For most Muslim girls belonging to economically weak families in south east Delhi's Jaitpur Extension, a high school education is a privilege they cannot avail for reasons both financial and religious.
Jaitpur Extension, a resettlement colony near Okhla, houses poor and middle class families whose breadwinners are mostly daily wage workers.
Consequently, almost every household in the area has girls who have dropped out of school.
However, bucking the trend is a woman - Farida Khan - who runs classes free of cost for such students, some of whom recently took their matriculation and intermediate exams as private candidates from Jamia Milia Islamia University and passed, against all odds.
"These girls wanted to study but could not. The entire area had some sort of negativity. I had been through that stage in my life earlier and thus I decided to change that," says Farida, the Director of 'Pehchan' Coaching Centre where she trains her students.
Pehchan, is a non-government organisation that was registered in 2015.
"The most difficult part was convincing their parents that it is both safe and useful to teach the girls. Many were skeptic initially but as the students fared well in exams, it changed their parents' outlook," she says.
Among her students is the 24-year old Mubeena who recently passed her intermediate exam.
"My father passed away almost 10 years ago. We were facing financial problems and the relatives were forcing me to get married. Everything was mixed up. For a few years, I was imprisoned inside my own house," says Mubeena.
However, things have now changed for Mubeena who also has a respectable job that pays her enough to supplement her family's income. However, for her, education is much more than that job she has landed.
"Education has made me see things differently. Earlier I thought girls were supposed to stay inside the house, get married and serve their husbands. But now I have realised how important it is for girls to be educated," she says.
Apart from pursuing her own studies further, Mubeena wants to work for girls like her who want to study but do not get opportunities.
The two sisters were summoned to the police station on
Friday and a case under non-bailable offence registered against them for "trespassing" into CPI(M)'s office and attacking M Shijin, a party activist, some days ago.
They were then sent to the prison.
Akila's 18-month-old daughter was also with her at the police station.
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has taken note of the developments and the state SC/ST Commission has registered a case in this regard.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders, including former Union minister Mullappally Ramachandran, K Sudhakaran and Mahila Congress President Bindu Krishna visited the woman at the hospital.
Bindu Krishna alleged that CPI(M) was harassing the family for the last 15 years and the situation had worsened after the local body polls that their father contested and after LDF came to power.
KPCC President V M Sudheeran told reporters in Thiruvananthapuramthat Kannur was once again turning into a "conflict land".
He said a bomb was hurled at a reading room in Kannur recently and Congress and UDF workers were attacked, but the CM's reaction was that he was "unaware" of the incident. "We cannot accept this", Sudheeran said.
He also picked holes in CPI(M)'s charge that the family of the two women had not moved for bail.
He pointed out that the bail application was moved before Kannur magistrate court on Friday itself as the Thalassery court magistrate was on leave. But they were not granted bail.
"Unfortunately, the two women along with the child were forced to spend a day in prison for a false case lodged against them," he said.
Sudheeran said all legal aid would be provided to the two and justice provided to them.
The Congress leader alleged that there was a "mismatch" between the proclamations and actions of the LDF government.
