Menstrual Man of India

Menstrual Man of India 

 today I would like to take up the story of ‘India’s Menstrual Man’, Arunachalam Muruganantham  and what he gave to woman in India and all over the world by manufacturing affordable and simple sanitary pads. 

Like every other entrepreneurship story, this too starts with an ardent desire to do something, they were a newly wed couple and Muruganantham was always giving small presents to his wife to impress her.

 

One day he saw she was carrying something behind her, the purpose of it was to hide from him that thing, when he asked what it was, she replied instantly by slapping him on his cheek saying  it was none of  his business, he thought she was playing very seriously and ran behind her to see what she was hiding.

On another day he saw a nasty rag cloth with a few blood stains here and there, he understood that she was adopting unhygienic method to manage her period days, this thought troubled him and he decided to do something about it. His first prototype was made by cutting a roll of cotton into pieces, he presented this to his wife, however she rejected it calling it ‘useless’, he decided to persue his research further, he couldn’t wait a month for his wife's periods, to test his models, so he approached medical college students to test these design but they too were shy and reticent to provide him with a comprehensive feedback.

Finally he decided to TEST THE SANITARY PADS ON HIMSELF, he built himself a uterus using a rubber bladder and tied it around his waist with an elastic, he filled it this with animal blood, it was made to work in such a manner that whenever he put a little pressure on it a dose of blood would go through the tube to the sanitary pad.

However these experiments did have its downside, the animal blood began to smell foul a while after it was released and sometimes it even stained his clothes, people started calling him a pervert and he became a topic of gossip around the town, after a while it became difficult for his wife to bear and she left him to live with her mother. He says in his documentary ‘So you see God’s sense of humour, I’d started the research for my wife and after 18 months of it, she left me!'

Yet he didn’t give up, years later he finally found the right material and method to process his low cost sanitary pads, the result were 3 easy to use machines with which woman could produce low cost sanitary napkins in surplus. His wife also returned to him after 5 years, 

In this manner, the hero of our story started what he calls a ‘Silent Revolution’ something which is beyond marketing, he method created employment and pads 50% cheaper than other brands, now there are 877 brands making his pads, using 1300 machines in 27 states of India, aside from that 17 countries also import his machines. Many multinationals have approached him to buy his machine but he has refused, preferring to sell it to women’s self help groups, he says he doesn’t want to accumulate money, one wonders why, Muruganantham believes that business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas he prefers a lighter touch like that of a butterfly, a butterfly can suck honey from a flower without damaging it.