A stable education is a tough prospect for a nomad. More often than not, children bear the brunt of a travelling lifestyle. Kaleem Akhtar, though, is doing her level best to provide stability of sorts to the children of nomadic tribals in the upper reaches of Thanamandi in Rajouri district.
Herself a Gujjar tribal, Akhtar teaches about two dozen tribal children. “These children belong to families that migrate higher up the mountains to escape the heat of the plains and return ahead of peak winter season,” she says.
Kaleem Akhtar takes community classes for nomadic tribal children along traditional routes of migration
Ensuring these students’ daily participation is more challenging than it seems. The tribals find moving about natural and give more importance to their community’s livelihood than to education.
“When their parents need these children to help organise livestock in the upper reaches, they take them along without informing us,” says Akhtar, giving a glimpse of the impossible odds she faces. “The children end up suffering the most, as they struggle in the class to make up for lost time after returning from the pastures.”
The school education department provides study material and organises community classes along traditional routes of migration so that the maximum number of children can benefit from them across different hamlets.
Being from a large family, of nine sisters and a brother, she understands how easy it is to lose one’s childhood. Akhtar’s father was a gram sewak and though she was keen on studying, she faced many hardships.
After initial studies in Leeran village, she went to the Government Higher Secondary School, Panhid. Akhtar got married when she was in class XII but managed to do her graduation and postgraduation from IGNOU later. Her husband serves in the administrative section of the school education department.
Akhtar puts emphasis on imparting crucial behavioural and lifestyle information to the tribals, hoping it will keep them healthy. She says, “I teach them good habits to make sure these children do not fall sick due to unhygienic living conditions.”
