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Becoming Padman (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

• 0:03
  Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Colin Luther and I'm Meganolette. Spotlight uses a
• 0:11
  special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter
• 0:17
  where in the world they live. Arunachulum Murrigananthem sits at a table looking at
• 0:32
  disposable sanitary pads. These pads are not normally something a man would think about.
• 0:41
  Women use them to collect blood during their periods. They are very helpful
• 0:47
  during this monthly blood flow also called menstruation, but many men do not know
• 0:54
  how important they are. Marugananthem is different. He understands how important sanitary pads
• 1:02
  are and he is trying to learn how to make them cost less so that
• 1:07
  every woman can have one. This goal is extremely important to him. It
• 1:11
  has cost him friends, it has even cost him his marriage, but it
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  will also change how people in India treat menstruation. It will provide better health
• 1:25
  for all women in the country. Today's Spotlight is on Arunachulum Morrigananthum, the
• 1:33
  padman. Arunanchulum Murugananthum was born in Coimbatore, a city in southern India.
• 1:45
  His parents or poor farmers. He did not receive much education. When he
• 1:49
  was fourteen, his father died. He had to leave school to help his
• 1:53
  family survive. Still, Morgananthum wanted to learn. When he married, he
• 2:01
  noticed that his wife, Shanty, was collecting pieces of paper and cloth.
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  He asked her what they were for. She did not like to talk about
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  it, but finally she told him that they were for her period. She
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  would use old pieces of paper and cloth to manage her period. Sometimes she
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  would use the same materials over many months. She knew about commercial sanitary pads,
• 2:30
  but those cost too much money. If she bought those, she would
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  not have enough money to buy milk. Many other women where Morogananthem and Chanty
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  lived were in the same situation. Women living far from cities did not have
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  enough money for sanitary pads or there were no pads to buy. This surprised
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  Morogananthem. He did not know much about a woman's period, but he knew
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  the cloth could be dangerous. If it were dirty, it could cause infection.
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  It put his wife at risk, but she did not want to talk
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  about it. Being on her period caused her a lot of shame. Morogananthem
• 3:21
  spoke to NPR in twenty eighteen. I was concerned about staying clean. I
• 3:30
  was worried that not being clean would affect a woman's health. I knew that
• 3:37
  the lack of good sanitary pads restricted a woman's ability to move around. It
• 3:43
  took away her spirit. This was something I wanted to help with, So
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  Mourgananthem began studying sanitary pads. He cut one open. He discovered that it
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  was made of cheap matia curials. It would not cost much to make.
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  If he could learn how, he could make sanitary pads for his wife and
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  she would not be in danger. Soon, Morogananthem began to experiment. He
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  made sanitary pads from different materials. He asked Shanty to try them out,
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  but progress was slow. He could only try one new pad per month,
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  and his wife was not happy with his interest in sanitary pads, so he
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  began to ask other women to try his pads. Many of them also turned
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  Morrogananthem down. They believed he was strange for wanting to talk about menstruation.
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  They did not even want to talk about it themselves. Marugananthem did not understand
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  why women felt such shame menstruation as a natural process, but many people in
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  India did not agree. Speaking about menstruation is a taboo, something not done
• 5:10
  in a culture. This may be because of India's main religion, Hinduism.
• 5:15
  Ghita Pandae is a writer for the British Broadcasting Corporation. She writes Hinduism teaches
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  that menstruating women are not clean, so during her periods, a woman cannot
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  enter the temple, she cannot touch statues of religious worship. She cannot enter
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  the kitchen or even touch a food container. Because of this, women in
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  India do not know much about their periods. They hide that they have them.
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  They might stop going to school or work during their periods. Some may
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  eat believe that menstruation is evil. This also made Murugananthum seem very strange.
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  Some people even believed that Muruganantham was evil. At one point, his wife
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  left him, people in his family did not want to talk to him.
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  Even his mother thought he was a devil. Murugananthem spoke to your story dot
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  com about one incident. Once my mother saw me with used sanitary pads spread
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  out on the table, she started to yell and cry out in fear.
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  The whole village gathered. They spread a story that I drank girl's blood.
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  Still, Morgananthem did not give up. He experimented with different sanitary pads for
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  nine years. He found new ways of making them. After some time,
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  he created a machine that would make sanitary pads more easily. It did not
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  take up much space and people could use it in any place that had electricity.
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  Soon people began to notice murugan Anthem's work and he began making more machines.
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  He could have made a lot of money selling these. Instead, Mourugananthem
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  decided to give the machines away. It was not his goal to get rich.
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  He only wanted women to have safe menstrual help. Today, Moragananthem is
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  very well known in India. He is known as Padman. He has set
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  up hundreds of his machines in places far away from cities. But more importantly,
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  Morgananthem's work has got people in the country talking. People still do not
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  talk about menstruation in many places, but more people know about the issue and
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  they know it is not something that they can avoid. Narendra Modi is the
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  Prime Minister of India. In twenty twenty, he became the first prime minister
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  to speak openly about menstrual health. Since then, the Government of India has
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  worked to educate its people. Murugan Antham's family also returned to him. He
• 8:37
  and his wife Shanti are together again. Their daughter Pretty Sri uses her father's
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  invention for sanitary pads, and he continues to work toward giving people better supplies
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  for menstrual health. In twenty twenty two, he spoke to the women on
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  a mission conference about his continued work. I used to read about people talking
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  about sending women to the moon. I thought, but first provide each and
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  every woman in India with a sanitary pad, then think about sending them to
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  the moon. Is menstruation? Talked about where you live? Can women get
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  the menstrual supplies that they need? Why or why not? You can leave
• 9:33
  a comment on our website or emailers at Radio at Radio English dot net.
• 9:43
  You can also comment on Facebook at Facebook dot com, slash Spotlight Radio.
• 9:50
  The writer of this program was Dan Chrisman. The producer was Dan Chrisman.
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  The voices you heard were from the Unit, Kingdom and the United States.
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  All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen
• 10:09
  to this program again and read it on the Internet at www dot Radio English
• 10:16
  dot net. This program is called Becoming pad Men. You can also get
• 10:24
  our programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple device through our free official Spotlight
• 10:33
  English app. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye,