One girl cleared the NEET medical entrance with an impressive rank against all odds, despite being a victim of child marriage at the age of 8.
The National Eligibility cum Entrance Exam (NEET) is one of the most difficult competitive exams to crack in India, but a girl named Rupa Yadav did so with an impressive AIR in the exam, despite battling adverse poverty and many societal pressures.
Rupa Yadv had a dream of becoming a doctor and completing her education ever since she was a child. However, her family had different plans for her and Rupa soon became a victim of child marriage, being married off at the age of just eight.
A native of Rajasthan, Rupa had to leave her home and live with her husband’s family at just the age of eight. At the time of marriage, her husband was just 12. Rupa was managing household chores and taking care of her in-laws, all the while completing her school.
The NEET aspirant’s family got her married at the age of eight due to societal pressures. Rupa is the daughter of a poor farmer and was married into a family of farmers as well. Both Rupa and her sister Rukma were married into the same family, to Shankarlal and Babulal respectively.
Seeing Rupa’s dedication towards her studies, her husband and brother-in-law decided to support her. The brother tried to earn extra money to fund her studies and buy her books, even driving auto rickshaw for a little extra income.
By collecting enough money, Rupa Yadav was sent to Kota for medical entrance coaching by her husband in hopes that she would uplift the family.
Rupa appeared for the NEET 2017 examination and ended up cracking the medical exam, set to become the first doctor of her family. The future doctor scored 603 marks out of 720 in the NEET 2017 exam and secured an all-India rank (AIR) 2,612.