Three months after the NEET paper leak shook the country’s examination system, public attention has understandably moved on. Investigations have progressed, political accountability has been demanded and administrative reforms have been debated. Yet for a handful of families, time has stood still. Their children are no longer statistics in an examination scandal; they are empty chairs at the dining table, and futures that will never unfold. It would be simplistic to attribute every student suicide to a single event. Human despair is rarely explained by one cause alone.

But it would be equally wrong to ignore the emotional upheaval that followed the decision to cancel the examination and required over two million aspirants to be re-examined. For students who believed they had done everything right, the announcement did not merely postpone a result. It shattered a sense of completion. Many had already crossed the psychological finish line. They had celebrated with friends, packed away their books, made travel plans or simply allowed themselves to breathe after months if not years of relentless preparation.

Then came the devastating........

© The Statesman