MUMBAI: Sixty-four-year-old Rajendra Bhavsar, a retired junior assistant from MSRTC from the Palghar division, always wished to add the ‘Dr’ prefix before his name. While nobody in his hometown, Nandurbar, guided him into pursuing a career in medicine way back in the 1980s, post his retirement, he thought of rekindling his buried dream.
Early this year, Bhavsar registered for NEET-UG and even attempted it without thorough preparation.While his son, an engineer, was apprehensive about his pursuit, Bhavsar managed to clear the exam. Though he was not eligible for an MBBS/BDS seat, with his two-digit score (out of 720), he got a seat for Bachelor of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (BASLP), an allied health science course. A CET cell official said that Bhavsar could also be eligible for a physiotherapy seat. Focused on his dream, Bhavsar, though, plans to attempt NEET again next year, this time with serious preparation. “I want to study nothing less than MBBS, homeopathy, or Ayurveda,” he told TOI.
Data from the state’s CET cell show that at least 52 aspirants in the state who gave NEET-UG and are eligible for admissions to health science courses this year are above the age of 30 years. While three of these candidates are even 50+, Bhavsar is the oldest to be eligible for any course. An age profile of this year’s candidates participating in the counselling process shows that a large majority of them, over 80%, fall in the age bracket of 18-20 years. A good 7,000 even fall in the 21-30 bracket. The oldest candidate to secure admission to MBBS so far, however, is a 28-year-old candidate. The third round of admission has just commenced. While earlier there was an upper limit of 25 years of age for candidates taking the national exam, it was lifted a few years ago. The minimum age limit to be eligible is 17 years. Sudha Shenoy, a parent representative, said that a large number of candidates attempting for the first time are usually in the age group of 17-18 years, and most of the remaining ones could be repeaters.
Pravin Shingare, former director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), who handled the counselling process for 10 years, however, said that many 19-year-olds, mainly from the rural belt, also start their first attempt late. “It could be for various reasons, a drop year, or late admission to schools. Among the repeaters, over 70% usually are the ones taking the exam for the second time, 20% attempt it thrice, and the remaining 10% could be the ones taking the exam multiple times,” said Shingare. “A few candidates also look for a change in career after completing their graduation in BSc,” said Shenoy, adding that a first-year MBBS classroom usually comprises students in the 18-20 age group.
Some like Bhavsar probably look at pursuing their pending dream at a later stage. Bhavsar, father of two engineers, lost his wife to cancer five years ago. He studied chemistry at the graduation level from a college in Nandurbar in 1984. “With a background in science, I thought I should make an attempt to pursue my dream at this stage. I want to become a doctor and serve others. I have trouble walking after an accident, but I am otherwise healthy. Despite no preparation, I managed to qualify under the PWD category this year. With preparation, I am confident of cracking a better seat next year. It is my dream to add ‘Dr’ against my name,” said Bhavsar.
National NEET-UG data from 2017 showed that two candidates who took the exam that year were between 61-70 years of age, and over 100 in that year were between 41-60 years. Last year, TOI wrote about a 46-year-old MBBS doctor returning to complete her post graduation in medicine from a college in Nashik with a respectable rank. A engineer and a start-up employee had shifted her career to medicine at the age of 29 years. She appeared for NEET-PG during the pandemic in 2021.
