21-yr-old with Kerala roots on MBE record for ‘period poverty’ activism

WHEN SHE was picked because the youngest recipient of the Queen’s Birthday Honours this yr for pushing the UK authorities to supply free interval merchandise in colleges and schools, Amika George discovered herself in a spot.
“It wasn’t an easy one for me with the Honours system’s association to the (British) Empire and our colonial past,” says the 21-year-old History scholar at University of Cambridge whose dad and mom hail from Kerala.
But then, she determined “it’s really important for me to show that young people have power in our voices, much more than we realise”.

“We have often been overlooked in political spaces, and the MBE shows that we are slowly being recognised as real changemakers who can influence government,” she says.
“That change doesn’t have to be done from within the walls of Westminster, or the White House, or the Indian Parliament. Anyone can orchestrate change. I would like young people of colour to see that we are being recognised, and that if we are willing to jump from a place of safety and rise up, we can create something better,” she says.
George was picked for an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in schooling for her marketing campaign in opposition to interval poverty, #FreePeriods, which she began on the age of 17. She says it made her offended that “there were girls in the UK who were missing school every month because they were too poor to afford period products”.
Following her efforts, which included beginning a petition and assembly with ministers, the UK authorities in 2020 funded academic institutes to supply free interval merchandise. Free Periods is now a not-for-profit organisation, which continues to combat “against the taboo and shame surrounding menstruation”.
George says she is accepting the award “on behalf of my family and community who have silently had to tolerate racism over decades, who felt like they never fitted in, who never felt British enough, who never felt seen”.
While George and her brother have been born and introduced up within the UK, their father Kishore hails from Pathanamthitta and mom Nisha from Kozhencherry.
“We’re really pleased,” says Nisha. “We have seen Amika work hard, juggling between academics and her campaign over the last four years. She was single-minded about achieving a goal, and we’re happy that she has been recognised this way.”
As dad and mom, Nisha says, they felt protecting of Amika “because she just put herself out there, talking about something that most people feel uncomfortable with”.

An MBE is the third highest rating Order of the British Empire award. This yr, 1,129 folks have been named for an Order of the British Empire award, of which 50 per cent are girls, and 15 per cent of an ethnic minority.
“The Birthday Honours List 2021 is the most ethnically diverse list to date,” a press launch by the UK authorities states.
Says George: “I couldn’t be prouder today to be a young British Indian.”