pad man

I was watching one of Burkha Dutt’s interview. This time it was with Twinkle Khanna and Pad man -Arunachalam Muruganantham.  Read his Wikipedia page here.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachalam_Muruganantham

Muruganantham who is a high school dropout has invented a machine which makes low cost sanitary pads. He has won Various awards for his innovatiion and also a Padmashri award.

Now he sells his machines directly to women’ s self help groups with the help of ank loans. The women can learn operation of these machines in as less as 3 hours time.

The inspiration for his invention was his wife.

His wife like thousands of women in India was using a rag for menustral blood. Shocked, he bought a pack of sanitary pads for her. But it was so expensive. He decided to make sanitary pads himself. 

As no one was willing to give feedback on his product, Muruganantham wore it himself with a bag of blood with a tube tied to his waist. He wore the pads for two weeks.

This in our country where menustrating women are considered impure and pads are something which have to be hidden from everyone. We all know what is happening in Sabarimala.

We all know that every month the uterus sheds a layer and that is menustration. Women don’t need to feel ashamed or impure for that. They will have enough physical discomfort and pain as it is.

We need more men like Muruganantham who understands and care about women’s problems.

By the way, the film on his life and by the same name starring Akshaya Kumar is quite good and worth watching.