
The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary - debugunit
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26260978
======
nate_meurer
I want to hug this guy. Like, really. Buy me a airplane ticket.

Arunachalam Muruganantham is a hero. I use that word in its full magnitude.
Since I am now an expert on the matter, having read the _entire_ article, I'll
speculate on what motivates this man:

\- Grit. Crazy amounts of grit. The article is full of good quotes, but my
favorite is what he said after being abandoned by his mother:

 _" It was a problem for me," he says. "I had to cook my own food."_

\- Humility combined with hunger:

 _" Luckily I'm not educated," he tells students. "If you act like an
illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no
fear of the future."_

 _" Every time he comes to know something new, he wants to know everything
about it," [his wife] says._

\- Love of humanity, on some level at least:

 _" Anyone with an MBA would immediately accumulate the maximum money. But I
did not want to. Why? Because from childhood I know no human being died
because of poverty - everything happens because of ignorance."_

As an aside, I LOVE the picture of his wife and daughter toward the end. This
one photograph lends better context to the story than all the others combined.
I know a single picture means nothing, but the look in his daughter's eyes
makes me think she'll inherit something of her dad's baddassness.

And as another aside, bloody god-damn fucking hell, are the following bits
really true?

 _There are still many taboos around menstruation in India. Women can 't visit
temples or public places, they're not allowed to cook or touch the water
supply - essentially they are considered untouchable._

 _There are also myths and fears surrounding the use of sanitary pads - that
women who use them will go blind, for example, or will never get married._

~~~
auctiontheory
_There are still many taboos around menstruation in India. Women can 't visit
temples or public places, they're not allowed to cook or touch the water
supply - essentially they are considered untouchable._

Every religion has elaborate rules to oppress woman. FYI, the Hebrew Bible has
all the same stuff. (So I read in _The Year of Living Biblically_.)

It's a question of "how literally does society obey those rules?" Will
Americans who use the Bible to justify their bigotry against gay people ...
also agree to lock up Sarah Palin for five days/month? Not so far.

~~~
nate_meurer
Thank you, quite right. The ongoing fight by (a slowly shrinking segment of)
American society to continue blatant persecution of gay people is one of our
most shameful failings. And I agree, the Church (big C) is largely
responsible.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
> _blatant persecution of gay people_ //

There is an active agenda attempting to legally force people to alter their
actions to match others beliefs, "persecution" you might call it. Except it's
not against those who have sex outside marriage it's against Christians -
people who claim to uphold liberty of conscience simply will not allow
Christians to express their views on marriage.

Marriage, in Christian terms and historically, is about creating community
cohesion in order to provide a firm foundation on which to support the
upbringing of children.

No matter how you legally alter the definition of marriage homosexual sexual
union doesn't produce children.

All sexual activity outside of marriage is considered sinful within orthodox
Christianity based on New Testament exegesis.

Christianity [generally] thus considers that homosexual sex is sinful in the
same way as adultery or other pre- or extra-marital sexual activity.

Because you disagree with this analysis and it's foundational axioms doesn't
mean you're being persecuted - whether you're an adulterer, a sexual idolater
or whatever. It is sinful, you may peacefully respond to that however you
like.

FWIW purity laws, ritual uncleanliness, sacrifices and such all ended with the
New Covenant. It's a corollary to the very fundamentals of Christian theology;
if you don't understand it then you probably have never read the NT and
probably have no idea what Christianity is about.

~~~
nate_meurer
Persecution occurs when someone is not allowed to visit their dying spouse in
a hospital because they are of the "wrong" gender.

Persecution occurs when the spouse dies, and her partner is deprived of any
part of her estate.

Persecution occurs when we bestow a host of tax benefits upon married couples,
but only if they are of the "correct" genders.

Persecution occurs when gay couples are denied corporate health insurance
benefits automatically conferred to straight couples.

And persecution occurs when bigots justify these things by saying that gay
couples don't "produce children".

Thank you for illustrating my point so vividly.

------
jaldoretta
I'm a female founder in the US with a startup that has to do with
menstruation, and I cannot even begin to tell you how uncomfortable people
(male and female) get when I talk with them about it. For a man in India
(where this topic is exponentially more taboo) to undertake a business like
this and persist despite the backlash is so incredibly inspiring. The benefit
of his business goes so far beyond simply reducing napkin prices...he's
helping to break down taboos that exist in India (and across the globe), and
giving women opportunities (not to mention more knowledge and confidence about
their bodies) that they never would have had otherwise.

Absolutely amazing.

