A recent observation by the Supreme Court of India during a hearing on menstrual hygiene and school infrastructure cut through years of polite policy language and said something painfully simple: girls should not have to abandon education because schools lack toilets and sanitary napkins.

It should not take the country’s highest court to remind India that dignity is not a luxury. Yet here we are.

For millions of girls, dropping out of school rarely begins as a clear or dramatic decision. It begins quietly. A missing toilet door. No running water. Fear of staining a uniform. The humiliation of managing menstruation in silence. A few missed classes slowly become routine absences. Eventually, education slips away so quietly that nobody even calls it exclusion anymore.

India often celebrates rising enrolment figures and slogans around women’s empowerment. But empowerment built without basic infrastructure is fragile theatre. A girl cannot focus on mathematics while worrying about where to change a sanitary pad. She cannot dream fearlessly about the future while worrying about something as basic as managing her period with privacy and dignity in school.

The Supreme Court rightly recognised that menstrual hygiene is directly connected to a girl’s right to education and dignity. These are not merely women’s issues pushed into a separate social corner. They are constitutional issues. Public health issues. Economic issues.

When girls leave school early, the consequences travel far beyond classrooms. It affects financial independence, workforce participation, health awareness, and even future generations. Every girl pushed out of education weakens the country’s social foundation a little more.

What makes this crisis even more disturbing is how normalised it has become. India has somehow accepted that girls will simply adjust. The burden of endurance almost always falls on them. If a school lacks facilities, girls must manage. If periods interrupt attendance, girls must cope. If discomfort becomes unbearable, girls quietly stay home.

Boys are rarely expected to sacrifice education because systems failed them. Girls are.

That is why the Supreme Court’s observation matters. It challenged the dangerous assumption that girls leaving school due to poor sanitation is unfortunate but acceptable collateral damage.

It is not acceptable.

India speaks of growth, technology and global leadership with pride. But in many schools, girls are still managing without clean toilets or proper menstrual hygiene support. That gap says a lot about what we continue to overlook.

Separate girls’ toilets often exist on paper but are not always functional or usable. Some are locked. Some have no running water.

This structural neglect is reinforced by cultural silence. Conversations around periods are still wrapped in shame within families. Girls grow up feeling menstruation is something to hide. And not something that deserves care. When toilets lack water or doors have no latch, a girl shaped by this silence is more likely to withdraw quietly than demand a fix. This allows institutional failure to remain hidden, and the consequences are serious.

A girl who repeatedly misses school during menstruation slowly falls behind academically. Confidence erodes. Participation declines. Eventually, domestic responsibilities begin replacing homework. Society then casually labels this as family circumstances instead of recognising it as institutional failure.

The court’s intervention should force India to confront an uncomfortable question. Why are girls still expected to display extraordinary resilience merely for basic participation in public life.

We praise daughters for tolerating discomfort when we should be building systems that remove unnecessary suffering altogether.

This is not about luxury infrastructure. This is about the bare minimum required for equal access to education. A functional toilet is not an aspirational demand. Access to sanitary products is not social charity. Both are directly connected to whether girls remain in classrooms.

Implementation now matters more than headlines. Governments cannot reduce this issue to token schemes or occasional photo opportunities. Schools need usable toilets, running water, proper maintenance, and consistent menstrual hygiene support. Teachers also need training so that menstruation can be discussed without stigma in the classroom. Parents, too, need reassurance that periods are not something to be ashamed of.

Most importantly, the public conversation itself must mature. Menstrual health cannot stay hidden behind euphemisms and embarrassment. At the same time, policymakers talk about women led development and gender equality in the same breath.

A society reveals its priorities through the problems it chooses to normalise. India has normalised girls adjusting for far too long.

The Supreme Court has now stated the obvious with unusual clarity. Girls should not give up education because the system failed to provide basic dignity.

The real test is not what courts say. It is what schools quietly continue to fail to provide.

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