Hyderabad, Nov. 6 -- "I come from a farming family in Bihar. Families like mine do not encourage girls to get an education. I had to fight my way out," says a vocational training student at the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) in Hyderabad.

With lots of convincing and reassurance of a better future, her family finally agreed. "My father took loans to send me here. He later sold his land to repay the debt," she tells The Observer Post.

Since October 21, vocational students have been on an indefinite hunger strike in front of the administrative building demanding that the BVoc and MVoc degree programmes be recognised under the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP).

"Pehle yeh darr laga rehtha tha ...