~~~
araneae
Very cool! I use cycle for this which only does averaging, which works okay
but it's seriously old and clonky. I was wondering why someone hadn't done
this already.

~~~
jaldoretta
Yes...there are plenty of old and clunky apps out there for this =)

We're hoping to change that. I really want this space to become something that
men and women, alike, will talk about. Good UI and UX has been missing, and
women definitely deserve better.

~~~
EricaJoy
If your company can put out an Android app that can do everything Ovuview Pro
can do and include Google Calendar integration (if I want to share my cycle
calendar with my S/O), I'd switch immediately.

------
Udo
This is an amazingly inspiring story, I love the entrepreneurial spirit and
dedication of Mr Muruganantham.

However, there is a bigger story hiding behind this personal triumph. It's
clear that people living in impoverished areas are not in a position to buy
sanitary products at market rates (being sold at a margin of 4000% or more).
But for example many do have access to cheap raw materials. It makes a ton of
sense to simply make that stuff locally for a fraction of the cost, and with
that comes a much greater independence for those poor regions. Let's hope that
in time this becomes a trend that expands to many industries.

~~~
igul222
The article mentions that commercial napkins sold for 4 rupees despite cotton
being 1/4000th the cost, but also says farther down that the locally produced
ones sell for an average of 2.5 rupees each. That's a 38% discount:
significant, but it doesn't seem like a game-changing difference to me. I
imagine that if this catches on, the larger manufacturers will likely just cut
their margins to compete.

On a more general note, one of the big reasons for the Industrial Revolution's
switch to mass-production was that making goods in huge factories is more
efficient, and ultimately cheaper, than producing them locally in small
quantities. Economies of scale are powerful.

~~~
noonespecial
The 2.5 stayed local and made jobs. Its a huge difference. In essence, he gave
the locals "permission" to produce these things for themselves.

Wealth disparity is an interesting animal. The rich don't consume 1000's of
times more resources than the poor despite having 1000's of times more
'money'. The wealth divide seems to function like an insidious form control
wherein the uber-rich are able to deny local markets permission to do things
for themselves.

Its great to see when guys like this realize its all just made of paper
(literally and figuratively in this case) and they can actually just do it for
themselves.

~~~
yummyfajitas
As demonstrated by this article, the uber-rich are not able to deny local
markets permission to do things for themselves. The uber-rich simply failed to
figure out how to market pads themselves. If Ambani had figured out the
marketing, this would just be another story of Reliance incrementally moving
into another industry and making a bunch of money.

Trying to paint the uber-rich as some sort of villain here is silly.

The really interesting thing is that this is an example of the value of
marketing.

~~~
noonespecial
Yeah, it doesn't sound quite right yet to me either. There's no overt
mustache-twirling villainy going on here. Its more like a emergent artifact of
the system.

Its just interesting to observe a depressed area where everyone is in want,
but no one has a "job" to do. The baker can't deliver bread because his truck
is broken and then mechanic has no bread so he can't work on trucks. Why?
Because neither of them has any "money". Therein is the problem.

------
kamaal
As an Indian, I can see what pain this guy went through. Fighting the society
to build a start up like this, with this kind of taboo attached to the
product? All the best trying to build a start up at the first place. You are
almost treated like you are doing it because you absolutely are incapable of
doing anything else.

And having the gumption to fight years of laughter, isolation, mockery and
ridicule to only chase what you believe in is a very different thing than just
building a company. You are fighting forces that you would do anything to see
you fail. And this is beyond the merit of your product.

I salute this guy for not just what he has achieved. Though the margins he
achieved will be eventually matched by bigger companies.

In many ways this is like the first man climbing the Everest or first space
agency going to the moon. Others have been there after the first attempt. But
the people who do it first, face significant obstacles. And they inspire all
of us.

~~~
StavrosK
Yeah but I made an app to send your friends links with one less click!

