New Delhi: As dawn broke over Jantar Mantar on July 26, Hemant Singh Rana bent down to pick up discarded placards, plastic bottles and food packets, stuffing them into a large black garbage bag. 

Around him, fellow protesters exchanged phone numbers before boarding buses and trains home. For nearly a week, the 22-year-old from Uttarakhand's Kumaon region had spent his days and nights at Delhi's designated protest site, demanding justice after the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak. Now, with the protest over, he was preparing to return home with little money left in his pocket.

He had arrived in Delhi alone on July 21 with Rs 2,000, enough, he thought, to last a week.

"Last night I gave Rs 500 to a friend from Rajasthan because he did not have enough money to get home," Rana said. "We all helped each other during the protest by staying together and not giving up hope. On the last day, we helped each other return home."

Pulkit Soni, Hemant Singh Rana with other students at Jantar Mantar (Photo - Joymala Bagchi, 101Reporters)

The student-led protest at Jantar Mantar began on June 6 after the National Testing Agency cancelled the NEET-UG 2026 examination, citing a large-scale paper leak. Over the next 36 days, students from across the country gathered in Delhi, demanding examination reforms, accountability and action against those responsible.

The protest ended on July 25 after representatives of the Cockroach Janata Party, which led the agitation, met Union ministers and announced that the Centre had accepted its key demands. But for many students who had travelled hundreds of kilometres from small towns and villages, the journey home marked the beginning of another uncertainty.

For Rana, whose father is a small farmer, travelling to Delhi was never just about one examination.

"I came here to support the students," he said. "Students from lower-middle-class families are not financially equipped to appear for examinations again and again. From childhood, they study with the pressure of getting a job and improving their family's financial condition. When paper leaks happen, it becomes a major setback."

He had not spoken to his parents since the day he arrived in Delhi.

Night at Jantar Mantar (Photo - Joymala Bagchi, 101Reporters)

More than one examination

For Punit Soni, a 22-year-old commerce student from Kota preparing for the Chartered Accountancy examinations, the protest was about more than just one paper leak.

"The leaks should stop and stringent action should be taken against those responsible," he said. "I study in a college where teachers are not regular in class. We demand that at least teachers should come and teach us. Students travel long distances to attend college, especially girls, but often there is no one to teach them."

His frustration echoed a broader concern among many students at Jantar Mantar who said the protest had become a platform to raise issues affecting public education beyond the cancelled medical entrance examination.

Among them was Shanti Prasad (name changed), a 19-year-old from Bihar's Darbhanga district, who travelled to Delhi with a friend without informing her parents. They learnt she was at the protest only after hearing from her friends.

Standing with other students at the site, she questioned the growing divide in access to education.

"Government schools are shrinking while private schools are expanding," she said. "If quality education is available only to those who can afford it, what happens to students from rural and low-income families?"

Stories from home

Standing with a placard that read "Save Assam", Hima, a 19-year-old first-year student at Delhi University, said she had come to support the protest while also drawing attention to the recurring floods in her home state.

"I am here in support of the students, but I also want to raise my voice for Assam," she said. "Many lives are lost every year because of the floods. I could not contact my family for three days. I am representing both the students and my state."

As the protest drew students from across the country, it also became a space where many found the confidence to speak about struggles that extended beyond the examination itself.

For Aarti Mahavar from Rajasthan's Jodhpur, however, everything came back to the examination that had changed the course of her year.

For eight days, the NEET aspirant stood quietly at one corner of Jantar Mantar holding a placard that read, "My future is important to me." Beside her stood her elder brother.

"I appeared for NEET on May 3 and I was satisfied with my exam," she said. "Then it was cancelled. I appeared again on June 21, but it did not go well."

The uncertainty took a heavy emotional toll.

"I became very depressed. On top of that, there were taunts from my family. Pursuing an education is not easy for everyone, and it certainly was not for me. My family did not provide much support. Only my brother stood beside me. In the society I come from, marriage is considered more important. My career feels directionless now."

The siblings stayed with a relative in Delhi throughout the protest, returning there each night before coming back to Jantar Mantar the next morning.

Their savings were almost exhausted by the time the protest ended.

"We did not bring much money with us, and whatever we had is almost over," her brother, who requested anonymity, said. "I think I will have to borrow money from relatives. I will do that if I have to, but I want justice for my sister and for all the tears she has shed."

A poster from the Jantar Mantar protest (Photo - Joymala Bagchi, 101Reporters)

The journey back

Humraaz Alam, a 21-year-old from Bihar's Gopalganj district, arrived at Jantar Mantar on July 22 and stayed with a friend in Dwarka. Like several others, he had not told his parents he was travelling to Delhi.

"I told them I was going to Lucknow," he said. "The protest was for students, but people of all ages came here. It felt good to see so many people standing together. I stayed till the last day."

The protest drew supporters beyond students.

Ajeetha K, 76, travelled from Kerala with her friend Sreeja to express solidarity with the demonstrators.

"It feels good to see young people coming together for a collective cause," Ajeetha said. "We wanted to come here, stand with them and see for ourselves what they were fighting for."

Sreeja said the protest had also become a space where young people highlighted issues beyond the examination.

"Under the umbrella of the student protest, several other important issues have also been raised by the youth. This is significant."

By Sunday morning, Jantar Mantar had begun returning to its familiar order.

Municipal workers painted over slogans on the site's red walls, removed barricades, rolled up the carpets and cleared away the accumulated garbage, erasing the visible signs of nearly seven weeks of demonstrations.

A temporary free legal aid clinic set up in the back entrance of Jantar Mantar to provide help to the students in need (Photo - Joymala Bagchi, 101Reporters)

But for many students, the protest did not end when the site was cleared.

Some left for railway stations with little money after spending weeks in Delhi. Others relied on friends or relatives to help pay for the journey home. As the slogans disappeared from Jantar Mantar's walls, the uncertainty that had brought many of them to the capital remained.

Cover Image - A student holding placard at Jantar Mantar (Photo - Joymala Bagchi, 101Reporters)