[quote]Arunachalam Muruganantham's invention came at great personal cost - he nearly lost his family, his money and his place in society. But he kept his sense of humour.
"It all started with my wife," he says. In 1998 he was newly married and his world revolved around his wife, Shanthi, and his widowed mother. One day he saw Shanthi was hiding something from him. He was shocked to discover what it was - rags, "nasty cloths" which she used during menstruation.
"I will be honest," says Muruganantham. "I would not even use it to clean my scooter." When he asked her why she didn't use sanitary pads, she pointed out that if she bought them for the women in the family, she wouldn't be able to afford to buy milk or run the household...
...When Muruganantham looked into it further, he discovered that hardly any women in the surrounding villages used sanitary pads - fewer than one in 10. His findings were echoed by a 2011 survey by AC Nielsen, commissioned by the Indian government, which found that only 12% of women across India use sanitary pads.
Muruganantham says that in rural areas, the take-up is far less than that. He was shocked to learn that women don't just use old rags, but other unhygienic substances such as sand, sawdust, leaves and even ash.
Women who do use cloths are often too embarrassed to dry them in the sun, which means they don't get disinfected. Approximately 70% of all reproductive diseases in India are caused by poor menstrual hygiene - it can also affect maternal mortality...
When a girl reaches puberty in their village, there is a ceremony - traditionally it meant that they were ready to marry. Shanthi always brings a sanitary pad as a gift and explains how to use it.
"Initially I used to be very shy when talking to people about it," she says. "But after all this time, people have started to open up. Now they come and talk to me, they ask questions and they also get sanitary napkins to try them. They have all changed a lot in the village."
Muruganantham says she does a wonderful job.
He was once asked whether receiving the award from the Indian president was the happiest moment of his life. He said no - his proudest moment came after he installed a machine in a remote village in Uttarakhand, in the foothills of the Himalayas, where for many generations nobody had earned enough to allow children to go to school.
A year later, he received a call from a woman in the village to say that her daughter had started school. "Where Nehru failed," he says, "one machine succeeded." [/quote]
[url]http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26260978[/url]
Follow the link, it's interesting.
Man's got a helluva drive to continue seeking the solution when damn near everyone was ostracising him.
Things are changing for the better. Slowly, but it's starting to happen. And it's good to see people like this helping them along.
What they use in lieu of sanity pads is nothing close of horrifying.
That's just absolutely disgusting, and a nation launching probes to Mars has no fucking excuse.
[QUOTE=ewitwins;44141382]What they use in lieu of sanity pads is nothing close of horrifying.
That's just absolutely disgusting, and a nation launching probes to Mars has no fucking excuse.[/QUOTE]
Society is a pretty good excuse.
I think India will continue to progress become better. India is not perfect, but it seems they have a drive to change and are changing.
[QUOTE=ewitwins;44141382]What they use in lieu of sanity pads is nothing close of horrifying.
That's just absolutely disgusting, and a nation launching probes to Mars has no fucking excuse.[/QUOTE]
Most of India's cities have such commodities available dirt cheap. But there are many, many very remote, very rural villages which are pretty much isolated, cut off from the thoroughfares of the country. Strange customs and poverty mingle in these places to create some serious social issues. Sounds like the guy who married a woman from those villages, an Indian himself (And likely from more metropolitan areas), was so shocked by it that he was spurred into action.
[quote]that women don't just use old rags, but other unhygienic substances such as sand, sawdust, leaves and even ash.[/quote]
what
[QUOTE]that women don't just use old rags, but other unhygienic substances such as sand, sawdust, leaves and even ash.[/QUOTE]
Isn't ash a base? wouldn't it damage the skin?
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
