As a undergraduate in CS, I started with C, where pointer is an important data type. Thereafter I touched on Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python. None of them have pointer per se.
So why? Do they have some equivalents in their languages that perform like pointer, or is the functionality of pointer not important anymore?
I roughly have some idea but I'd love to hear from more experienced programmers regarding this.
So why? 
In general, pointers are considered too dangerous, so modern languages try to avoid their direct use. 
Do they have some equivalents in their languages that perform like pointer, or is the functionality of pointer not important anymore?
The functionality is VERY important.  But to make them less dangerous, the pointer has been abstracted into less virulent types, such as references. 
Basically, this boils down to stronger typing, and the lack of pointer arithmetic.
C pointer equivalents on other languages