Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Colin Lowther.
Voice 2
And I’m Megan Nollet. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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Voice 1
Arunachalam Muruganantham sits at a table, looking at disposable sanitary pads. These pads are not normally something a man would think about. Women use them to collect blood during their periods. They are very helpful during this monthly blood flow, also called menstruation. But many men do not know how important they are.
Voice 2
Muruganantham is different. He understands how important sanitary pads are. And he is trying to learn how to make them cost less, so that every woman can have one. This goal is extremely important to him. It has cost him friends. It has even cost him his marriage. But it will also change how people in India treat menstruation. It will provide better health for all women in the country.
Voice 1
Today’s Spotlight is on Arunachalam Muruganantham, the Padman.
Voice 2
Arunachalam Muruganantham was born in Coimbatore, a city in southern India. His parents were poor farmers. He did not receive much education. When he was fourteen, his father died. He had to leave school to help his family survive. Still, Muruganantham wanted to learn.
Voice 1
When he married, he noticed that his wife Shanti was collecting pieces of paper and cloth. He asked her what they were for. She did not like to talk about it. But finally she told him that they were for her period. She would use old pieces of paper and cloth to manage her period. Sometimes she would use the same materials over many months. She knew about commercial sanitary pads, but those cost too much money. If she bought those, she would not have enough money to buy milk.
Voice 2
Many other women where Muruganantham and Shanti lived were in the same situation. Women living far from cities did not have enough money for sanitary pads. Or there were no pads to buy.
Voice 1
This surprised Muruganantham. He did not know much about a woman’s period. But he knew the cloth could be dangerous.If it were dirty, it could cause infection. It put his wife at risk. But she did not want to talk about it. Being on her period caused her a lot of shame. Muruganantham spoke to NPR in 2018.
Voice 3
“I was concerned about staying clean. I was worried that not being clean would affect a woman’s health. I knew that the lack of good sanitary pads restricted a woman’s ability to move around. It took away her spirit. This was something I wanted to help with.”
Voice 2
So, Muruganantham began studying sanitary pads. He cut one open. He discovered that it was made of cheap materials. They would not cost much to make. If he could learn how, he could make sanitary pads for his wife. And she would not be in danger.
Voice 1
Soon, Muruganantham began to experiment. He made sanitary pads from different materials. He asked Shanti to try them out. But progress was slow. He could only try one new pad per month. And his wife was not happy with his interest in sanitary pads. So, he began to ask other women to try his pads. Many of them also turned Muruganantham down. They believed he was strange for wanting to talk about menstruation. They did not even want to talk about it themselves!
Voice 2
Muruganantham did not understand why women felt such shame. He saw menstruation as a natural process. But many people in India did not agree. Speaking about menstruation is a taboo, something not done in a culture. This may be because of India’s main religion: Hinduism. Geeta Pandey is a writer for the British Broadcasting Corporation. She writes:
Voice 4
“Hinduism teaches that menstruating women are not clean. So, during her periods, a woman cannot enter the temple. She cannot touch statues of religious worship. She cannot enter the kitchen or even touch food.”
Voice 1
Because of this, women in India do not know much about their periods. They hide that they have them. They might stop going to school or work during their periods. Some may even believe that menstruation is evil.
Voice 2
This also made Muruganantham seem very strange. Some people even believed that Muruganantham was evil. At one point, his wife left him. People in his family did not want to talk to him. Even his mother thought he was a devil. Muruganantham spoke to yourstory.com about one incident.
Voice 3
“Once, my mother saw me with used sanitary pads spread out on the table. She started to yell and cry out in fear. The whole village gathered. They spread a story that I drank girls’ blood.”
Voice 1
Still, Muruganantham did not give up. He experimented with different sanitary pads for nine years. He found new ways of making them. After some time, he created a machine that would make sanitary pads more easily. It did not take up much space. And people could use it in any place that had electricity.
Voice 2
Soon, people began to notice Muruganantham’s work. And he began making more machines. He could have made a lot of money, selling these. Instead, Muruganantham decided to give themachines away. It was not his goal to get rich. He only wanted women to have safe menstrual health.