~~~
anon4
Pshaw. I'm releasing an app tomorrow that sends your friends links unless you
click. It takes -1 clicks to send a link, so I'm calling it the -1ink.

------
primitivesuave
> He believes that big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas he
> prefers the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck
> honey from the flower without damaging it," he says.

What a profound and inspiring worldview.

~~~
arjn
Indeed. Here's another one :

"Luckily I'm not educated," he tells students. "If you act like an illiterate
man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of
the future."

~~~
hoggle
"If you get rich, you have an apartment with an extra bedroom - and then you
die."

"I've accumulated no money but I accumulate a lot of happiness."

-Arunachalam Muruganantham

~~~
jsmeaton
That was my favourite too.

------
visakanv
What a classic Hero's Journey story- man encounters difficulty experienced by
his loved one, tries to solve her problem efficiently, loses her in the
process, becomes an outcast, persists, finds meaning in his work, receives
help, is humble, helps people at an epic scale, reunites with his wife, happy
ending, better world, triumph over ignorance and hardship.

~~~
shiven
You may also find this real-life story inspiring ...

[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashrath_Manjhi](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashrath_Manjhi)

One man's epic struggle against the landscape, to not let others suffer as he
did.

~~~
gknoy
That was amazing. Thank you for sharing that.

~~~
visakanv
I also know of another guy who planted an entire forest:
[http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/indian-man-who-
pl...](http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/indian-man-who-
planted-1360-acre-forest-now-plans-plant-another.html)

------
hedges
While pursuing his entrepreneurial dream, he walked around asking women for
their used sanitary pads (while most men struggle to ask for a date), almost
gets tied to a tree when a witch doctor incites the local villagers against
him, has his wife leave him (only to come back after his success), and even
his mother abandoned him; still he goes on.

And then, even after having practically everyone around him ostracize and
abandon him, he doesn't go for the money, but remains humble and does the best
he can to make the world a better place.

~~~
Shivetya
she did not return because of his success, she returned because he was no
longer bringing shame upon his family. As the article mentions, there many
taboos in their society, there is the caste system that provides separation
(even tint of skin can) and of course separation of sexes. So his single
minded pursuit made life untenable for her where they lived, it even drove off
his own mother. You did note that she merely went back to her mom, she didn't
run off with another man. Essentially, she was waiting till he either gave up
the pursuit or succeeded, I am quite sure they would be together regardless.

Hell there is odd separation in the states amongst some of the workers from
that country. You can see it in the groupings, who has lunch together, those
who walk apart or turn down a hall when meeting

~~~
vineetraja
>> the caste system that provides separation (even tint of skin can)

are you suggesting that caste system is related to skin color?

~~~
Shivetya
No. I am saying there are many levels of separation of society in India, very
similar to how separation exists in other cultures. However many Western
nations prefer to highlight those faults in other countries and disclaim any
such in their own.

------
PhantomGremlin
Contrast this grass roots effort with OLPC, a grandiose plan to distribute One
Laptop per Child to the third world. The best quip I ever read about that was:
"OLPC is a rich man's idea of what poor men need. It's like donating an
expresso machine to a homeless shelter."

Instead, as the article makes clear, many poor villages don't even have ready
access to clean water. This one humble guy has done more good for more people
in India than 1000 grandiose schemes such as OLPC. And he wants to expand to
106 countries. I wish him well.

~~~
vacri
It's not a competition.

Also, does your quipper think that women aren't important? I always find it
amusing when people wax philosophical about equality whilst retreating into
sexist terminology to do so. Instead of 'poor men', 'the poor' or 'poor
people' works to the same effect.

~~~
sliverstorm
OLPC was created by a man (hence 'rich man'), and rich man/poor man is a more
powerful literary device than rich man/the poor.

~~~
vacri
I'm aware of all that. I didn't say boo to 'rich man', because it is driven by
Negroponte. I recognized the literary device with 'wax philosophical'. It's
still someone trying to play the oneupmanship game on equality while at the
same time perpetuating sexism. It's a shitty thing to do to merely 'sound
cool' \- selling out ideals for demagoguery.

