Hyderabad, May 25 -- In December last year, six men from Telangana ended up in a prison in Melaka city of Malaysia on charges of manufacturing firearms, staying illegally without a passport or visa, drug abuse and use of alcohol.

One of the jailed men, Talari Bhaskar, is a Dalit from Nirmal district. But he is an educated man. And so is his wife. " I had to discontinue my final year of Bachelor of Arts (BA) after clearing all the subjects in the first two years. My wife is a graduate with a Bachelor's in Education (BEd), but we could not afford the coaching tuition fees for the district selection committee (DSC) competitive exams for teachers' recruitment due to financial constraints. We could not apply for government jobs," he said.

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