Voice 1
Today, Muruganantham is very well known in India. He is known as Padman. He has set uphundreds of his machines in places far away from cities. But, more importantly, Muruganantham’s work has gotten people in the country talking. People still do not talk about menstruation in many places. But more people know about the issue. And, they know it is not something that they can avoid. Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of India. In 2020 he became the first prime minister to speak openly about menstrual health. Since then, the government of India has worked to educate its people.
Voice 2
Muruganantham’s family also returned to him. He and his wife Shanti are together again. Their daughter Preetisri uses her father’s invention for sanitary pads. And he continues to work toward giving people better supplies for menstrual health. In 2022, he spoke to the Women on A Mission Conference about his continued work.
Voice 3
“I used to read about people talking about sending women to the moon. I thought but first provide each and every woman in India with a sanitary pad. Then think about sending them to the moon.”
Voice 1
Is menstruation talked about where you live? Can women get the menstrual supplies that they need? Why or why not? You can leave a comment on our website. Or email us at radio@radioenglish.net. You can also comment on Facebook at facebook.com/spotlightradio.
Voice 2
The writer and producer of this program was Dan Christmann. The producer was Dan Christmann. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this program again, and read it, on the internet at www.radioenglish.net. This program is called, ‘Becoming Padman’.
Voice 1
You can also get our programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye.
Question:
Is menstruation talked about where you live? Can women get the menstrual supplies that they need? Why or why not?
good
Verry god job
I was shy to buy the sanitary pad from shops in teenager age because the culture and people didn’t understand that is normal situation .
Yes of course they can , it’s extremely useful and it’s very Important thing
In our culture period is something just girls and women can spoke about it , in Muslim cultures the people knows how is painful menstrual is, so they become more careful with their wife’s or sister’s or mother’s, they make to them hot beverage to get better
menstruation is a normal thing that every men and women need to know in my country and we feel free to discuss it
Ok
Strange ! Yesterday I was talking with my mom why she feels shame about menstruation and we discussed this and today I find a program is taking about it . For me in my community some family don’t talk about period with the men some do it depends how family educated. for our religion it is not a taboo. it stand with women in this situation,but the community until now do not talk or treat with as a normal situation,however new generation change positively
In my country, men look at sanitary pads as a normal action.
Any girl can buy one from the shops
It’s good act as women care of their menstrual health so they look so clean and healthy when they were wearing sanitary pads .
They can work and enter the kitchen .
Thus they can’t read the holy Karan if she is a Muslim and can’t pray the prayers until the monthly period is gone
In my country and my religion menstruation is very useful for women I am Muslim and there is not shame from menstruation it is a normal process for women and Sanitary pads make women clean and don’t put them in risk
Ok
I do not give up my dreams
When I was a child, I also knew that information that the women could not allow shower when they had the period so that they could not go anywhere but home even thought the school.
It is difficult for them because they had to stay at home for at least three days long and more, this affected how many thing in the learning. They could not enough time for getting the topics or lectures
Some girl pupils had to stay in class for whole day, so that it made that pupil feel tired after class. But how they could come back home, they had to walk around in class until nobody in. they could come home.
With many uncomfortable they had to stand for period because they feared that if you clean it maybe God would punish them.
But now the scientists have recommended that in period the lady has to clean it to keep cleanly.
Menstruation is a normal physiology of a woman, we have to know that situation and help women to overcome that period, special is a the ladies who have the first period
You are too exaggerated and excessive about the negative things about women’s menstruation in V as far as you know!
I just imagine it could had existed in the ages before HAI BA TRUNG
Iwant lern enghlesh
it’s good I like the listen podcast
The menstruation is a tabu in most cultures and countries. One of the reason is because in the Bible talks about that the woman with menstruation is impure.
Yes ,they should get the menstrual supplies they need to avoid the bad menstrual health .
When I was around 10 years old, I helped my mother buy sanitary pads. At that time, I wondered why my mother did not buy it by herself. I thought She was too shy to buy it and talk to the owner. I did not know what a menstruation is. I saw my mother felt painful and not happy in the period. When I entered secondary school, I was educated about menstruation. I also thought that is a natural process of humans, especially women. Why do we avoid talking about it? It should be taught as soon as possible. That helps women reduce the risk of infection and provides menstrual health.
Yes