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An Indian Inventor Disrupts The Period Industry
- pajju 15y agoIn a country like India the Best way to bring Awareness - is to Film a Movie out of this. In India Its extremely hard for making Conservative people - in accepting new radical reforms and accepting such changes. Very Conservative Mindsets.
- paulhauggis 15y agoI really admire this guy. It's sad that his wife left him over it though..
- briandon 15y agoThe good news is that he got his wife back after he began to succeed / get traction.
- untog 15y agoIs it good news? Maybe I'm being harsh but it sounds like his wife got sick of it all when times were hard, but was happy to stick around to reap the success. I'm not sure that's a good thing.
- solutionyogi 15y agoMy thoughts exactly. But you were more eloquent than I was.
- r00fus 15y agoYou don't understand the taboo of menstruation in India. The culture is steeped in superstition and traditionalism. My hat is off to Mr. Muruganantham for driving through this and (in a Gandhi-esqe approach), not selling out.
- untog 15y agoI'll admit that I am not 100% aware, but I didn't post my comment in ignorance. If there is one person that you ought to be able to talk to about a taboo issue like that, it should be your wife. In fact, she was perfectly placed to be the "more acceptable public face", and talking to women about his work. It sounds like it would have made the process a lot easier for him.
- SoftwareMaven 15y agoShe left because she thought he was hitting on college girls. She came back when it was proven he wasn't. His mother was the one who left over the fake uterus.
- ams6110 15y agoI've learned not to speculate on such matters when it comes to a relationship between two people. We never know the full story, and what they decide to accept or forgive in each other is really up to them.
- jackityquack 15y agoDitto what the other two commenters said. Also, he sounds like a true nerd. Doesn't care about social opinion and just invents his way to success, even if people think he's weird.
- solutionyogi 15y agoI don't know if it's a good news. Obviously, I don't know all the minute details of the situation but if I was him, I will not accept her back.
- Cushman 15y agoIt says later that she came back when his invention took off. (Can you imagine that conversation?) This whole story is straight out of a movie. Great article.
- pardner 15y agoThoroughly brilliant example of relentless execution of a vision with a higher purpose.
- urbanjunkie 15y agoThis is both inspiring and depressing. Female medical students not wishing to talk to a man about menstruation. The fatalistic, egotistical and selfish attitude epitomised by women being unconcerned about losing their uterus. And of course, if you don't care about your own uterus, you're unlikely to care about litter, the environment, or pretty much anything. (ps, as someone who has spent a lot of time in India and whose parenta are Indian, this fatalistic selfishness isn't a gender based issue. It is, however, one of the corrosive elements of Indian culture that worries me).
- microarchitect 15y agoThe fatalistic, egotistical and selfish attitude epitomised by women I wouldn't be so quick to judge. If you're a woman in India and a strange man asks you to try something weird that could potentially harm your body, I think you have every right to be suspicious of that person. this fatalistic selfishness isn't a gender based issue. It is, however, one of the corrosive elements of Indian culture that worries me I agree that Indians are incredibly selfish in certain ways, especially when you look at their actions through the lens of western cultural practices, but this is probably not a good example of that.
- urbanjunkie 15y agoParaphrased from final paragraph of the article. "According to Sumathi Dharmalingam, a housewife who runs a napkin-making business based around the machine, rural women [snipped] have a devil-may-care attitude about their health. "When I caution them that they might have to have their uterus removed because of reproductive infections, they just say, 'So what? How long are we going to live anyway?' She's basically asking these women to use napkins instead of "dirty rags, newspapers, dried leaves, or even ashes". I'm looking at it through the lens of someone born in India, who has lived in India, whose parents still live in India, but who no longer does. It's certainly possible that I'm displaying some of the reverse-racism and cultural arrogance I've seen in other NRI / PIOs when discussing India.
- ajju 15y ago
- solutionyogi 15y agoWhat an inspiring story. I grew up in a lower middle class family and I have two sisters. I know that my sisters and mom could not afford to use napkins because paying for the school fees was more important. As the story mentions, my sisters will take time off from school during those days. His price of 12 rupees (25 cents) for 8 napkins is unbelievably cheap. That means a napkin costs 1.5 rupees which is less than a cup of tea you can buy at a road side stall in India. And I think 75%+ of his target market should be able to afford it. BTW, you should visit the company's website, they have more details there: http://newinventions.in/ http://newinventions.in/
- tibbon 15y agoWhat I love about this story is how it shows the strength that can come from diversity of perspective. Quite honestly, as a middle-class male in America, I had personally never considered this problem. I never considered the cost or availability of them. There are some problems that can never be solved by the top earners, because we often don't know there are problems! Of course, this is why we also fail so spectacularly when architecting solutions for hunger, education, sanitation, etc in other countries. We don't really understand the problems, so how can we make solutions? I'm also stunned at the inventor's wife, since she left him thinking this was just a ruse to meet younger women, but perhaps there's something cultural there that I'm unaware of. If I said I was going to go research these here in the US, I'd be terribly shocked if my girlfriend left me over it.
- inerte 15y agoI had the same thought, but maybe our research would "feel" like a research. It would have forms, focus groups, funding, schedules... a very different situation than his, I presume.
- tibbon 15y agoNow that I'm thinking about it, its probably a bit around the lines of "Talking to women about private and inappropriate things would lead toward inappropriate actions. Men don't talk about this, so you must have some other motivation". Still a bit unreasonable, but its hard to say.
