Arunachalam Muruganantham is commonly known as India’s Menstruation Man and has made the lives of millions of girls better across the country by providing them with low-cost sanitary pads.
He once saw his wof usng ragged cloth to manage her periods, and so this idea struck him when he realized that she’s adopting an unhygienic method and so he decided to do something to help her- although it took him two years to make a usable pads; his wife even left him due to embarrassment.
He then asked few female medical students to try his initial sanitary product, but they were too shy to give a feedback due to the social stigma and so he decided to test the sanitary pads himself by making an artificial uterus in small rubber bladder and filling animal blood in it. Then, he connected the tube to the sanitary pad he wore and tied it with an elastic. After two years of failed attempts, he was able to perfect the process and find the right material for making the pads.
Today, 18 years later, his industry offers jobs to more than thousands of people and has about 877 brands of sanitary pads in 27 Indian states.
By: Archa Dave