English is a wonderfully flexible language and there are a dozen different
ways to say the same thing here. Hand-waving away the hypocrisy in that
statement as being a more powerful (barely, at that) literary device is just
being lazy.

I'd also counter that the proper literary device is 'rich man/poor mAn', not
'rich man/poor mEn'. A small but meaningful difference.

------
qwerta
I like this article a lot.

Similar problem was in communist Czechoslovakia. There was only one factory
making hygiene products for entire country, but it burned down on second year
of 5 year plan. Central planning committee could not be arsed to change the
plan...

------
fromdoon
You have to hear him talk ...

[http://www.ted.com/talks/arunachalam_muruganantham_how_i_sta...](http://www.ted.com/talks/arunachalam_muruganantham_how_i_started_a_sanitary_napkin_revolution)

He is so full of energy and his straight talk will win your heart ... What a
person ... cheers ..

------
keithxm23
Here's a link to his very inspiring TED Talk:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/arunachalam_muruganantham_how_i_sta...](http://www.ted.com/talks/arunachalam_muruganantham_how_i_started_a_sanitary_napkin_revolution)

~~~
dirkgently
Jesus. Why does TED has to go and spoil every fucking good thing?

~~~
diydsp
I believe TED is not about presenting tech as a "savior."

I believe TED is a sandbox for a number of powerful people to work out their
interpersonal arguments about whether tech is good for the world or not. As
such you will hear all presentations subtly presented in this light without
the participants (presenters nor audience members) being aware. It's
essentially a gladiatorial arena funded by the well-to-do, cleverly disguised
as another "gee whiz" tech conference.

As such, stories and material are distorted toward arguing the spectral ends
of the conference creators.

This is why there are so many stories presented that "make tech look silly,
bad or overextended." They're placements by forces within the internal TED
conflict that are trying to diminish public opinion about the benefits of
technological practice.

Make no mistake- these people are happy to see TED come off as foolish or
ruinous, b/c it supports their contingent's goals. They have founded TED with
the intention of presenting foolish ideas to tarnish the concept of technology
as a practice.

So, the age old advice applies here - take everything with a grain of salt.
When you hear a presentation, get what you can out of it, realize it's not the
full picture and seek out the missing pieces. Do not rely on TED for a
coherent or complete picture of anything. It's just an artifact of debating
idealogues.

------
arjn
Those who aren't from the Subcontinent may not fully appreciate this man's
achievement.

I'm very impressed by his dedication, perseverance and inspiring outlook on
life.

------
einhverfr
There's a lot to this article. See how the distributed form of production
really works, and these sanitary pad machines really aren't that different
from open source software. See how they change the world and again, the
distributed ownership and small business approach does it.

And additionally, why it is never a good idea to underestimate someone because
of a lack of formal education.

------
davedx
If you are as inspired by this story as I was, you can mail him here:
muruganantham_in@yahoo.com

(His email address is public on his company's site [1])

[1]
[http://newinventions.in/contactus.aspx](http://newinventions.in/contactus.aspx)

------
andrelaszlo
"If you get rich, you have an apartment with an extra bedroom - and then you
die."

Something to think about.

------
intull
I'm so glad this made it to HN. From an Indian societal perspective, what he
achieved is just marvellous and outstanding! It takes tremendous courage and
determination to do something like this in India! Salute to this man!

------
desouzt
"Luckily I'm not educated," he tells students. "If you act like an illiterate
man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of
the future."

Love this quote!

------
NathanOsullivan
So after all that he managed to lower the price from £0.04 to £0.025 ... is
that a meaningful reduction?

~~~
pja
I wonder if that was 4 rupees in 1998, vs 2.5 rupees now? According to an
online inflation calculator, 1 rupee in 1998 is worth 4 rupees now, so the
difference would be more like 16:2.5.

Perhaps someone could check an online Indian Amazon equivalent, not that such
a place would be available to rural women anyway, but it would give a lower
baseline.

~~~
quarterwave
Branded pads retail range Rupees 10-25 per pad - some variation in capacity.
So the contemporary ratio ranges from 4:1 to 10:1. So 16:2.5 is good estimate
even for contemporary comparison!

