Pad Man is an Indian movie released earlier this month. Apparently, there was some controversy behind the movie but if you dig deeper into this, It is the real life struggle of Arunachalam Muruganantham. He is the inventor of a low-cost sanitary pad-making machine in India. This machine would not have been popular if the man had not decided to launch awareness program about the unhygienic practices around menstruation in rural India. Hence, a lot of credit goes to him for creating awareness about this subject. He was a rural man and saw his wife going through a rough patch every month during her special days so he decided to help.

After experimenting on many flop ideas and wearing the pad himself to observe its functionalities, he was finally able to make the cheapest machine that had the best solution to this natural problem. Currently, out of 29 states of India, this machine is installed and working in 23 of them and the man has multiple offers to expand this to other countries.

You must be wondering why am I writing over this when the information is already available over the net. There are multiple reasons for dedicating a blog on this because I feel extremely connected to this topic.

First of all, this movie has been banned in Pakistan because our censor board thinks that the topic is below the belt and cannot be watched with family. Secondly, the issue of menstruation is not at all chronic is Pakistan and hence, the need to, first, making it an issue and then, addressing it seems unnecessary.

In India, however, menstruation is actually considered an illness especially in the rural side. 10% of the female population consider it an ailment 😢. Also, Kitchen is considered holy in their household; it is a sacred place where they even have some space dedicated for praying. So when a female gets this ailment, she is forbidden to go there. These rituals are prevalent in the rural setting.

So when this man observed this much misery, he decided to stand up for the females and started this journey. In Pakistan, however, which is a Muslim country, females are thankfully not judged on having periods. No male in the house usually get to know about this (excluding the husband of course) and hence, it is not a problem for them. Also, the elderly females would always hush-hush about it so the problem is never discussed or leaked. Instead they become extremely caring and offer traditional remedy to cure pain.

So if you ask me personally, I think this subject is not a problem even in the Pakistani rural setting. We don’t pray in our kitchens nor we differentiate women on this so if the movie is not released in Pakistan, I’ll still be okay with that. But the reason, why i feel this subject is close to my heart is that i tried to track this man back in 2007 when I stumbled upon his struggle accidentally. I was reading something on Unilever India “Shakti” program and somehow this link opened up.

India is a country of rich government and poor people. So for the big multinationals to sustain their business, it is mandatory to launch their commodities in small SKUs. May it be noodles or shampoos, skin care product or detergents – for it to become successful, winning the rural side of the country is unavoidable. They play with volumes and keep their profits low and this is eventually translated into huge sales. So while I was trying to do some research on cheaper/small-SKUs for the companies, this came up under the “Cheaper” category.  

I’m thoroughly impressed with the initiatives taken by Unilever India in venturing into the small-sized products. They not only take the first mover advantage but also create awareness around taboos and other issues which must be addressed. I do understand that they are doing this to gain businesses but guess what, they are not a charity organization. After all, we are all here to earn our living one way or the other. If the intentions are good and translate into a win-win situation then why not highlight a problem and then give a solution which is practical and easy on the pocket as well???

So back in 2007, I became a fan of this man and tried to contact him over emails. I wrote him many times actually! I wanted to launch something similar for the rural Pakistan. Each pad was costing under PKR 1.5/- back then and that was phenomenal. Unfortunately, I never got any reply. It broke my heart and somehow, this whole episode faded away from my mind as the time moved on.

Now after 11 years, I heard about this movie and the man all over again and it brought back all the memories. Back then, the man had not partnered with any MNC but was working with NGOs and doing his own stuff but as of today, I am not really sure if he has signed a contract with any company yet or not.

Btw, I have not watched the movie yet so this blog must not be read as a review of this movie. I just wanted to share my humble connection with this whole thing. I seriously admire the work and struggle of this man. You can’t imagine what he must have gone through to make this a success. The whole village turned his back on him when he put on the pad for days to see how well it works. If I remember correctly, his wife left him as well for acting like a lunatic for a short period of time.

Sometimes people just get lucky when the success strike them but most of the time, they have to give in sweat and blood to prove their conviction. I was genuinely impressed by this man 11 years ago when the masses didn’t even know about him –  and I’m still hopelessly in awe of his work today.

May he (and others like him) prosper always!