Padman of India shares his success story

Muruganantham, who was portrayed by Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar in the film, Padman, based on his life, is the inventor of the low-cost sanitary pad-making machine and is credited for innovating grassroots mechanisms for generating awareness about traditional unhygienic practices around menstruation in rural India. 

Muruganantham has sold and installed more than 5,300 pad manufacturing machines in India and overseas for affordable pad manufacturing. These machines can manufacture sanitary pads for less than a third of the cost of commercial pads. 

He said that more than 110,000 women are getting livelihood because of their participation in the business. He added that by using his machines, women have developed 1,343 local brands. The life cycle of the machine is 25 years.

According to Muruganantham, 90% of Indian women were not using sanitary pads during their periods because of their cost, lack of availability, and lack of awareness in the country. This was one of the reasons which inspired him to work towards a low-cost alternative. 

In his quest to provide a low-cost sanitary solution to women, Muruganantham has travelled all over the country, from Jammu to Kanyakumari, and West Bengal to Gujarat, and has converted a social problem into a successful livelihood. He said it was a big business opportunity, along with the betterment of society.

When I came to know what women were using during their periods, I was shocked,” he said, “Indian women are using dry leaves, ashes, newspapers and other things during their periods.”

About how his background helped, he said, “I am the son of a handloom weaver and that background helped me to move forward in making the product. I don’t have even a single person in marketing. For me, business means management and management means flexibility.”

He said he is a school dropout, and today, he has won awards from IIT and other prestigious institutions in India and overseas.  

He said the product development happened by trial and error. “We tried different materials and gradually developed the product. My eureka moment came when a girl who was using my pad said that she didn’t realise that she had periods because she was using my pads. From that day on, I never looked back.”