@pja you are hereby awarded 1 Fermi (see recent link on the topic of Fermi
estimates).

The saving is significant because one can also buy shampoo in sachets that
cost Rs.5, so the savings expand access to a range of basic hygiene products.

~~~
pja
_@pja you are hereby awarded 1 Fermi (see recent link on the topic of Fermi
estimates)._

I shall wear it with pride!

------
lkrubner
I have read a lot on the subject of how civil rights and the rule of law
allowed the emergence of the Industrial Revolution, and this story reminds of
that earlier epoch. As late as the 1670s, England was still burning witches
(male and female) at the stake, to punish them for their witchcraft. But then
Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687, the
Glorious Revolution of 1688 brings in a new regime, the English Bill of Rights
of 1689 ensures everyone a trial if they are accused, everyone has civil
rights, and suddenly, among the legal and intellectual elites, it becomes
widely understood that witchcraft does not actually exist, everything can be
explained by science, and people doing weird stuff need to have their civil
rights protected. And by the early 1700s men like Jethro Tull and Charles
Townsend kick off the Agricultural Revolution, doing weird stuff like feeding
turnips to cows and collecting all the manure -- spooky weird stuff that might
have gotten them accused of witchcraft just 30 years earlier.

And this story reminds of that earlier epoch. When you bring in real
innovation (innovation that touches upon people's profoundest taboo's and
fears) you either have civil rights, or you end up dead. And it does say
something hopeful about India that this man knew his basic civil rights were
going to protect him from accusations of witchcraft. Though, of course, this
part suggests that India could still improve its protections quite a bit:

"Worse was to come. The villagers became convinced he was possessed by evil
spirits, and were about to chain him upside down to a tree to be "healed" by
the local soothsayer. He only narrowly avoided this treatment by agreeing to
leave the village. It was a terrible price to pay. "My wife gone, my mum gone,
ostracised by my village" he says. "I was left all alone in life.""

------
saevarom
"He fashioned a sanitary pad out of cotton and gave it to Shanthi, demanding
immediate feedback. She said he'd have to wait for some time - only then did
he realise that periods were monthly. 'I can't wait a month for each feedback,
it'll take two decades!'"

Sounds like he got a pretty solid biology lesson along the way.

~~~
adaml_623
That quote emphasised to me how dangerous ignorance is and how important
education is in this world.

------
rajneesh1315
I am from north India and agree that menstruation is still taboo in our
culture (mostly in villages). -During menstruation cycle women (mostly
married) sleep in separate room, they are not supposed to touch anything and
after 4 days all the clothes/bedding they wear/use (even mattress) will be
washed. -Most of these rules are tied to religion. -I think when these "rules"
were started there were no sanitary pads, so may be this was done for hygiene
sake, but today it doesn't make any sense. And I think in those days if
someone wanted people to follow anything just say its required by your
religion and people will blindly follow. -This guy is doing really great work,
happy that BBC picked it up.

~~~
noisyboy
I'm a bit tired of most of the taboos/problems of India being "mostly in
villages". My entire family are city dwellers and every time there is an
commercial for sanitary napkins on TV, the women have an expression of
embarrassment and can't wait for it to get over (whereas scenes of violence
from the movies are received perfectly fine).

------
melindajb
The next time someone complains about how hard startups are, show them this.
Until you've walked around with a soccer ball full of goat's blood in your
pants, after your wife and mother have abandoned you, you have nothing to
complain about.

~~~
anilgulecha
"Until you've walked around with a soccer ball full of goat's blood in your
pants, after your wife and mother have abandoned you, you have nothing to
complain about."

Ha, awesome!

------
eyeareque
I really enjoyed this story and remember first hearing about him a few years
ago. Truly inspiring man.

It makes me wonder, how many other people are out there who have the same
passion for something, but haven't had any success? Only a select few will
have success, most will fail. I think we should celebrate the people who took
risks and failed too. But sadly you won't find articles written about them as
it isn't a happy ending like this one.

