a health crisis in her family residents of the village of m nanjappanur around 30 km from coimbatore encouraged the 20yearsold m sangavi to attempt neetwith the minimum cutoff for the scheduled tribe st category in neet at 108 the young girl is the first from her village to crack neet at 202 marks earlier another st candidate had scored 146 marks in neet and got admission into a private medical college in tn under the government school quota basis this sangavi who belongs to the malasar tribal community in tn hopes to get admission into a government medical college in the stateearly lifesangavi completed her early education from a government school in tamil medium in 2018 she got 8751200 in her class xii exams to become the highest scoring scheduled tribe st student in her school with plans to pursue higher education sangavi applied for a caste certificate cc but issues from the official ends led to delay in issuance of the samesangavis father used to work in a farm earning rs 15002000 weekly last year one day he just collapsed and passed away which was later attributed to a cardiac arrest says sangavi her mother suffers from visual impairment due to which her family income dwindled to rs 1000 provided by tn government to families below poverty line bpl her family history along with the general health crisis in her small village with no medical facilities made her resolve to become a medical professionalhelp from social workersa socially inclined group helped sangavi overcome the hurdles in attaining her dream a group of social workers had come to our village and discovered our plight one of them became my guardian and helped me get my cc he also helped sponsor my admission and stay at a neet coaching academy which was around 55 km from my village says sangavicracking neetdue to the pandemic sangavi was able to receive formal neet coaching for four months in 2020 i took coaching in november and december while in 2021 i took coaching in august and september keeping in mind the previous achievements by st candidates i hope that my score of 202 will help me get admission into a government medical college she saysovercoming challengessangavi says that her familys financial condition has been one of her biggest challenges if not for social workers and organisations i would never have been able to crack neet she sayswhile attending her neet coaching sangavi was part of a batch of students from across various backgrounds initially it was a challenge to be a part of a mixed group i decided to put my head down and concentrate on studying the rest did not matter she sayssocial workers also helped get treatment for her mother which acted as a big morale booster for sangavi after three operations my mother is finally able to see a little which has been another dream come true she sayspath aheadsangavi is the first girl from her village to finish schooling