AMIKA GEORGE A Synonym for Youth Activism

Young activist Amika George has accomplished more than most aged 24. She set out with the single goal of eradicating period poverty in the U.K., and has succeeded in it and become a poster girl for youth activism.

- DR SAJITH CYRIAC

Amika was born on 4 October 1999 in north-west London. She is the daughter of Philip George and Nisha from Kerala. While in secondary school, she happened to read a headline on the BBC website: ‘Girls too Poor to Buy Sanitary Products Missing School’. She was just 17 years old, and it was then she realised that period poverty (lack of access to menstrual products) was a startling reality in the U.K. too.

A quick Google search exposed her to numerous reports of girls in the U.K. missing up to one week of school every month. Missing school meant these girls were compromising their educational attainment, their ambitions for the future, and their chances of escaping from the clutches of poverty for future generations. They were facing isolation, stress and loss of dignity.