prasad1
Active member
Arunachalam Muruganantham’s journey to create a low-cost sanitary pad began 19 years ago, against many odds: he was a school dropout from a poor village who wanted to design a woman’s product.
But he believes that his life’s roadblocks were his assets. At least, his poverty and unfinished education certainly were.
“Being poor and uneducated, I was grounded to the real world and was able to understand the plight of rural women who have no access to hygienic resources for menstruation,” he says.
The 52-year-old social entrepreneur is the man behind an inexpensive machine that manufactures affordable sanitary pads for rural families. For many women in India, menstruation is a taboo subject. Eighty-eight percent of women don’t use sanitary pads, which can lead to reproductive diseases and high rates of maternal mortality. Additionally, 22 percent of girls drop out of school when they begin menstruating.
But Muruganantham didn’t originally set out to solve a major issue for women; he just wanted to please his new bride.
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In 2006, the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai awarded him for his innovation. After seeing his name in a local newspaper, Shanthi called him and returned home, along with his mother and sisters.
The machine Muruganantham created serves a dual purpose. It creates low-cost sanitary pads and provides jobs for rural women. One device employs 10 women and can produce up to 1,000 pads a day.
To date, more than 2,400 machines have been installed across India and 17 other countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, and Nepal.
“I want to set up 100,000 units across India so that 1 million women can get a livelihood,” Muruganantham says. He suspects it will take another two decades.
“I’m waiting for the day when every Indian woman has access to a sanitary napkin,” he says.
http://news.yahoo.com/one-man-revolutionized-menstrual-hygiene-rural-women-worldwide-124411044.html
But he believes that his life’s roadblocks were his assets. At least, his poverty and unfinished education certainly were.
“Being poor and uneducated, I was grounded to the real world and was able to understand the plight of rural women who have no access to hygienic resources for menstruation,” he says.
The 52-year-old social entrepreneur is the man behind an inexpensive machine that manufactures affordable sanitary pads for rural families. For many women in India, menstruation is a taboo subject. Eighty-eight percent of women don’t use sanitary pads, which can lead to reproductive diseases and high rates of maternal mortality. Additionally, 22 percent of girls drop out of school when they begin menstruating.
But Muruganantham didn’t originally set out to solve a major issue for women; he just wanted to please his new bride.
.....................................................
In 2006, the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai awarded him for his innovation. After seeing his name in a local newspaper, Shanthi called him and returned home, along with his mother and sisters.
The machine Muruganantham created serves a dual purpose. It creates low-cost sanitary pads and provides jobs for rural women. One device employs 10 women and can produce up to 1,000 pads a day.
To date, more than 2,400 machines have been installed across India and 17 other countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, and Nepal.
“I want to set up 100,000 units across India so that 1 million women can get a livelihood,” Muruganantham says. He suspects it will take another two decades.
“I’m waiting for the day when every Indian woman has access to a sanitary napkin,” he says.
http://news.yahoo.com/one-man-revolutionized-menstrual-hygiene-rural-women-worldwide-124411044.html
