1. Arunachalam Muruganantham was born on 12 October 1961 and known as Padman is a social entrepreneur from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, India.
15 Facts About Arunachalam Muruganantham
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Arunachalam Muruganantham 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.
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Arunachalam Muruganantham is currently planning to expand the production of these machines to 106 nations.
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Arunachalam Muruganantham's mother worked as a farm laborer to help in his studies.
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Arunachalam Muruganantham supplied food to factory workers and took up various jobs as a machine tool operator, yam-selling agent, farm laborer, and welder, to support his family.
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Shortly after, Arunachalam Muruganantham discovered his wife collecting filthy rags and newspapers to use during her menstrual cycle, as sanitary napkins made by multinational corporations were expensive.
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Arunachalam Muruganantham realised that the raw materials cost 10, but the end product sold for 40 times that price.
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Arunachalam Muruganantham looked for female volunteers who could test his inventions, but most were too shy to discuss their menstrual issues with him.
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Arunachalam Muruganantham started testing it himself, using a bladder with animal blood, but became the subject of ridicule when the "sanitary pad" was discovered in his village.
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Arunachalam Muruganantham distributed his products free to girls in a local medical college, hoping that they would give him feedback.
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Arunachalam Muruganantham devised a low-cost machine that could be operated with minimal training.
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Arunachalam Muruganantham 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.
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Arunachalam Muruganantham obtained seed funding and founded Jayaashree Industries, which now markets these machines to rural women across India.
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Arunachalam Muruganantham's invention is widely praised as a key step in changing women's lives in India.
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Arunachalam Muruganantham's story was the subject of a prize-winning documentary by Amit Virmani, Menstrual Man, and the film Phullu directed by Abhishek Saxena.