Jodhpur: Meet Kaushalya Meghwal, a Pakistan-teacher easing students' trauma inherited from across border

Kaushalya Meghwal, who was born in Mirpur Khas in Pakistan, is an Indian citizen now. She meets children daily at a school in Jodhpur where she works as a teacher. This brings back several memories from across the border and reminds her of many incidents of recent times that make news there.

This Pakistan-born teacher said that she tries to ensure her students do not end up as victims of the social evils rampant in their parents' former country.

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Children of Hindu immigrants from Pakistan who came to a refugee camp in Pratap Nagar in Jodhpur are all students at the learning-cum-remedial school there. They are all from poorer social classes. Meghwal, 33, sees in them anxiety, subtle impacts of xenophobia, and traces of uneasiness due to differences of culture and language. Meghwal tries to lighten the burdens the young minds and their parents carry due to their past across the border.

Speaking to a news  organisation, Meghwal said, "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."

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As a child of Hindu immigrants from Pakistan, Meghwal said that 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," Meghwal said.

Meghwal teaches Hindi and social science to students up to class VIII and spends a few hours daily interacting with and counselling them.