In a small village in Tamil Nadu, a husband once asked a question most men never dared to:
“Why don’t you use sanitary pads?”
It was 1998. Arunachalam Muruganantham was a school dropout with no background in science or engineering. His wife, Shanthi, gave a simple answer - “They’re too expensive.”
That one sentence changed his life.
Instead of arguing, he decided to make one himself. He bought cotton, stitched it together, and proudly handed it to his wife to try. But it didn’t work - the material leaked easily. Most men would have stopped there. Arunachalam didn’t.
He began studying how commercial pads were made, experimenting with cotton, cellulose, and pressing machines. With no access to female testers, he even wore pads himself - attaching them under his clothes, adding animal blood to simulate flow, and monitoring how they worked.
His dedication soon became gossip. People in his village called him “mad.” His wife left him. His mother followed. But Arunachalam refused to give up. For years, he lived alone, consumed by one mission: to create an affordable sanitary pad for women who had been silently suffering in shame.
After years of trial and failure, he finally cracked it - a simple machine that produced low-cost sanitary pads using locally available materials. His invention could make pads for one-tenth the price of commercial brands.
But his vision was never about profit - it was about empowerment. Instead of selling his machines to big companies, he gave them to women’s self-help groups and rural entrepreneurs, enabling them to earn a livelihood while improving menstrual hygiene in their communities.
Today, Arunachalam’s machines operate in over 6,000 villages across India, employing tens of thousands of women and ensuring that menstruation is no longer a matter of poverty or shame. His idea has spread beyond borders - to countries in Africa and South Asia - inspiring a global movement for menstrual dignity.
What began as a husband’s simple concern for his wife became a quiet revolution that changed millions of lives.
Arunachalam Muruganantham was once mocked for caring about women’s menstruation. Today, he stands as a global icon - a man who transformed empathy into innovation.
His story is proof that revolutions don’t always begin in labs or offices. Sometimes, they begin in small villages, with a single question and a man brave enough to seek an answer.
He didn’t just invent a machine.
He invented a movement.
And the world now knows him by a name that celebrates that courage - Padman.