Arunachalam Muruganantham, also known as Padman, is the man behind the invention of the cheapest sanitary napkin making machine. Her innovation has not only been a healthy aid to the women of rural India but has also provided them a source of employment. Check out Arunachalam Muruganantham Wiki, Height, Weight, Age, Wife, Caste, Family, Biography & More:
Biography/Wiki
Arunachalam Muruganantham or Padman was born in the year 1962 in a small village In Coimbatore In India. His father died in a road accident when he was a small child and after his death he had to live in poverty. He was studying in a local government school, and his mother worked as a farm laborer to earn a living. When he was only 14, he left school and started working as a farm laborer like his mother. As well as working on the farms, they also took up some small jobs such as machine tool operators, welders or food suppliers.
In 1998, he married Shanti. Some time after Shanti’s marriage, he came to know that his wife used dirty clothes and newspapers instead of sanitary napkins during her menstruation. He was surprised that his wife avoided buying sanitary pads because of their high price. But at the same time, it was a really expensive thing for them to buy every month. This entire incident inspired him to invent a cheap sanitary napkin for which he had to suffer huge losses. In the beginning, he asked his wife to test some samples of sanitary napkins which he had made from raw cotton and clean clothes. But they were not exploitative enough so failed to help their wives. His wife rejected all his sanitary napkins and told him to stop worrying about them.
But the fact that using that dirty cloth could lead to various diseases, he could not stop himself and kept trying. She asked her sisters and other women to help her, but all were embarrassed about the subject. Later he tried them on himself with the help of animal blood and football bladder. But he failed again. Failing in those experiments didn’t cause as much trouble, but his wife and his mother left him. The entire village stood against him due to which he had to leave the city.
After two years of various experiments he somehow discovered that the cotton he was using to make sanitary napkins was different from the cotton used by multinational companies, which was obtained from the wood pulp of pine bark. Cellulose is fiber. After that, he researched about the imported machine making sanitary napkins and gained knowledge about the processing of the machine and managed to create his own affordable machine to do so. There was a huge difference between the price of the original machine, i.e. ₹35 million (US$550,000) and the machine they made, i.e. ₹65000. He purchased cellulose fiber sheets from a Mumbai based company. Now their machine can successfully make pads by the process of sheet grinding, de-fibration, pressing and sterilizing the pads under ultraviolet.
In 2006, he approached IIT Madras and represented his invention before them. Their design won an award in a competition called the National Innovation Foundation’s Grassroots Technological Innovation Awards. After winning the award, he started his own production company named Jayshree Industries. Since 2006, their machines have been installed in 23 out of 29 states of India, providing affordable sanitary pad production as well as employment to rural people.
Physical Appearance
Arunachalam Muruganantham is 56 years old, height is 5’7″ feet and weight is around 60 kg. The color of both his eyes and hair is black.
Family, Caste and Girlfriend
Arunachalam Muruganantham was born in a working class family in a small village in Coimbatore, India. His father S. Arunachalam and Mata A. Vanita, both were handloom weavers. He is the only son of his parents along with his three sisters.
Arunachalam Muruganantham’s mother
In the year 1998, he got married to Shanti, which became the reason for his big innovation. They have a daughter named Preeti.
Arunachalam Muruganantham with his wife and daughter
livelihood
Arunachalam Muruganantham Was a school dropout. When he was in 9th class, he left his school due to poor financial condition of his family. His father died when he was a child. His mother used to work as a farm laborer due to which the family was not able to support themselves properly. so, Muruganatham Also started working as an agricultural labourer. Later he also started working as a welder, machine tool operator and food supplier.
Later in 2006, he invented a very low-cost sanitary napkin production machine, which was awarded the National Innovation Foundation’s Grassroots Technological Innovation Award. After winning the award, he became an entrepreneur by starting a production company named Jayashree Industries, which produces low-cost sanitary napkin production machines as well as affordable sanitary napkins for women in rural areas of India.
fact
- Whereas Arunachalam Muruganantham When he was experimenting with sanitary napkins, he faced a lot of criticism from the people of his village as well as his family.
- His wife and mother abandoned him and stopped talking to him. Although he kept trying. He contacted girls from the neighboring medical college to test the pads he had made. However, this time also he was unsuccessful.
Arunachalam Muruganantham with women volunteers
- Since he couldn’t get any other volunteers to test his sanitary pads, he decided to test it himself. He managed to get some animal blood and placed it in a football bladder. He wore a sanitary napkin and kept pumping blood on it while roaming around the village. But again it was a failed experiment.
- people of arunachalam MuruganathamHe began to think that he was possessed by some evil spirits and that a local astrologer was going to chain him to a tree to cure him. But he somehow escaped and went out of the village.
- He failed every time only because the cotton he was using was normal cotton. It took him 2 years to discover that the cotton used in sanitary napkins was cellulose fiber obtained from the wood pulp of pine bark.
- Since he was not good at English, a college professor helped him contact companies that produced cellulose fibers. Muruganantham spent around Rs 7,000 on telephone calls to reach various companies.
- He also researched the entire process of making sanitary napkins and realized how expensive a sanitary napkin production machine is. It cost approximately ₹35 million (US$550,000). Machine manufactured by Arunachalam Muruganatham Much cheaper than imported ones, i.e. it costs only ₹65000.
- He created his first machine from wood which won the award at the National Innovation Foundation’s Grassroots Technological Innovation Award among 943 other entries. This award was presented to her by the then President of India, Pratibha Patil.
Arunachalam Muruganantham with his wife and the awards he has won in the last 10 years
- Arunachalam Muruganatham The wife who had left him called him after 5 years after learning about the award he had won.
Arunachalam Muruganantham with his wife
- He was flooded with offers from multinational companies who wanted to buy the patent of his machine at any price, but he rejected all the offers because he invented this machine only to provide cheap sanitary napkins to the women of rural areas of India. Which would not have been possible if he had sold his machines to those multinational companies.
- He produced his first 250 machines in 18 months and installed them in backward and underdeveloped areas of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
- Arunachalam in 2014 MuruganathamHe was named among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.
100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine
- It is purchased by NGOs and women self-help groups in rural areas. The machine is of two types, manual (price around Rs 7500) and semi-automatic (price a little more than Rs 75000). Those machines have not only made the cheapest sanitary napkins, but one machine employs around 10 people and produces 200-250 napkins a day, costing only around Rs 2.5.
- When he realized that his machines were also capable of generating employment, his first target was to provide employment to 10 lakh poor women, after achieving which he set a target of creating 10 million jobs across the world.
Arunachalam Muruganantham with his female employees
- After covering rural areas of India, he is set to expand his work to 106 countries.
- Arunachalam Muruganatham She has received much praise for her social work for women and has been invited as a motivational speaker to many prestigious institutions such as IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIT Bombay and Harvard.
- In 2016, she received the Padma Shri by the Government of India for her noble work towards the women of rural India.
- He also got the opportunity to speak at the famous TED talk.
- Amit Virmani made an award winning documentary based on Arunachalam Muruganatham Life story titled ‘Menstruating Men’.
menstrual man documentary cover
- In November 2016, a book titled ‘The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad’ inspired by the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham film was published, written by actress Twinkle Khanna.
twinkle khanna book cover
- Akshay Kumar played the role of ‘Arunachalam Muruganatham’ (as Laxmikant Chauhan) in his film Padman, released in February 2018.
- In April 2019, he was listed 45th on Fortune magazine’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders 2019 list.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn