Some time ago I wrote about these brothers who got inspired by Hawala to set their micro-banking system helping immigrant workers from rural India. I want to discuss the invention of A Muruganantham who is a high school dropout. Now in India a high school dropout would normally get relegated to doing menial chores. But not our man! It turns out that he actually is an innovator and a scientist. All he needed was one good idea. Being a scientist, I can empathize with that. This man saw his wife go through unsanitary practices for lack of money. He took a commercial sanitary pad and took it apart. What he realized was that the adsorbent in it was wood pulp. After that his quest began for making the wood pulp and then coming up with a machine to mass-produce it. By god’s grace his hard work paid off. The idea has really taken off and a large number of women in India are using this guys’ product. This humble man is not even trying to make money out of his invention by patenting it. He is content helping Indian women use a product and avoid catching infections and even deadly diseases like the cervical cancer.I am glad that his work and approach are catching a lot of attention. I hope that all of Indian diamond in the rough like Muruganantham get that one idea (or more) and catch that elusive star.
God Bless!!
The Pad That Does Not Whisper
Despite his invention’s huge success, Muruganantham refuses to sell the patent for his machine and turned down a blank cheque from a private company. He says he wants to use his invention for promoting hygiene among rural and urban poor women. In rural India, Muruganantham claims, most women use a cloth contraption as a sanitary pad, which is unhygienic and a known cause for bringing on diseases such as cervical cancer.
The article can be read at: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=cr290809the_pad.asp
You can hear the man at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T7qzufEI9U
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