India promises to help Pakistani Hindu girl barred from taking test

Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday vowed to ‘personally’ take up the case of a Pakistani migrant girl debarred from taking a pre-medical test in Indian.

“Mashal – Don’t be disappointed my child. I will personally take up your case for admission in a medical college,” Swaraj tweeted.

Mashal – Don’t be disappointed my child. I will personally take up your case for admission in a Medical College. @aajtak

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) 29 May 2016

Mashal, a 17-year-old Hindu girl of Pakistani origin, has been precluded from taking the all-India pre-medical test because of her status as a foreigner.

Mashal moved with her family to Jaipur from Hyderabad in Pakistan’s Sindh province two years ago, wants to appear for the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) exam but is ineligible to apply. There are only two categories under which aspirants can apply for the AIPMT – Indian citizen or NRI. “My parents are doctors and I would like to follow in their footsteps. My dream is to save lives and serve people, but I don’t fit the criteria,” says Mashal.

Rewarded for her efforts, Mashal scored 91 percent on her Central Board of Secondary Education examinations. However, the joy and celebrations of the family were short-lived and more than offset when they discovered that Mashal was denied candidature for the pre-medical tests — the entrance examination for admission in the undergraduate medical course.

Mashal’s family could not afford to send her to any private medical universities by virtue of exorbitant fee structures, therefore, the only option was to try admitting her in a university of the union. Government medical institutions only accommodate Indian nationals. To their misfortune, the family’s legal status in India was still classified as ‘foreign’.

Seeking the government’s intervention in her case, Hindu Singh Sodha of the Seemant Lok Sangathan, an organisation working with Pakistani Hindu migrants, said, “First the government allows them to seek refuge here to escape religious persecution, and then treats them as Pakistani nationals. If the government can’t provide them opportunities, they should not be allowed to come here.”

For Mashal’s parents, the labels just do not seem to end. “We continue to live under labels: Hindus there (in Pakistan), Pakistanis here (in India),” her father said.