When Diana, who works as a cleaner at a private hospital in Tiruchirapalli, approached a private coaching centre to enrol her eldest daughter, she was taken aback by the fees for the course—Rs 1.5 lakh. It was way beyond Diana’s meagre earnings but she was also painfully aware of her daughter Archana’s dreams of becoming a doctor. “After several requests, the coaching institute agreed to take the money in three instalments,” Diana tells Outlook.