Jantar Mantar (New Delhi): The night of the police lathicharge on student protesters at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, a tent house owner’s phone rang in distant Etah. The unknown number, Abhilash thought, would be his 25-year-old son trying to reach him.The caller was from Safdarjung Hospital. Abhilash was told his son was admitted there with a fractured leg, allegedly suffered during the lathicharge . Abhilash and his wife rushed to Delhi. A day later, relatives followed. By Friday, around 20 people from Etah town had also arrived to “hold the boy’s space in the protest” till he recovers.On a part of the pavement next to Jantar Mantar, this is how one became 20. “I cannot leave till my son and thousands of other students get justice,” Abhilash, who would on Friday spend his fourth night at the protest site that has become the symbolic nerve centre of the Gen Z-led movement to clean up the education system.Abhilash said his son’s dream as a child was to become an engineer or a civil servant. But the family persuaded him to study medicine after watching his mother struggle for two years with a lung ailment following the pandemic. “We realised how desperately every town needs good doctors. He completed BMS in 2023, but continued preparing for NEET. For five years, he did nothing except study,” he said.But the paper leak changed his son altogether. “He became withdrawn, stopped speaking, grew irritable and was later diagnosed with depression.” Feeling cheated, the youth reached Delhi on July 20 morning to join the protest.“Later that night, his phone was unreachable. Then came the call from Safdarjung. A boy who had gone to walk peacefully with fellow students was lying in the ICU with a fractured leg. People there said he had been pinned to the ground and beaten by police. I saw videos too,” he said.Since then, while Abhilash has stayed at Jantar Mantar, his wife has been with their son in hospital.“We have all come here in solidarity with the boy. I have a two-year-old daughter, and if I do not stand with the protesters here today, what will I tell her when she grows up? Things have to change. I must make a better future for her,” said Prasant (name changed), who is among the Etah contingent that has joined the protest in solidarity. “I will not leave till there is an assurance that the education system will be reformed.”For his wifeA few metres away stood Sandeep from Muzaffarnagar, carrying a backpack and memories. His wife, Anjali, was preparing for NEET while working a private job and raising their infant daughter. In May, days after the paper leak controversy, Sandeep alleged she died by suicide at their rented home in Gurgaon. “I returned from work to find my wife hanging from the ceiling fan while our 14-month-old daughter was crying beside her,” he said.Childhood friends who later married, the couple had moved to Gurgaon hoping for a better life. Despite working a 10-hour private job and caring for her infant, Anjali continued with NEET preparations, he said. “She gave her blood and sweat to prepare for the exam. After the paper leak, she became quiet. I could not gauge the depth of that silence. This system has taken her life, and I came alone to the protest to find justice for my wife. When my daughter grows up, she should not find it difficult to pursue the career she wants.”Many exams, no jobOn a plastic sheet in another section of the footpath sat Shivpriya. The 27-year-old from Agra graduated in fine arts, completed a master’s degree and a BEd, but has not yet been able to land a govt job. “The UP TGT exam was delayed for four years. I have appeared for KVS and EMRS examinations too. There has been no update on the results yet. I completed my master’s and BEd. How long must a candidate wait?“I study every year, and every year the same thing happens. My family is now forcing me to get married, and they are completely against private jobs. What should I do now?” she told TOI.Seeking rights, not charityDurgesh, Jitendra Kumar Maurya and their friends from Prayagraj have turned the Jantar Mantar pavement into their hostel. Many are the first in their farming families to prepare for govt service. “One cancelled examination or leaked paper affects years of preparation,” one of them said, referring to the cancellation of the UP Police constable exam in 2024 after a paper leak.“I belong to a farmer’s family. But now the land is gone. There isn’t much scope in farming. I want to become an IAS officer. However, I’ve heard there are many hurdles in the process. Moreover, even if I become an IAS or IPS officer, will I be able to serve my country honestly? The bureaucracy at every level is frustrating,” said Durgesh, voicing frustration with the system.Priya (name changed), a 22-year-old from Bareilly, added, “We are not here because we enjoy sleeping on the pavement or shouting slogans. We are here because every cancelled exam, every delayed result and every paper leak takes away years of our lives that no one can return. We are not asking for sympathy or charity. We are asking for a system that values honesty over corruption and merit over manipulation. The day this country guarantees every student a fair chance, we will go home. Till then, we have nowhere else to go.”
