Growing up in Sadhu Paro Kotri, Jamshoro, which is situated on the right bank of the Indus River, Tulsi Meghwar got her first taste of sports when she was in class seven, while participating in softball trials. Today, she is 21 and on the national team.

She is proud to be the first girl in her Hindu family to have made a name in sports, and is quite an accomplished player of softball and baseball.

“A majority of girls from my school and college are either married and taking care of their families now or they are just sitting at home doing nothing,” says Tulsi, who has done her intermediate in pre-engineering from Kotri Girls College.

She fondly looks back at the time from school when the softball trials came round.

“Hearing about the trials, I was worried initially because I wasn’t sure if my family would allow me to take part in them. My father was already being criticised for sending me to school,” she says.

As an accomplished softball and baseball player, Tulsi Meghwar is the first Hindu girl to make a name in Pakistan sports. Her achievements are also challenging her community’s views on girls’ education and in sports

“My parents deserve all the credit for any success that I may have encountered in life,” says Tusli, whose father allowed her to appear for the trials back then.

“The Meghwar community and even some members of my own family were very critical of me when I decided to educate my girls,” says Tulsi’s father Harji Lal, a journalist with a Sindhi newspaper.

“Our community is largely illiterate. Sadly, they also have little desire to educate themselves. In our society, sending daughters to school is considered taboo, but I am proud that my daughter is not only pursuing her education but doing well in sports as well,” Tulsi’s father adds.

He is right there on the sidelines, cheering Tulsi during each and every match that she plays in.

“Even where parents are sending their children to school in our society, they consider sports to be a useless activity and a complete waste of time,” says Harji Lal. “But children, especially girls, should be given all opportunities to understand their aptitude and chart out their own path for themselves.

“My daughter has had an extremely active childhood. God’s gifts, too, need opportunities to show themselves,” he smiles.

Coming back to those trials, they resulted in selection for Tulsi, and three other girls from her school, in the provincial squad for the National Women’s Softball Championship in 2016. It was only the beginning.

The Meghwar community and even some members of my own family were very critical of me when I decided to educate my girls,” says Tulsi’s father Harji Lal.

The game has taken her all over the country. She has played in Hyderabad, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Gujranwala and Peshawar, collecting shields, medals and general accolades wherever she has gone. In December 2019, Tulsi was selected to play in China in the 2019 Softball Championship, though the Pakistan team was unable to travel to China due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tulsi laments the absence of playgrounds in Pakistan. “Healthy physical activity is needed in our country, but sports receive little attention from our government. There is a Ministry of Sports but it can’t even help with the basics of building and maintaining sports facilities at the district levels,” she says.

“The only focus here seems to fall on cricket here. But we have other sports here, too, that are just as significant as cricket. I’m sure there are so many people here who may be sporty but have no interest in cricket. They also deserve an opportunity to hone their skills,” she adds.

According to Tulsi, Kotri is a very athletically productive city. “We have, in the past, witnessed a variety of sports here including boxing, football, bodybuilding and hockey,” she says.

Aisha Iram, Tulsi’s sports trainer in Hyderabad, says that Tusli is also carrying on a sporting legacy in her region.

“Tusli has represented the Hyderabad division in numerous national competitions and, coming from a marginalised community, she has been very brave in this regard,” her trainer says.

“She is a key player in promoting softball and baseball in Sindh and showing other girls here that if she can do it, so can they,” she adds.

Nearly eight girls from Tulsi’s college selected for softball and baseball teams later left those teams because of family issues. As mentioned earlier as well, a majority of the girl players get married early and are subsequently housebound.

But Tulsi took a different route. “I was confident and ambitious. There is nothing wrong with having ambitions for yourself. I wish more girls here would dream good dreams for their future,” she says.

“My own mother used to believe that girls should know only how to take care of the house,” Tulsi smiles. But once Tulsi began winning games, her mother’s perspective changed. Now, whenever Tulsi participates in an event, she has her mother’s blessings for success.

“Actually, my mother was also discouraged by the harsh words she used to hear from our community throughout my schooling years. And here I was also stepping into sports,” Tulsi explains.

Tulsi says she has managed to change so many retrogressive views regarding girls’ education by just putting up fine sports performances at the national level. She does feel sad about the missed opportunity of representing her country internationally due to the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. “But I try to remain optimistic,” she says. “After all, it is still only the beginning for me. I will eventually play at the global level,” she says.

“I think that, once a woman steps on to the field for any kind of physical activity, she sets herself free from all kinds of social obstacles and hurdles coming in her way.

“The truth is that my sport has given me freedom as well as an identity,” Tulsi says.

“Those girls from my community who did manage to step out of the house after all, are working in factories or doing odd jobs, while I realise my dreams,” she smiles.

The writer is a Sindhi fiction writer, blogger and
journalist. He can be reached at akhterhafez@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 27th, 2023