WEBVTT

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Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Colin Lowther
and I'm Megan Nolet. Spotlight uses a

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special English method of broadcasting. It
is easier for people to understand no matter

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where in the world they live.
Aronachlum Morgananthum sits at a table looking at

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disposable sanitary pads. These pads are
not normally something a man would think about.

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Women use them to collect blood during
their periods. They are very helpful

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during this monthly blood flow also called
menstruation, but many men do not know

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how important they are. Murugananthum is
different. He understands how important sanitary pads

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are and he is trying to learn
how to make them cost less so that

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every woman can have one. This
goal is extremely important to him. It

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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

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for all women in the country.
Today's Spotlight is on Arunachalam Murugananthum, the

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Padman. Arunachalam Muruganantham was born in
Coimbatore, a city in southern India.

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His parents were poor farmers. He
did not receive much education When he was

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fourteen, his father died. He
had to leave school to help his family

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survive. Still, Murugananthum wanted to
learn. When he married, he noticed

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that his wife, Shanty, was
collecting pieces of paper and cloth. He

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asked her what they were for.
She did not like to talk about it,

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but finally she told him that they
were for her period. She would

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use old pieces of paper and cloth
to manage her period. Sometimes she would

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use the same materials over many months. She knew about commercial sanitary pads,

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but those cost too much money.
If she bought those, she would not

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have enough money to buy milk.
Many other women where Muruganantham and Shanti lived

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were in the same situation. Women
living far from cities did not have enough

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money for sanitary pads or there were
no pads to buy. This so prized

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Mourrogananthem. 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. Mourrogananthem

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spoke to NPR in twenty eighteen.
I was concerned about staying clean. I

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was worried that not being clean would
affect a woman's health. I knew that

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the lack of good sanitary pads restricted
a woman's ability to move around. It

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took away her spirit. This was
something I wanted to help with. So

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Murugananthum began studying sanitary pads. He
cut one open. He discovered that it

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was made of cheap materials. They
would not cost much to make. If

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he could learn how, he could
make sanitary pads for his wife and she

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would not be in danger. Soon, Mogananthem began to experiment. He made

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sanitary pads from different materials. He
asked Shanty to try them out, but

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progress was slow. He could only
try one new pad per month, and

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his wife was not happy with his
interest in sanitary pads, so he began

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to ask other women to try his
pads. Many of them also turned Morgananthem

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down. They believed he was strange
for wanting to talk about menstruation. They

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did not even want to talk about
it themselves. Marugananthem did not understand why

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women felt such shame. He saw
menstruation as a natural process, but many

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people in India did not agree.
Speaking about menstruation is a taboo, something

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not done in a culture. This
may be because of India's main religion,

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Hinduism. Gita Pandae is a writer
for the British Broadcasting Corporation. She writes,

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Hinduism teaches that menstruating women are not
clean, so during her periods,

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a woman cannot enter the temple,
she cannot touch statues of religious worship.

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She cannot enter the kitchen or even
touch food. Because of this, women

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in India do not know much about
the periods. They hide that they have

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them. They might stop going to
school or work during their periods. Some

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may even believe that menstruation is evil. This also made Murugananthum seem very strange.

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Some people even believed that Murugananthum was
evil. At one point, his

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wife 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. Murugananthum spoke to your story

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dot com about one incident. Once
my mother saw me with used sanitary pads

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spread 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 Moregenanthem 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 Murugananthem's work
and he began making more machines.

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He could have made a lot of
money selling these. Instead, Murugananthum decided

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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 health. Today, Mouragananthum is very

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well known in India. He is
known as Padman. He has set up

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hundreds of his machines in places far
away from cities. But more importantly,

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Mouragananthum's work has got people in the
country talking. People still do not talk

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about menstruation in many places, but
more people know about the issue and they

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know it is not something that they
can avoid. Narendra Modi is the Prime

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Minister of India. In twenty twenty, he became the first prime minister to

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speak openly about menstrual health. Since
then, the government of India has worked

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to educate its people. Murugaanantham's family
also returned to him. He and his

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wife Shanti are together again. Their
daughter Prettsri uses her father's invention for sanitary

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pads, and he continues to work
toward giving people better supplies for menstrual health.

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In twenty twenty two, he spoke
to the women on a mission conference

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about his continued work. I used
to read about people talking about sending women

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to the moon. I thought,
but first provide each and every woman in

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India with a sanitary pad, then
think about sending them to the moon.

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Is menstruation? Talked about where you
live? Can women get the menstrual supplies

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that they need? Why or why
not? You can leave a comment on

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our website or email us at Radio
at Radio English DOTT. You can also

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comment on Facebook at Facebook, dot
com, slash Spotlight Radio. The writer

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of this program was Dan Chrisman.
The producer was Dan Chrisman. The voices

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you heard were from the United Kingdom
and the United States. All quotes were

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adapted for this program and voiced by
Spotlight. You can listen to this program

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again and read it on the internet
at www dot Radio English dot net.

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This program is called Becoming Padman.
You can also get our programs delivered directly

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to your Android or Apple device through
our free official Spotlight English app. We

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hope you can join us again for
the next Spotlight program. Goodbye,