India's college admissions crisis: Protests erupt over leaked exams and soaring costs

Student anger over leaked medical entrance exam papers has spilled onto the streets of India, with tens of thousands protesting in July. The scandal led to the education minister's resignation and Prime Minister Narendra Modi forming a task force to address leaked papers. Opposition parties, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, have intensified pressure on the government, demanding accountability for the police crackdown on students.

The protests highlight the soaring costs of India's private coaching industry, which is consuming an increasing portion of family budgets. Education spending has grown faster than household incomes over the past decade, with private tuition, school fees, and books seeing significant price hikes. An average Indian household now dedicates nearly 3% of its income to education, a decade high.

Families face a stark choice between affordable government colleges, where a medical degree can cost as little as 50,000 rupees, and private institutions where the same degree can cost up to 5 million rupees. The intense competition for limited seats in prestigious medical and engineering programs, which are seen as pathways to scarce quality jobs, exacerbates the problem. For the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) alone, nearly 2.3 million students vied for about 140,000 undergraduate medical seats nationwide, with fewer than 10,000 of those in the top 50 colleges.

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The issue has disrupted Parliament and united opposition parties, while protest leader Abhijeet Dipke also accused Shah of being responsible for the police action