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India’s original “Padman” Arunachalam Muruganantham, who became famous for producing low-cost sanitary napkins, has been featured on Fortune magazine's list of world’s 100 greatest leaders.
He ranks 45th in the list and is featured along with stalwarts from various walks of life such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Jacinda Ardern, and Robert Mueller. While the Gates topped the chart due to the massive charity work they have done, Ardern was lauded for the way she handled the recent New Zealand mosque massacre.
The magazine mentions how Muruganantham's work has made a necessity like sanitary napkins available to thousands of women in India, who could not afford it or avoided using it otherwise. It also explains how this helped improve the personal hygiene of women living in remote, rural corners of the country, reported News18.
Forbes also stated that each of the low-cost machines facilitates 3,000 women to use sanitary pads while providing employment to 10 women.
One must note here that it is not only the access to sanitary hygiene he has facilitated that is commendable but also the sense of liberation that accompanies it.
For years, menstruation has been a taboo in India that has shackled women. A World Health Organization report states nearly 43 per cent women in India still don’t have access to sanitary pads, a major contributing factor to this being the high cost.
In this country, pads are still considered a luxury. Most women here live either below the poverty line or do not have financial independence. So, affording a sanitary napkin remains a distant question. Most of these women resort to using dirty pieces of cloth or rags as a plug to absorb the blood excreted and also stay in seclusion during their menses.
Muruganantham's ordeal to normalise sanitary napkins in rural households was documented in Akshay Kumar-starrer film Padman and in the documentary Period. End of Sentence, which recently won the Oscar.
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