India’s NEET exam scandal killed my son’s dream of becoming a doctor

I am still trying to understand why Kahan is no longer with us. Only 17 years old, my oldest son had dreams of becoming a doctor. And in pursuit of his ambitious goal he spent months cramming for the highly competitive state exam that could punch his ticket to medical school.

But the 2026 NEET-UG exam erupted in scandal after authorities determined that test questions had been leaked. The results were canceled, and students were ordered to retake the test. Nationwide protests ensued, and arrests and government resignations followed. 

For Kahan – and many other students – the consequences were deadly.  

A tough career path we fully supported

It was an arduous process getting ready for the 2026 NEET exam, taken by more than 2 million young students competing for just 140,000 spots to enter medical school.

Kahan studied diligently, took preparation courses at an academic coaching center, and felt good about his prospects. When test day finally arrived on May 3, he left confident that he had passed with high marks.

As parents, we were enthusiastic about Kahan’s career choice. We lived in Surat in the western state of Gujarat, where I work as a lawyer. But to allow Kahan to further his education at a better school in Ahmedabad, 250 kilometers to the north, we purchased an apartment there. I commuted between the two cities, while Kahan lived with his mother and younger brother. 

Kahan was an excellent student, and after acing his high-school exams he firmly announced his decision to pursue medicine. Wanting to give him every opportunity, we took out a loan to cover the high expense of the NEET exam required for acceptance to medical school.

When news of the practice-test leak broke we were all crushed. 

Kahan had joined me in Surat for two months, but his summer break was shattered when he learned about the situation from his friends at the coaching center. Kahan was desperate to return to Ahmedabad to retrieve all his study materials in case he had to retake the exam. He had given some of them away to other students who planned to take NEET in the future, but would now need them again. 

Kahan didn’t wait to see me in person before he left. He just called me while I was in court to tell me that he urgently needed to return to Ahmedabad but that he would come back.

He never did return, but I could not stand in the way of his dream, and made sure to call him every day to lend my support. The National Testing Agency soon announced formally that results of the first exam had been canceled. But Kahan already had a Plan B, having also applied to enroll in a pharmacy program, so I advised him to forget about NEET and focus on his other options. 

But for him NEET was everything. Since 10th grade he had been considering a medical career, stacking his courseload with biology and other science subjects. Determined to pursue medicine, he awaited word of when the NEET exam might be rescheduled. 

A new date was set for June 21. And as the big day approached, I spoke to him again. He sounded okay and confident. At no time in the seven weeks between the two exams did I get the feeling he was distressed. 

But I had no idea of the enormous weight he was carrying. On June 18, just days before he was to retake the exam, he jumped to his death from the sixth-floor balcony of the family apartment on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.  

A security guard discovered his critically injured body and alerted residents of the apartment building. He was rushed to a hospital, but doctors declared him dead before treatment could begin. 

He left no signs that anything was amiss. As I told the BBC and other media outlets, his bedroom looked like it usually did, with his laptop open and study materials and pens and markers scattered around the room. His electric guitar and amplifier were in their usual place in the corner, and his collection of favorite Harry Potter novels and board games still lined the shelves, along with his trophy for academic excellence.

A national crisis and the ‘Cockroach Movement’

Kahan’s tragedy is far from unique – it is part of a national crisis. The suicides of more than 1,000 students under the age of 18 have been directly attributed to academic pressure since the National Crime Record Bureau of India began tracking that category in 2024. And they were just a fraction of the 14,488 students who died by suicide that year, accounting for 8.5% of all suicide deaths recorded in the country. 

Some of the suicides were tied to the 2024 NEET scandal, which also centered on exam-question leaks. The worrying suicide trend continued in 2026, when the NEET exam was listed as the reason for 12 suicides that were recorded in the six weeks following its cancelation. Today, as many as 21 suicides have reportedly been tied to the exam.  

The deaths and the controversy surrounding the NEET-UG 2026 examination fueled a nationwide student-protest movement. Large rallies, held at New Dehli’s Jantar Mantar, a traditional site for protests in the heart of the capital and close to the Parliament building, were led by the newly formed Cockroach Janata Party (CJP).

The unofficial party’s name derives from recent derisive comments about young people’s concerns by India’s top judicial official, Chief Justice Surya Kant. Referring to unemployed youth, he described them in May as “cockroaches.”  

The slur spurred the country’s youth population, the world’s largest, into action. And when the CPJ organized protests in early June, they quickly grew to become the largest seen in the country in years. 

Tens of thousands of Gen Z students, parents, activists, opposition party leaders, and celebrities – including actors Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, and Prakash Raj – joined the protests. Many other prominent public figures and opposition parties such as the Indian National Congress, the Communist Party, and the socialist Samajwadi Party lent their support to what came to be known as the Cockroach Janata Party Movement, or more generally the Cockroach Movement.

The protesters demanded educational reforms, accountability over the repeated NEET test-paper leaks, and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. They also demanded that compensation be provided to the families who lost children owing to the scandal, and action against those responsible for examination fraud.  

The rallies grew in strength and when protesters marched toward the Parliament building on July 20, they were met with force. Police attacked marchers with batons, tear gas, and pellet guns, leaving more than 100 protesters injured. 

If I could only talk to my son again 

I, too, sought justice for my son, and joined the growing movement in New Delhi.

The authorities cracked down on the protest, calling it “an illegal gathering.” Really? I lost my son and have every right to ask questions and demand accountability. The education system needs to recognize the pressure it places on students, who may feel that failure means disappointing their entire family. 

If my child were still alive, I would tell him that one lost opportunity does not define his life. That changing his career path would not mean failure. NEET was his everything, and it cost him everything.

But I want people to understand that I am not speaking about my son Kahan because I want his death to become another headline about examination pressures. I am speaking because I want people to remember that behind every NEET score is a young person. That child is not a rank, a percentile, or an examination result. They are sons and daughters who are still deciding what to do with their lives.

To this day, I keep asking myself: how did a young man with so many options reach the point of no return? I still don’t have an answer to that question. It is something no loving parent could ever come to terms with. 

I feel that my son was living in anguish over how and why somebody could do this to him. And I am speaking to the media and participating in the protests because I want the facts to come out. I do not want assumptions. I do not want rumors. I want to know what happened. 

I don’t want to speculate about what was going through his mind in his final moments, but I do want the circumstances to be properly investigated. I also feel that the pressure surrounding the examination and the uncertainty that the students live with cannot be ignored.

If there are problems with the examination system, they should be investigated. If the process places undue pressure on students, there should be a greater effort to understand the causes. And if there’s any gap in support for students, that needs to be addressed. 

Nothing is more important than the child

We still don’t truly know what struggles Kahan was going through. We didn’t realize that he was going through a tough time because he never sounded distressed. After his death, I went to his coaching center and met with his friends and his teachers. I also asked around at the apartment complex in Ahmedabad. 

His friends there told me that he was angry after hearing the news. I was shocked to learn that – my son never got angry at anything. He was not short-tempered. We never received any complaint from any of the schools where he studied. He was a good kid. He chose his own course, the schools he wanted to attend and the subjects he wanted to study. He was good in everything – his studies, sports, music. 

When a child is preparing for an exam, the burden is not only carried by the child but by the whole family, which also invested money, time, and hope. But no examination – or anything for that matter – should leave a family asking whether more could have been done to protect a child. 

As a father, I am left with questions that I may never be able to answer. What was my son experiencing the days before his death? Did he feel that he had no way out? Did the pressure of the examination become too much? Were there any factors that we, as parents, didn’t know about? Maybe an investigation into the contents of his laptop, which the police now have, could provide some answers.

But there is one thing that I know for sure – my son had a bright future ahead of him. 

For every parent whose child is preparing for a competitive examination, I would say that marks matter, careers matter, and education matters. But none of this is bigger or more important than the child. 

My wish is that young people understand that one examination, one result, or one career path can never define their entire life. 

There has been progress. Police investigations revealed that a network had distributed the practice test to some students across the country for money, resulting in 13 arrests. And youth-led actions have had a real impact. When Education Minister Pradhan resigned on July 25, it marked the first time in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 12 years in power that protests had forced a government minister to step down. To end the weeks of protests, the humbled government also agreed to other demands, including that protesters would not be criminally prosecuted. 

But my fight is not over. I am a criminal lawyer, and argue many cases to help victims achieve justice. And today, I am still waiting for justice.

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