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Meghan Markle highlights plight of girls stigmatised over periods in India

Meghan Markle highlights plight of girls stigmatised over periods in India
Meghan Markle highlights plight of girls stigmatised over periods in India Meghan Markle highlights plight of girls stigmatised over periods in India

Prince Harry’s girlfriend Meghan Markle has written an online article highlighting the plight of girls in India stigmatised when they are menstruating.

The American actress wrote at length for Time magazine’s website about how the schooling of young women in the Commonwealth country is disrupted when they have their period.

Harry and his girlfriend were recently pictured on the Caribbean island of Jamaica at the wedding of one of the Prince’s close friends Tom ‘Skippy’ Inskip who married Lara Hughes-Young. It was the first time the couple had been photographed together at a social event.

Meghan Markle (Matt Crossick/PA)

Writing about a visit to Delhi and Mumbai in January with the organisation World Vision, Meghan said: “During my time in the field, many girls shared that they feel embarrassed to go to school during their periods, ill-equipped with rags instead of pads, unable to participate in sports and without bathrooms available to care for themselves, they often opt to drop out of school entirely.”

She went on to say: “When a girl misses school because of her period, cumulatively that puts her behind her male classmates by 145 days.”

The actress, who appears in the hit series Suits, wrote about the issue of Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM).

Meghan Markle (Ian West/PA)

She added: “To remedy this problem, young girls need MHM, access to toilets and, at a most basic level, sanitary pads. Twenty-three percent of girls in India drop out of school because these factors are not at play.”