Mumbai, Feb 3 (TOI): Medical aspirants from Urdu medium schools in the state will be at a disadvantage as they will be forced to appear for NEET in a language they are not comfortable with. While activists have been protesting to include Urdu in NEET UG 2017 since the first announcement came out, now they are worried about the state's decision to use NEET scores for admissions to allied health science courses such as Ayurveda, homeopathy and physiotherapy.

"The government has done a great disservice to thousands of Urdu medium students across the country by excluding Urdu from the list of languages available for attempting NEET. These students will now be forced to appear for the competitive test in an unfamiliar language. The move will shut the option for Urdu medium students," said Mohammad Ali, public relations secretary for Students' Islamic Organisation (SIO) India. Maharashtra government, in a circular released in December, has decided to use NEET scores even for other health science courses. "These students will not be given a fair chance to compete in the test for medical admissions. There is no justification for this act, as they have included languages such as Oriya and Kannada too in the NEET notification released early this week," said Ali. SIO is in the process of filing a petition in the Supreme Court.

In Maharashtra alone there are 168 Urdu-medium schools and junior colleges with 15,000 students. Even if 10% of these students are appearing for NEET, why should they not be given a fair chance? asked a parent.