------
imaginary_bird
While this man seems amazing and has done a great thing for a lot of women,
it's a shame that the main problem still remains. Menstruation is still taboo,
both in the west and in India. It would be nice if instead of importing the
western method of dealing with it (using sanitary pads to dispose of our
menstrual blood secretly and in the process creating mountains of rubbish -
where do all the blood-stained "sanitary" napkins go?) the women could just
wash their cloth pads and dry them in the sun. It seems quite terrible
environmentally.

I'm a woman and grew up using disposable menstrual products. I only started
using reusable ones when I was thirty because I have endometriosis that causes
heavy bleeding (so I have to use postpartum type pads) and it weighed on my
mind to be throwing them out all the time. Now I feel terrible about all those
years. I don't need to wash them in hot water because it's sunny where I live.
But I hide the bucket that I soak them in and I hang them out when my husband
is not at home so he doesn't have to see them. Thankfully, I don't have to be
so secretive about our baby's nappies.

------
tamersalama
OT: I liked how the article was written.

------
gadders
He deserves some sort of Nobel prize.

------
xj
He truly belongs to the breed that Apple's 'Think Different' commercial
describes:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SswMzUWOiJg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SswMzUWOiJg)

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The
round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re
not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote
them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you
can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race
forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because
the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the
ones who do. \- Apple Inc.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_Different](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_Different)

------
grdvnl
> "You always have a girl in white jeans, jumping over a wall," he says. "They
> never talk about hygiene."

Look's like the marketing folks at P&G were selling this stuff to the mostly
affluent. Therefore, I am guessing they never bothered to sell the hygiene
angle.

------
hislaziness
I see a lot of comments discussing the cost. I do not think cost (or profits)
were the driver. Surely higher cost make it difficult for poor to acquire the
pads but the taboo is a much bigger hurdle to cross, which this gentleman has
amazingly addressed.

------
simsalapim
Or you just get menstruation cups? Might be a bit more expensive initially but
cheaper longterm and a lot more environmentally friendly. [http://www.ruby-
cup.com/en/](http://www.ruby-cup.com/en/)

~~~
callum85
I know two women who have tried those. In both cases they tried for several
months to get used to them, but they gave up eventually because they're so
unpleasant to use, and it never gets any easier. Apparently.

~~~
gms7777
There are women who find that menstrual cups aren't for them, but in my
experience, they tend to be the exception. Using one myself, and having turned
many of my friends onto them, they're generally hailed as the greatest thing
ever invented around here. Not to say theres anything wrong with your friends,
because everyone likes what they likes, just wanted to throw my own
experience.

------
neotrinity
He has given a ted talk in bangalore

[http://www.ted.com/talks/arunachalam_muruganantham_how_i_sta...](http://www.ted.com/talks/arunachalam_muruganantham_how_i_started_a_sanitary_napkin_revolution)

------
avighnay
It is even better hearing the story from him straight
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4_MeS6SOwk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4_MeS6SOwk)

------
erikpukinskis
The optimal technical solution to this problem, for the vast majority of the
population, is menstrual cups. They are completely reusable and generally
perform better.

To me the long term challenge is the social problem of convincing people that
menstrual cups are not gross and are not going to hurt them.

I totally respect this guy for finding an intermediate solution that helps his
community though. I don't live in India so I have no idea what the specific
cultural challenges are.

~~~
mzs
Don't know about that. From talking with my wife they are very messy and need
to be cleaned a lot or they smell, like boiled every day or two - so that's
why there are disposable ones and they are more popular. Also you need a lot
of clean tissues each time you insert, rinse, and replace it - which brings
you right back to the using dirty rags again cause there is stigma to clean
and dry them properly in those cultures. Anyway her ob/gyn told her to stop
using them when she got a IUD, and that's another issue with them.

