the Mar Thoma Institute of Information Technology in Kerala, India where the incident occurred.
One 17-year-old girl was sitting her first ever National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) exam and was left traumatised by the ordeal, her dad claimed.
The father has lodged a police complaint and said that his daughter was dressed as per the dress code mentioned in the NEET bulletin which does not say anything about underwear.
The complainant-father told a local TV Channel that shortly after his daughter entered the exam centre, he and his wife were about to have their lunch in the car, when they got a call asking them to come to the gate.
"When we reached the gate, we saw our daughter in tears. She said that she and the other girls were being asked to remove part of their underwear and asked for a shawl to wear during the test", he continued.
The mother gave her shawl to his daughter and she went back inside. But once the exam was over their daughter was still very distressed and she told them what had happened.
The unnamed daughter had told her parents that one of the invigilators, most of them men, said that she had to either remove her bra or not participate in the exam.
The dad said there was a room full of female underwear and he cannot imagine how uncomfortable they must have all felt, especially being surrounded by male students.
"My daughter has been preparing for the NEET exam since 8th grade. We were confident that she would achieve a good rank on the test but due to this issue she was unable to concentrate and couldn't properly write the exam," he continued.
Kerala Higher Education Minister R. Bindu said the conduct was unacceptable.
He continued: “We will be conveying our disappointment regarding what happened to the Centre and the National Testing Agency,. a central government agency which conducts entrance examinations for educational institutions."
The Kerala State Human Rights Commission has ordered an investigation into the incident.
