Rajasthan
Pakistan: Pakistan-born Teacher Works To Lighten Burdens Inherited From Across Border | Jaipur News
JAIPUR: When Kaushalya Meghwal meets children daily at a school in Jodhpur where she works as a teacher, it brings back faint memories from across the border and reminds her of many incidents of recent times that make news there.
This Pakistan-born teacher says she tries to ensure her students do not end up as victims of the social evils rampant in their parents’ former country.
Students at the learning-cum-remedial school at a refugee camp at Pratap Nagar in Jodhpur, where she teaches, are all children of Hindu immigrants from Pakistan, all of them from the lower strata of society. Meghwal, 33, sees in them anxiety, subtle impacts of xenophobia, and traces of uneasiness due to differences of culture and language. As a trained teacher—she has a BEd degree—Meghwal says she tries to lighten the burdens the young minds and their parents carry due to their past across the border.
“These families have inherited many of the evil practices such as child marriage and aversion to girls’ education from Pakistan. Cases of forced conversion, abduction and elopement of girls are fresh in the immigrants’ memory and impact their decisions about bringing up their children,” said Meghwal, who had crossed into India from Pakistan with her family when she was four years old following a wave of persecution of Hindus.
As a child of Hindu immigrants from Pakistan, she says she understands the crises her students go through as she has herself wrestled with most of those psychological agonies in her childhood. “I try to ensure these young people do not face the same situation,” said Meghwal, who chose this school over other private schools as she wanted to work with the children of immigrant families.
Meghwal, who was born in Mirpur Khas in Pakistan, is an Indian citizen now. She teaches Hindi and social science to students up to class VIII and spends a few hours daily interacting with and counselling them.
“I make sure to interact with at least 2-3 children a day. They readily identify with me as one of them due to my background and share with me issues that bother them. I also interact with their parents and tell them that strong academic performance will help hem integrate fast into Indian society. This thought in their mind often keeps them under pressure,” said Meghwal.
“The most important thing the government should do is to hold counselling sessions with immigrant families to rid them of the trauma of forced migration,” said Hindu Singh Sodha, founder of Seemanth Lok Sangathan, an organisation working for immigrants from Pakistan.
This Pakistan-born teacher says she tries to ensure her students do not end up as victims of the social evils rampant in their parents’ former country.
Students at the learning-cum-remedial school at a refugee camp at Pratap Nagar in Jodhpur, where she teaches, are all children of Hindu immigrants from Pakistan, all of them from the lower strata of society. Meghwal, 33, sees in them anxiety, subtle impacts of xenophobia, and traces of uneasiness due to differences of culture and language. As a trained teacher—she has a BEd degree—Meghwal says she tries to lighten the burdens the young minds and their parents carry due to their past across the border.
“These families have inherited many of the evil practices such as child marriage and aversion to girls’ education from Pakistan. Cases of forced conversion, abduction and elopement of girls are fresh in the immigrants’ memory and impact their decisions about bringing up their children,” said Meghwal, who had crossed into India from Pakistan with her family when she was four years old following a wave of persecution of Hindus.
As a child of Hindu immigrants from Pakistan, she says she understands the crises her students go through as she has herself wrestled with most of those psychological agonies in her childhood. “I try to ensure these young people do not face the same situation,” said Meghwal, who chose this school over other private schools as she wanted to work with the children of immigrant families.
Meghwal, who was born in Mirpur Khas in Pakistan, is an Indian citizen now. She teaches Hindi and social science to students up to class VIII and spends a few hours daily interacting with and counselling them.
“I make sure to interact with at least 2-3 children a day. They readily identify with me as one of them due to my background and share with me issues that bother them. I also interact with their parents and tell them that strong academic performance will help hem integrate fast into Indian society. This thought in their mind often keeps them under pressure,” said Meghwal.
“The most important thing the government should do is to hold counselling sessions with immigrant families to rid them of the trauma of forced migration,” said Hindu Singh Sodha, founder of Seemanth Lok Sangathan, an organisation working for immigrants from Pakistan.