~~~
erikpukinskis
It sounds like your wife is the kind of person who wants her body to be
completely free of any sort of body smells and doesn't want to come in contact
with any kind of body fluids. Those are exactly what I was referring to when I
said there is cultural resistance. My community are "pro-natural" and don't
have issue with the smell, nor do they use tissues. They just use their hands
and believe that vaginas and menstrual fluid have scents and that it's ok.
It's just cultural differences.

~~~
mzs
Erik, please do not make assumptions about my wife, she is far less bothered
by ick than me or many people I know. Smell can be caused by bacteria, can be
different than scent you refer to, and bacteria are a real concern so to clean
the cup well and to have clean hands and area there are in fact very
important. She used cup for years (due to heavy flow - cup easily contains
more than tampon/pad absorbs well in practice - a pro of cup), then after we
had all our children she had IUD for contraceptive and at that point her
ob/gyn said the two are not supposed to be used in concert, so she stopped
using cup. The IUD also lessened her flows so the reason for using the cup for
her was removed as well. I thought I was completely polite and simply listed
some reasons why a cup may not be appropriate in India where just washing and
drying rags well in comparison is a concern according to the BBC article.

------
alphakappa
"If you get rich, you have an apartment with an extra bedroom - and then you
die."

Crap, I don't think I've read anything that has hit me harder.

------
wtbob
> He believes that big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas he
> prefers the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck
> honey from the flower without damaging it," he says.

While I don't believe that big business is necessarily parasitic, I _love_
this metaphor.

------
ilaksh
The main problem is inhumane inequality. All of these "developing nations" are
poor because they are oppressed and excluded by the financial powers.
"Developing nation" is a racist term that attempts to cover economic neglect
and oppression.

------
seige
There is another initiative that is approaching the problem from a different
lens. Its called Menstrupedia (www.menstrupedia.com).

They are making an educational book in comic book format to dispel the massive
amounts of myths around the topic.

------
sciencesama
[http://www.ted.com/talks/arunachalam_muruganantham_how_i_sta...](http://www.ted.com/talks/arunachalam_muruganantham_how_i_started_a_sanitary_napkin_revolution)

------
tn13
This is something that makes me both proud and sad about my home country
India. We are still struggling with some of the basic problems that the
developed world probably solved 100 years back. It makes me even more sad that
just 60 years back India was hardly behind any other developed country.

Arunchalam's example is also a classic case of how Indian government has
destroyed India's entrepreneurial zeal. When Arun introduced his cheap
sanitary pad making machine, Indian government woke up and see an opportunity
to gain votes of poor and goodwill of large companies.

Indian government came up with a scheme where poor women will get a "fixed"
quota per month of sanitary pads paid for by tax payers.

\--- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW) is set to embark upon an
ambitious programme, reports The Hindu on 21st February 2010, to reach about
200 million women with 100 sanitary pads per person per annum with a budget of
some INR 20 billion in next 3 to 6 months.

\-- [Source: One of the email threads I was exchanging on this matter with a
friend in government]

This is another Indian government scam where big companies like Johnson and
Johnson etc. will provide these pads at taxpayers cost to the poor women while
politicians will take their cut. Going by past experience even the pads wont
reach the women.

Those who might be aware of India's economic history, it is full of such
scams. Indian government often ran government sponsored health campaigns
claiming things like

\- "Wash your hands with soap after and before having food and going to toilet
else it will will cause diseases."

\- "Use iodized salt in food else your children will be born retarded".

\- "Use toothbrush and toothpaste"

The reality is, even in rural areas the level of hygiene is way better. People
used handmade soaps and herbal alternatives for soap. (Even I used them in my
childhood). During my childhood oral hygiene involved brushing teeth with 5
different types of leaves, gargling with hot water mixed with a mixture of 15
different kind of powders which were comprised of different kind of tree
skins, herbs and roots. My father still knows the formula and I used it
successfully when I developed a gum related infection.

And you know what? Indians used plenty of sea salt in their food. We ate
salted fish, Salted Pickles and what not.

Today it so happens that all these small scale industries are already dead.
Not because they failed to innovate or compete on price. (In reality some
companies like Vico succeeded with these traditional products) They failed
because government actively tried to kill them in the name of public welfare.

Today I am buying a Colegate toothpaste which claims to contain "sea salt".
The TV ad of this toothpaste shows a grandpa showing his grandson that his
teeth are stronger at 80 purely because he used sea salt to brush his teeth in
past. There are other companies out there which are selling toothpastes
claiming to contain the exact same herbs that we used in past (Miswaak, Babool
etc.)

When I visit Target and Wallmart I often see shelves full of crudely packaged
soaps titled "Handmade Soap" selling at 3x the price of normal soap.

I feel sad for Arunachalam and many other people I know who are mad just like
him because rest of us Indian citizens have failed to make a political choice
which would have heralded these men as heroes.

Unsolicited Advice to Americans: I see American government taking same
direction as that of Indian government in past and present. Pushing private
interests of few in the name of poor. Buying votes by redistribution of wealth
while wrecking incentives to be innovative. I might be wrong. But there is no
cost to being cautious.

