Saree glitters at the royal wedding

Four Indian women dressed in brightly-coloured silk and organza sarees are among the special guests invited by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to their wedding in Windsor Castle. Suhani Jalota, the founder of MynaMahila Foundation, arrived in the UK from Mumbai with three other colleagues earlier this week. 

Their women’s empowerment charity, which produces and distributes low-cost sanitary napkins to women in Mumbai’s slums, is the only non-UK organisation hand-picked by the royal couple as beneficiaries of donations in lieu of wedding gifts.

“We are all very excited to be representing India at the celebrations. We are so honoured that she (Markle) chose us and kept her word that she would help us in every way she can,” said Jalota, who is among 600 guests to witness the wedding ceremony at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. 

Her colleagues, Deborah Das, Archana Ambre and Imogen Mansfield, are among the 1,200 members of public invited to the wedding picnic party on the grounds of the Castle. 

While the dress code for the wedding lists day dress and hat for female guests, Jalota’s group chose pastel-coloured Banarasi and Chanderi sarees with Indian motifs from among the handwoven designs created by Indian firm Raw Mango to make an Indian splash at the royal wedding. 

They are also carrying specially hand-crafted wedding gift for the newly-weds – a painting of a myna bird outline with messages for Meghan Markle from all the women involved with the charity.  “It is written in calligraphy as Meghan herself is a calligraphy artist,” says Jalota. 

The 26-year-old’s association with the royal bride dates back to 2016, when she first met Meghan at an awards ceremony and then subsequently the then actress and UN goodwill ambassador visited the Mumbai-based charity during a tour of India in 2017.

“Meghan was always involved in the field of women’s empowerment and was very keen to support the work of organisations that try and make a difference at a grassroots level. She has been a constant source of support for us and this latest development has been truly incredible,” said the social worker.

The foundation works on providing women in urban slums stable employment close to their homes. Besides producing low-cost feminine hygiene products, trained female volunteers go door-to-door to try and break taboos around menstrual hygiene by getting women to talk about these issues. 

“The namesake of the organisation, MynaMahila Foundation, refers to a chatty bird… The name echoes the undercurrent of this issue: we need to speak about it, to be 'chatty' about it,” Markle wrote in Time magazine after her India visit in March last year. 

“The women’s work opens the dialogue of menstrual hygiene in their homes, liberating them from silent suffering, and equipping their daughters to attend school,” she wrote. 

MynaMahila Foundation was born in 2015 out of Jalota’s own belief that women's empowerment hinges upon an open dialogue and was inspired by the work of Nobel Peace prize nominee Dr JockinArputham. The volunteers undergo fair amount of hardship on their visits to supply sanitary napkins to slum-dweller's doorsteps, as they would not otherwise consider buying such products.

They are often met with hostility but over time they have succeeded in making an impact on a large number of families in the Govandi slum area of Mumbai. After their day amid royalty at Windsor Castle, the four Myna women plan to tour the sights of London before returning to their work in the slums of Mumbai next Wednesday. 

By Aditi Khanna