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c4nindia-blog · 7 years ago

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PADMA SHRI ARUNACHALAM MURUGANANTHAM WHO INVENTED A LOW-COST SANITARY PAD MAKING MACHINE

Padma Shri Arunachalam Muruganantham invented a low-cost sanitary pad- -making-machine, spread awareness of women personal hygiene; whose aim was to create women empowerment in rural India.

Mr Muruganantham became one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in TIME magazine in 2014 and was awarded Padma Shri by Government of India in 2016.

His journey was not an easy one. During the phone interview,

Mr Muruganantham has shared his extremely inspiring story with us; how did he come to know about the sanitary pads? Why did he think to make a low-cost pad? How the title, ‘The First Man To Wear a Napkin in The World’, was given to him? He also talks about his story in Twinkle Khanna’s book ‘The Legend Of Lakshmi Prasad’ and an upcoming movie, ‘Padman’ directed by R Balki based on his story.

He was born in a village. His father was a handloom weaver who died in a road accident when Muruganantham was very young. Suddenly his mother became the care taker of the family. She had to raise him and his two sisters. To support his mother, Muruganantham dropped out of school. And his mother did not know about this.

“Many people don’t know the real term of a village. They think that the end of the city or the suburb is the village. But to see the real village, you have to walk a few kilometres down the main road.”

How did he start his journey? On this, Muruganantham says,

“To help my mother, I started working as a workshop helper. There I learned welding and other tools. I got married at 24. It was an arranged marriage. Being a newly married husband, my priority was to impress my wife, Shanti. To do that, I used to get her gifts.

“One day, during the lunch time, I saw Shanti was hiding something from me. Initially, I thought she was playing with me. But I came to know that it was a ragged piece of cloth which I won’t even use to clean my two-wheeler. We were having an open toilet. So I had seen some blood stained clothes sometimes. I had no further idea about it.

“One day, I decided to talk to my wife, I asked, ‘Why are you using these ragged clothes and not the pads which they show on the TV?’ to which Shanti answered, ‘I also know about these pads. But if I and the other women of the family start using it, we won’t have the budget left to purchase milk for the family.’

“I did not understand what sanitary napkin had to do with family milk budget.

“To impress my new wife, I thought why not give her a packet of sanitary napkins?

“I went to the medical shop and asked for the packet of sanitary pads. The shopkeeper asked which brand I wanted. I had no idea about the brands. So I pointed to the packet in the show case and asked for that.

“He didn’t hand it over like other products. He wrapped it in the newspaper and put it in the bag and handed me like a smuggling product. Wherever you ask for pads, they will give it wrapped in brown paper. Because the shopkeeper didn’t like my curiosity about the pads, I took the packet and left the shop. I opened it and touched it for the first time. It was like a bandage.

“No matter where I am talking; London, Las Vegas, Geneva, Surat, I asked the gentlemen sitting in the audience if they had ever touched a sanitary pad, and a very few answered affirmatively. Very few in the Nation know any information about it.

“Being the son of a handloom weaver, I have knowledge of cotton and some other material. When I took the pad in my hand, I weighed it and it was around 10 gm. So in 10 gm, the raw material and making cost was 10 paisa in 1998. But I got the product for 8 Rs per pad.

“Then a thought came to my mind, I should try to make the affordable product for Shanti.

“When I took the pad out of the packet, I saw some cotton wrapped in a white cloth. So I went to Lakshmi Mill nearby which was a familiar mill to me. I got cotton used in a beauty parlour and cut it into a rectangle. I wrapped it into viscose patch to make it thick. In a day, I could make 2 napkins similar to which I bought from the shop. So now, I had entered into women’s personal hygiene.

“Now I needed a woman volunteer to test the napkin made by me. The only possible woman I could ask was my wife. When I handed her the napkin, she reacted, “Oh my God! You are entering into this research!’ I told her to use it and asked her to give me the feedback. But she said, ‘No no. Not now. Wait for some time.”

“Till then, I had no idea about women’s personal hygiene and menstruation. But I had one idea:

In the village, there was Goddess Temple. Women used to go to the temple every Friday evening. Only a few entered the temple. The rest would be outside. On one such Friday, I asked Shanti to use the napkin made by me. Then again she said, ‘No. Not this Friday. Not every Friday we get periods. Wait for some time.’

“A male can be a boy, a man, a love/husband, a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather, but they don’t have any knowledge what’s happening inside a woman’s body. That’s what I had learnt in my early married life.

“Finally Shanti used the napkin. She gave me the feedback, ‘What napkin have you given me? It is very nasty. I am going back to my clothes method.’

“Then I tried many other things at the mill for making a good napkin. But it was time-consuming process.

The discussion we are having right now was never discussed in a society; about women’s personal hygiene. It is a biggest social taboo.

“After a failed attempt and a bad feedback, I tried again. This time, I gave the samples to Medical College girls. They were the aspiring doctors. But they too hesitated to talk about this; such a personal matter with an unknown man.

“Now what to do? I had other solution; I decided to try it on my own. And this is where the title, The First Man To Wear a Napkin in The World came from.

“I wore it in my pants. To make the artificial uterus, I used rubber bladder and filled animal blood in it. No, whenever I would be walking or cycling, I would press the bladder to test the napkin which I was wearing.

“Blood stains could be seen on my dhoti and clothes. Even after wearing it for 20 days, it felt unnatural.

“But one secret I revealed after wearing the pad for 20 days and that is; the strongest creature created by god in the world is, not the lion, not the elephant, not the tiger. It is the woman.

“So all those gentlemen out there, reading this, who have doubt on women’s strength, wear these pads for 7 days and send me the feedback here.

“I often hear men complaining, “Oh Muru, I have got cold, I have a fever. It’s so difficult.” Yes, men are weaker than women.

‘While asking to Medical College girls, one day, Shanti came to serve me lunch. She asked, ‘Are you roaming with medical college girls?’ I said that no, I went there to repair the main gate. But she didn’t believe me. One day she said, ‘I am getting bored. I want to go to my parents’ house.’ I dropped her at my in-laws’ house. It became one week, one month, 2-3 months, but she didn’t come back. But I always hoped that she would come back.

‘And before she came back, I wanted to finish my research.

‘Now the cotton I was using to make the napkin was different from the cotton which the other companies used. So to get the detail idea about it, I asked the medical college girls to put their used napkins in a bin which I kept there. I would collect it and dissect it. The girls thought that I went crazy. But somehow they got convinced.

‘One day, I was sitting in the backyard of my house, dissecting a used napkin; my mother came to the house. I was unaware of it. She thought that I was preparing chicken for lunch. But when she saw me dissecting the napkin, she started crying like anything.

‘She thought that somebody had done black magic on me. She thought that I was useless and she went to my sister’s home.

‘The moment, my mother left, the entire village started making stories about me; that I was having illegal connections with girls; I was having some sexual disease. They also came to know about the bladder and animal blood. They said that I was becoming a vampire!

‘I was warned to stop these activities or else I would have to leave the village. Khap Panchayat was also held for it. But before they sent me out of the village, I ran away like a thief in the midnight.

“I stayed in a nearby city in a small room. But I kept my research going.

“Now I had found the material companies use to make pads. That is the cellulose derived from the bark of the tree. It is called wood pulp.

“Now to make the pad, you need a big plant which costs around 3.5 crores. I researched for more 4.5 years and made my own small machine and I made my world class pads at home. This is my innovation.

“I again gave the pads to Medical college girls to test it. One day, I saw one of them with a Scooty. I asked them, ‘The colour of the Scooty is nice, but what about my pad?”

“These girls used to call me Anna. She said, “Anna, I am using your pad and I forget” (she forgot that she was on period)

“Such a comfort they must be feeling, I thought.

“I sent the machine to IIT Madras for evolution. During that, I was trying to patent it and understand the IPR rights.

“During those days, there was a competition going on in IIT Madras. They involved my machine in the competition. Out of around 950 entries, my machine stood 1st. Other entries were about ideas inspired by notes in CDs and presentations; while I was giving the real working machine.

Suddenly I was in a limelight.

“Then I got the patents and rights too.

“I came back to Coimbatore and made more machines.

“After some time, I got a call from BBC. Now I had become a public speaker.

“During one lecture, I had realized that, in India, only 5% of women are using pads. There were many people including foreigners in the audience; so I added some extra percents and made it 10.

“Now, what would a business person do with this innovative machine? He would try to use the IPR rights to earn the maximum money out of it. But I never did this.’

WHY?

“Ever since I was a kid, I knew that no human would die because of the poverty. They die because of the ignorance.

“So I am not doing it for business and profit. I am doing it for a social cause. My path is clear in the term called mission; to create women empowerment in rural India. I give these machines to the women so that they can earn for themselves.

“I want 100% of the women to use napkins.

This is my invention to provide opportunities to women empowerment and make them aware of their personal hygiene too.

About his story in the book The Legend Of Lakshmi Prasad and an Upcoming movie based on his story:

“Wherever I went for lectures; Singapore, London, New York, this girl was chasing me. Somebody in a crew just told me that she was Twinkle Khanna and wondered why she was chasing.

“When I met her, I told her that somebody has asked me about my story. She laughed and said, “Sir, he is my husband.”

“Twinkle and Akshay are very down to earth people. I especially like Akshay. I watched Airlift. Now they told me that they would like to make a film from Mumbai to convey the message. I agreed with them. Mr R Balki is directing the film.”

We, at C4N India express our sincere gratitude to Mr Muruganantham for coming up and choosing to take initiative for spreading awareness of women’s personal hygiene in the society. We also congratulate him for successfully achieving what he had aimed for; providing employment to the women in rural India.

[Cover Photo Courtesy: Google Search]

#india #C4N India #C4N #bethechange #Menstruation Man #sanitary napkin #pads #social change #women empowerment #women employment #awareness #awakening

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rujvie07 · 7 years ago

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