~~~
lake99
Though the government is pretty corrupt, you seem to be paranoid in your
criticism of it.

> "Use iodized salt in food else your children will be born retarded".

"In India, the entire population is prone to IDD due to deficiency of iodine
in the soil of the subcontinent and consequently the food derived from it. To
combat the risk of IDD, salt is fortified with iodine. However, an estimated
350 million people do not consume adequately iodized salt and, therefore, are
at risk for IDD. Of the 325 districts surveyed in India so far, 263 are IDD-
endemic."[1]

> People used handmade soaps and herbal alternatives for soap.

Handmade soaps are fine. The ads never said you should only use big-brand
soaps. Just because it's called "herbal alternative", it does not mean that it
is effective. Each family or each region has its own "herbal alternative". Are
you saying that they are all as effective as soap?

> 5 different types of leaves, gargling with hot water mixed with a mixture of
> 15 different kind of powders

I have visited villages for various reasons. Most people I came across used
one of three methods: neem twigs, salt, charcoal ash. Neem has some
antimicrobial properties, but those who cleaned with salt were ruining their
teeth. I doubt that ash benefited their oral hygiene. I dare say these
villagers are better off with modern products.

> The reality is, even in rural areas the level of hygiene is way better.

Better than what? If you're comparing villages to urban slums, sure. Are you
forgetting that in villages, most people crap out in the open? And don't using
soap afterwards? And did you read this article about women not using sanitary
pads?

[1]:
[http://www.icmr.nic.in/ijmr/2013/september/0922.pdf](http://www.icmr.nic.in/ijmr/2013/september/0922.pdf)

~~~
rit
And specifically, sea salt tends to be low in Iodine.

"Iodine, an element essential for human health, is present only in small
amounts in sea salt,[1]" (cribbed from Wikipedia)

[1]:
[http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es0719071](http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es0719071)

------
shreeshga
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T7qzufEI9U](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T7qzufEI9U)
I think this is his best speech, straight from heart.

------
neves
Thanks for the link. We think it is difficult to see from the point of view of
our users. This guy proved quite the contrary. One of the best stories I've
ever read here.

------
enscr
That's a LOT of determination. I'm amazed by his courage. There must be more
to the story that was left out. Salute to the gentleman. A godsend.

------
njharman
Favorite business advice "quote"? / paraphrase.

Be like a butterfly, taking some nectar but not damaging the flower. Not not
like the mosquito, a parasite.

------
rhc2104
Is money a bottleneck to getting more of these machines out? If so, what
charity would someone donate to?

------
not_that_noob
Pg - is there a new comment filtering system?

An article on sanitary napkins, and no immature rag jokes? Is this really HN?

:)

------
elwell
> "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it"

------
dsego
Why buy disposable pads when you can use rags and wash them? Same for diapers.

~~~
jsmeaton
It says so in the article. Women felt shame leaving them out to dry since the
subject is so taboo.

~~~
noselasd
I'd also imagine regular washing such rags in overcrowded areas with an
absence of infrastructure can cause issues - as would it be in places where
people (mainly women) need to spend a significant amount of the day just to
get hold of water.

------
khc
So the trick is: lie to existing manufacturers to get the schematics, build
simplified/more manual machines, use really cheap labors, and probably lower
the profit margin? Reminds me of knockoff products but then it's probably a
phase that developing countries go through.

~~~
dirkgently
No. The real trick is to puke at such comments.

------
iscrewyou
Here come the patent holders...

------
cdelsolar
This is an amazing story!

------
wehadfun
this guy is awesome

------
kimonos
Two thumbs up for this guy!

------
rootuid
What a bloody mess !

