New Delhi, Aug. 24: Rashmi Sachdev and Eesha Mathur stood out in the 3,000-strong crowd of anti-quota protesters that marched to Supreme Court today — because they were in school uniform.

The Class XII students from a prestigious Delhi school skipped classes to face water cannons and tear gas, marching alongside medicos.

After a day’s break, anti-reservation doctors and students had gathered to “seek the Supreme Court’s intervention in preventing the Centre from introducing the quota bill in Parliament”.

The Supreme Court, they said, is their last hope.

“The government is deaf. We believe the honourable court will listen though, in order to save the future of the country,” said Anil Sharma, a member of the AIIMS Resident Doctors’ Association.

Rashmi and Eesha, in navy blue uniform and school ties, were more worried about their own future.

“I will be sitting for the pre-medical test next year. We are the batch that is going to face the brunt of the government’s decision (to introduce 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in higher education),” Rashmi said.

Eesha, a humanities student who hopes to get into St Stephen’s College, also thinks her chances will be hurt if the bill is passed.

With many more protesters hitting the streets today than on Tuesday, the clashes with the police were more serious and the Rapid Action Force was called in. Over 200 protesters, including 50 girls, courted arrest. All were released later.

A hassled police force notified Section 144 of the CrPC — prohibiting the assembly of more than four persons — on Bhagwan Dass Road, near India Gate, where the protesters had gathered.

Resident doctors from AIIMS, the University College of Medical Sciences, Maulana Azad Medical College and Bada Hindu Rao Hospital were on “mass casual leave”.

AIIMS spokesperson Shakti Gupta denied reports that a child had died after being turned away because there weren’t enough doctors. “They (the boy’s family) did not go to the emergency. The outpatient department, normally open from 8.30 am to 10.30 am, was today closed at 10 am. They apparently came to the OPD after 10 am.”

But the family of the seven-year-old, who had a liver disease, said they did not realise “it was an emergency.” “He had thrown up blood, but not today,” the child’s father, Ravi Kumar, said.

Water cannons were fired at the protesters at India Gate, but many still broke through the barricades. At the next set of barricades, a sprint away from the court, the police took no chances. “We had to disperse the mob, therefore Section 144,” said deputy commissioner of police Anand Mohan.