Arunachalam Muruganantham Biography 
Arunachalam Muruganantham is a social entrepreneur from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu who gained nationwide popularity and fame after inventing of a low-cost sanitary pad making machine, thus helping women in rural areas to get away traditional unhygienic practices around menstruation. His machine which makes sanitary pads for less than a third of the cost of commercial pads has been now installed in 23 of the 29 states of India, and he is currently planning to launch in 106 nations. For his significant contributions to the field of women hygiene, government of India honoured him with Padma Sri in 2016. In 2014 his name was listed among 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME MAGAZINE. Addressed as India's Menstruation Man, a documentary film has been made on him.
Arunachalam Muruganantham, shortly called A. Muruganantham hails from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. He was born in 1962 into a weavers’ family. He lost his father in a road accident and his younger days were spent in poverty. Though his mother tried hard to teach him, due to financial condition of his family, he had to discontinue studies at the age of 14. After that he did odd jobs to financially support his family. He got married in 1998. Following his marriage, he get to know about the problems faced by his wife during periods, and his poor family was not able to afford high expensive pads. So he decided to start experiments to make low cost pads for women of rural areas.
He conducted experiments on pads, and at first they are tested by his wife and sisters. But later they refused to co-operate with him, as it’s still a taboo in Indian society to discuss open about menstrual periods. He continued his experiments and later gave free pads to medical students of nearby college to test them. He finally succeeded in inventing low cost machine, which were later provided to self-help groups (SHGs) run by women of rural areas. Though many companies are willing to do it commercially, Arunachalam has not accepted any offer yet. Akshay Kumar’s upcoming release Padman is based on his life struggles and how he finally succeeded.
Published: N/A
Updated: December 11, 2017
