In what appears to be an unprecedentedly bizarre series of incidents, a girl was asked to remove her bra before she entered an exam centre to take her National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) in Kannur, Kerala. The officials claimed this course of action was mediated on the premise of “security reasons” - something we are completely baffled by.

It was reported that the metal detector at the examination centre went off because of the student’s bra hooks. “My daughter went inside the centre only to return a few minutes later to hand over her bra.” said the student’s mother. In addition, the student was forced to find a change of clothes, because her “dark-coloured lowers weren’t allowed.” And what’s even more appalling that this wasn’t the only instance of students having had to compromise their harmless wardrobes for a ridiculous system. One student was asked to remove the buttons from their jeans while another was asked cut the sleeves of their shirts.

According to NEET’s official website, their dress code clearly stated that students were to wear “light clothes with half sleeves not having big buttons or brooch/badge or flowers, with salwar/trouser and slippers or sandals with low heels, not shoes.” - because the floral prints on your shirts are an obvious threat to the integrity of the exam room. “We have clear instructions that if the metal detector beeps, no one can be allowed inside. Whenever it beeped, we told students to remove what they have”, said Jalaludin. K, the principle of one of the NEET centres. But it only further fuels the question on whether such protocol should even function without any orderly and rational reasoning.

“The ordeal is over but it’s debatable how many female candidates would have been able to write the exam properly after they were subjected to so much humiliation,” said Mahila Congress President, Bindhu Krishna in a report by Firstpost. Such illogical and antagonizing regulation could have been so easily avoided with this only-too-rational approach - the hiring of extra invigilators. Afterall, it is their only job to ensure a fair and integral test taking approach. We seriously question the extent to which every student’s performance is possibly hindered due to such irrational rules and codes, and we also ask this: if a student was to have a titanium prosthetic knee, would they be asked to remove it at the beep?

This situation is especially surprising in that it took place in Kerala, a state that has been at the forefront of progressive thought and action. The students are in completely right to call for a re-examination, should they wish to do so, wherein the rules of security allowances and dress code are made explicitly clear before the onset of the test. We can only hope that this incident is noted to be preposterous, never to repeat itself.