Why is it a matter of shame?
Its in the mentality of we people specially Indians. The way we are brought up and no one talks about these obvious things makes it even worse and give them a tag of not-to-be-talked-openly subject.
They are not new things and has been there since the beginning of the Earth, even then people consider it a taboo to talk about!
Why do you buy napkins in black polythein ? or even why the medical store keeps it in black bag even when you don’t ask for ?
Children are not educated about these in school when they should have learnt it. Girls and boys are made to sit in separate rows or separate classes (in some schools)- then how do you expect, they would be open in sharing each other's biological problem? (well the biological seems to be too far, not even their trivial life problems). In most of the schools, when the biology chapter dealing with adolescence comes up then the teacher is most likely to skip that saying- 'khud se padh lena'!
Sanitary napkins are quite cheap these days, but it isn't used to be earlier! Got any idea about entrepreneurship- yes it was and that too by a man. So, did you think how did he get to fight with all those barriers,
It all began in 1998, when Arunachalam Muruganantham, the son of poor handloom weavers in South India, realised that his wife was using old rags to deal with menstruation because she couldn’t afford sanitary pads. Muruga was shocked. But he also saw a chance to impress her. He decided to produce her sanitary pads himself.
Intially He went through lot of trouble , his pads were useless , he used to ask his wife to test pads which he made , then he started distributing it to near by college , Some of them actually tested his pads but they were too shy to give him detailed feedback. Left with no alternative, he decided to test the sanitary pads himself. People started gossiping , his wife couldn’t stand the constant gossip. She left him and went to live with her mother.
But Muruga didn’t give up. He knew why he was going through all this. During his research he had learned that only ten totwenty percent of all girls and women in India have access to proper menstrual hygiene products. This was no longer just about helping his wife. Muruga was on mission: to produce low-cost sanitary pads for all the girls and women in his country.
he result was an easy-to-use machine for producing low-cost sanitary pads.Imported machines cost over US$500,000. Muruga’s machine, by contrast, is priced at US$950. Now women’s groups or schools can buy his machine, produce their own sanitary pads and sell the surplus. In this way, Muruga’s machine has created jobs for women in rural India. He has started a revolution in his own country, selling 1,300 machines to 27 states, and has recently begun exporting them to developing countries all over the world.
Today he is one of India’s most well-known social entrepreneurs and TIME magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014.
Several corporations have offered to buy his machine, but he has refused, instead preferring to sell to women’s self help groups.
Two decades ago, a wife never talked to her husband about menstruation. A daughter never talked to her mother. No father or grandfather could imagine talking about this subject to their daughter or grand-daughter. Now, thanks to awareness this is changing in all of Indiaa But then agin there is a need to think morenge with their social work
0 Comments