We all remember the Akshay Kumar movie ‘Padman’, in which he plays the role of a guy trying to invent a cheap alternative to expensive market sanitary pads. What a revolutionary idea, right, and it’s not fictional. Yes, we do have a real superhero, the ‘Real Padman of India ‘ Arunachalam Muruganantham.’
The Journey
Arunachalam Muruganantham grew up in poverty and with limited resources. His father died when he was just a teenager, and he had to give up his studies to support his family and work as a welder.
Arunachalam Muruganantham began his journey at creating budget-friendly sanitary pads in 1998 when he realized his wife uses newspapers and reuses dirty rags during her menstrual cycle.
She knew about sanitary pads but couldn’t afford them because of their high prices.
That’s when Muruganantham took it upon his shoulders to create sanitary pads for his wife.
People called him a madman and a pervert obsessed with his crazy dream. His family and village boycotted him. But he still kept going.
Experiments and Failures
In the beginning, he made pads of cotton, but his wife and sisters rejected those. They stopped being his test subjects as they felt ashamed.
He looked for female volunteers to test his products, but most were too shy and disgusted to discuss their menstrual issues with him, as menstruation is taboo in India. He tried distributing his products to girls in medical college, hoping they would give him feedback, but they didn’t.
With no one helping him to test his pads, he started testing it on himself, using animal blood but was criticized and boycotted when the “sanitary pad” was discovered in his village.
It took him almost two years to discover that the commercial pads use cellulose fibres derived from pine bark wood pulp that absorb the liquid while retaining its shape.
The Machine
Commercially available machines that made the pads cost around ₹35 million.
He realized that the cost of the raw materials is less, but the end product is sold for 40 times that price.
The total cost of his machine is ₹65,000.
He made a low-cost pad manufacturing machine that could be operated easily. He bought the processed pine wood pulp from Mumbai, and then his machine would grind, de-fibrate, press, and sterilize the pads under ultraviolet light before packaging.
Despite being offered by several corporate organizations to commercialize the machine, he refused and continues to provide these machines to self-help groups (SHGs) run by women.
Achievements
The machine has been praised for effectiveness and budget-friendly.
His commitment to social aid has earned him several awards.
● He was called to Harvard to give a speech about his machine.
● He has been hosted in many Ted talks describing his journey and the need for his low-cost pad machine.
● His innovation won an award from that time of President Pratibha Patil in 2006.
● In 2014, He was entered in Time magazine’s list of ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’.
● In 2016 he was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award for his invention.
● The movie ‘Period. End of sentence’ based upon his invention and journey won the Academy Award for best documentary of the year (2018)
● No one can forget the 2018 movie ‘Padman’ starring Akshay Kumar as a fictional version of Arunachalam Muruganantham.
● His story has appeared in many foreign-language films.
Everyone widely praises Muruganantham’s invention as a step forward in changing women’s hygiene safety in India.
His machine creates jobs and income for women, and affordable pads, saving many women from critical illness caused by using dirty rags.
Muruganantham’s work has also inspired many social causes and others to give in their best towards this cause.
His machines have been installed in 23 of the 29 states of India. He is planning to expand the production of his devices to 106 nations to help more women.
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