The 'Menstruation' Man

First part of the broadcast in http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01pz6z9 , reuploaded towards making it accessible via captioning. From the original description:

"Arunachalam Muruganantham is the Indian inventor who has ignored taboos about menstruation to invent a low-cost sanitary pad. He was abandoned by his wife and mother and shunned by neighbours on his journey to improve the health of millions of women. (...)

First broadcast: Wednesday 22 January 2014"

Hello, and welcome to Outlook, from the BBC World Service.

I'm Matthew Bannister.

On today's program, the Indian inventor, his brave breaks taboos by inventing a low cost sanitary pad and improve the health of millions of women

An American woman tells how her own father accidentally ran over her in his car leaving her paralyzed from the neck down

And in rural Bosnia, one man's mission to heal the wounds of war through cows.
"Some people it means that for the first time since the war they can guarantee food on the table,

they have a cow to milk and they can make their own cheese, you could say that I have made survival possible for them."

And also with me in the studio, is Mike Rutherford, guitarist with the rock band, The Genesis and leader of Mike +The Mechanics. Welcome to the program, Mike, good to have you here

Thank you. A bit crook.
Yes, a little bit crook here. It' has been a little bit lower than normal.

If you haven't been a rock star, what would you have done do you think.
Probably one or two things, I would be a journalist, my first idea, probably made the right choice there.

Or a sport person, I mean, I like all the sport people and know them very well, may be a polo player, I was a very keen polo player at the time.

You actually play polo?
For 25 years.

And you break your nose and your chest...
And also my spine that's why I stopped eventually.

Right, but would you like to take another professionally?
I think so, something nice by the regimen of a sport person.

We will talk some more later on. But it was great to have you on the program, Mike Rutherford from The Genesis.

Let's start with this story here. The Indian inventor, Arunachalam Muruganantham,

has come up with a low cost sanitary pad which is transforming the lives of millions of women,

but his obsession with helping women to improve their menstrual health came with a cost,

his wife left him for a time, his mother refused to speak to him and his neighbor accused him has been possessed by evil spirits.

Now his simple machine for making sanitary pads has been taken up by groups of women in many Indian states

Not only helping them to avoid dangerous infections, but also giving them a source of income

Let's speak to him through a translator on the line from Coimbatore in South India

He told me what first set him off on his mission.

One day I saw something she is trying to run away from me, hide something from me which make me

[unknown] why why this lady has recently got married is running away me

Then it was the hide and seek, [unknown] up and down then she told me none of your business get off from here

Then I found out she was trying to hide a piece of unhygienic cloth from me

I wish to be honest with you I won't even knew to clean my recent, so that's start my kindle interest

So the rag was the rag she was using to hide her menstrual cycle

Yeah yeah exactly

So did you begin to do some research to find out more about the menstrual cycle and

the way which Indian women were dealing with it

I came to know that women with menstrual issue then I had a chat with my wife

I told her we live very close to the city, it's not a far journey, let me go quickly get you some sanitary napkin so that you made healthy and quick

She said: My dear I am aware of it the television put on the ads day in day out but

if you are going to buy sanitary napkins then I can't buy milk I can't run the house

So the question of affordability, so then I realized, yes, this is a serious issue and some solutions have to be done

And when you look into the matter you discovered the very few Indian women actually use sanitary pads

Per my survey showed is less than 10% people who will use it, so then I took it to the common,