Story Of The Real Hero 'Padman' : From a School Dropout to a Social Entrepreneur.

Hello Readers, 

Today in this blog we will be  talking about one of the most influential people of the century, who received his true accolade after his story got a shape of a movie.(Starring Akshay Kumar) 

The person who revolutionised the easy  access of Low-Cost sanitary napkins  for women, is none other than Mr. Muruganantham (a.k.a. Arunachalam Muruganantham ).

PAD-MAN

#About His Early Life:

Born in 1962, Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) in a Hand-loom weaver family, had to grow up in poverty after losing his dad in a road accident.

After which  his mother worked as a farm labourer for their living, But eventually he got dropped out of his school at the age of 14 and stated doing micro-jobs such as farm labourer, welder , machine tool operator, yam-selling agent  etc in order to earn his livelihood.

#This made him Invent Low-Cost Sanitary Napkins:

As in earlier days Sanitary napkins were manufactured by Multinational Corporations, which were expensive enough that it was not possible for every rural women to afford one. 

Muruganantham once discovered that his wife(Shanthi) had to gather filthy rags and newspaper to use during her Menstrual Cycle.

He soon encountered that raw material to manufacture a sanitary napkins just costs around 10 Paise , wheres the final product is sold by Multinational companies at much higher rate (Almost 40 times that  of the price of raw material ).

Initially he started making Sanitary napkins out of Cotton and asked his sister and wife to test them which were rejected by them and eventually they stopped co-operating him, then he started looking for Female volunteers but at that time women were so shy that they din't wanted to talk regarding their Menstrual Cycle.

Forcefully, he had to now test the pads he made on himself which became a subject of ridicule and left him ostracised from his village and his family. 

It took him two years to realise that Commercially pads used Cellulose which were derived from the pulp  obtained from the peel of Devadaar  (pine) tree which were used for their ability of absorbing while retaining their shape.

#Low-cost Machinery:

Commercial machinery to manufacture pads costed around US$ 35 Million, so he discovered a supplier from Mumbai who provided him with processed pulp of Devadaar which also  provided him with custom made machine which would Grind, De-fibrate, Press and Sterelize the pads,  which costed him around Rs.65 Thousand.

#True Hero With a Kind Heart:

There were several  attempts made by corporate individuals to commercialise his venture.

But rejecting everyone's proposal he decided to supply his machinery and raw material only to the Self-Help Group run by Women, which in turn not only made women's life easier but also generated a source of livelihood for many rural women.

#Achievements

• In 2006, he visited IIT Delhi to showcase his idea and receive improvisations.
• Soon, his idea won Grassroots Technological Innovations award hosted by National Innovation Foundation 
• After which he received seed funding and founded Jayaashree Industries.
• In 2006, He was featured in Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.
• In 2016,  He was  awarded with Padma Shri.(Fourth highest civilian award in India).
• He was also featured in an award winning Documentary Menstrual man by Amit Virmani.

Though a school drop-out, he has given lectures in premier institution like Harvard, IIT Bombay, IIM Ahemdabad, IIM Bangalore, and also was a speaker at TedX. Now successfully running a Rs.250 crore venture.

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So this was it from my side for the Padman, Do let me know how was the article, if you have any suggestions do let me know in the comment section below .

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Thanks for reading.