21/02/2019
Arunachalam Muruganantham (Padman) (born 1962) is a social entrepreneur from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, India. He is the inventor of a low-cost sanitary pad-making machine and is credited for innovating grassroots mechanisms for generating awareness about traditional unhygienic practices around menstruation in rural India. His mini-machines, which can manufacture sanitary pads for less than a third of the cost of commercial pads, have been installed in 23 of the 29 states of India. He is currently planning to expand the production of these machines to 106 nations.In 2014, he was included in Time magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People in the World.In 2016, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.
In 1998, He married Shanthi.[citation needed] Shortly after, Murugananthan discovered his wife collecting filthy rags and newspapers to use during her menstrual cycle, as sanitary napkins made by multinational corporations were expensive. Troubled by this, he started designing experimental pads. Initially, he made pads out of cotton, but these were rejected by his wife and sisters. Eventually, they stopped co-operating with him and refused to be the test subjects for his innovations. He realised that the raw materials cost ₹10 (14¢ US), but the end product sold for 40 times that price.He looked for female volunteers who could test his inventions, but most were too shy to discuss their menstrual issues with him. He started testing it on himself, using a bladder with animal blood, but became the subject of ridicule when the "sanitary pad" was discovered in his village.As menstruation was a taboo subject in India, it left him ostracized by his community and family.He distributed his products free to girls in a local medical college, hoping that they would give him feedback.
It took him two years to discover that the commercial pads used cellulose fibers derived from pine bark wood pulp.The fibres helped the pads absorb while retaining shape. Imported machines that made the pads cost ₹35 million (US$490,000).He devised a low-cost machine that could be operated with minimal training. He sourced the processed pine wood pulp from a supplier in Mumbai, and the machines would grind, de-fibrate, press and sterilize the pads under ultraviolet light before packaging them for sale. The machine costs ₹65,000 (US$900. Muruganantham has become well-known as a social entrepreneur.He has given lectures at many institutions including IIT Bombay, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and Harvard University. He has also given a TED talk. His story was the subject of a prize-winning documentary by Amit Virmani, Menstrual Man,and the film Phullu (2017) directed by Abhishek Saxena. Director R. Balki cast Indian actor Akshay Kumar as Laxmikant Chauhan in a film based on Muruganantham's life, titled Pad Man.