- shabda 15y agoNot sure if someone noticed but the women workers are wearing the cloth-mask so as not to be identified in the photo. Interesting, weird and depressing that its embarrassing to be working building sanitary napkins.
- solutionyogi 15y agoAre you sure about that? I think it's because they can't afford a proper medical mask, they are using a scarf or something similar [Especially keeping the story in mind that this machine is supposed to make napkins for poor women]. As you can see, one woman's back is facing the camera so she doesn't really need to wear a mask unless for cleanliness purpose.
- larrik 15y agoWhile you are probably right about the true purpose of the scarves, I wouldn't be so quick to assume that the person not facing the camera is evidence of that. If you don't want your face photographed, you'd better keep it covered the entire time a photographic journalist is on the property, not just when you know he's taking a picture.
- mekoka 15y agoI won't assume anything about the purpose of the mask, but if for cleanliness purpose they should also probably wear gloves.
- vacri 15y agowell-washed hands are almost as good if you don't have access to rubber gloves.
- mr_leet 15y agoI hardly think that's the case. They are making "sanitary" napkins, which should ideally be clean. I guess they are taking the necessary precautions for that.
- gjkood 15y ago
- yalogin 15y agoI am really glad to see that he did not jump to "profit" at the end. Hope he gets enough support.
- solutionyogi 15y agoI am not so sure. I don't know why it could not have been a for-profit operation. Profit is not a dirty word. I would like to think that a for-profit company would have achieved his goal (of making cheap napkins available to women) faster than NGO approach. Let me give you an example. In India, many low income people can't afford shampoo bottles. So retail companies came up with a concept of 'shampoo sachet' [http://goo.gl/GUopS http://goo.gl/GUopS] (similar to ketch up sachet) and sold it for a rupee (back in 90s when I was growing up). Without this product, I would have never used a shampoo when I was a kid. It was a HUGE seller and you could find it in remote parts of India. I think it is taught as an example in business schools in India. As per my other post, he is selling his napkin for 12 rupees for 8 napkins. If he actually decided to manufacture them and retail them on a scale, I am sure he can still keep the same low price and achieve better distribution. His current approach of getting people to install machine and then making napkins is much harder to scale. That's my personal opinion anyway.
- yalogin 15y agoI am not so sure a corporation would keep the price low as a non-profit (or subsidized by the government). A lot of people replying to me said manufacturing in bulk would reduce the price there by achieving what a government subsidy cannot. I don't believe that to be true at all. Simply put if there is more money to be made a corporation will do so. A business would never ever reduce the price to bare minimum possible. There is no need for a business to go super cheap and cater to all the available market. That is not how businesses operate. In other words he could sell the same thing for 3 times the price and still sell enough. That is not his objective. I do agree that it probably would have been a sustainable model but cheaper definitely not. Then to your other points. The shampoo sachets did bring shampoo to the common man not the poor. Businesses had to innovate because back then even the middle class could not afford shampoo. Also I hear many people used (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapindus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapindus) before the shampoo with perfectly good results and so compelling them to move away from it required a really good motivation and a really low price was it.
- jackityquack 15y agoGood story, but a strange guy. Also, he could probably do more good for his country by selling his product. He would actually disrupt the industry, instead of creating yet another charity project. The way to fight poverty isn't to give poor people poor solution. The way to think about it is that you need to level the playing field, so even Indians would laugh at making their own napkins. If you told a white American do make their own napkin, they'd laugh if your face. But we seem to think it's reasonable for an Indian to do it. That's absurd. If he creates a better industry, he can keep the profits in India. He can then employ persons who will be rich enough to afford to not make their own napkins. That money will trickle out in to the economy and create a richer India. The only solution to poverty is economics. And you can't become an economic super power on charity. You can stop reading if you get the point, the rest is a rant: Another example that everyone loves of agriculture. Have you ever heard of a success story through teaching farmers to use non-industrial machinery? Hell NO! You can't win that way. You need to find a way for farmers to compete in the real world, not coddle them. Microfinance them or something. Maybe teach them to partner with a company with the money to buy all the right supplies (tractor, fertilizer, etc) that can actually turn his land in to profit. Then he isn't charity, he's a businessman. Charity is not the solution for people like me (by which I mean a healthy person that can work, since there's no difference between me and another 23 year old in any country in the world).
- solutionyogi 15y agoMy exact thoughts. Once again, you also explained it a whole lot better than I did (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3370197 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3370197). Being raised in lower income family in India, I have certainly seen how capitalism could lift people of poverty.
- jackityquack 15y agoI've only had the chance to visit once, but it's wonderful! The best news I've heard is that (i seem to remember) 80% of people that live in slums (slums all over the world), only live there for 1 generation. That means in 80% of cases, people get out of the deepest poverty (people usually come to slums from rural areas, so slums don't shrink). The world is getting better, but it does take a LONG time. http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_good_news_of_the_decade.html http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_good_news_of_the_d...
- tantalor 15y agoI applaud the inventor's drive to lower the cost of production, but sanitary napkins aren't necessarily the best solution. For instance, a menstrual cup is generally more cost efficient and certainly more environmentally friendly. And it can be manufactured with simple equipment (rubber injection mold). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_cup http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_cup
- cowpewter 15y agoIt probably is a better solution (I use one myself and my only gripe is that I wished I'd known it was an option as a teenager and not already been 30 when I discovered them), but if the menstrual taboo is as strong there as that article implies, then it may be an even harder sell than a man designing a napkin machine. There's a lot more potential hand-contact with menstrual blood when using a cup than pads, and while someone in the western world might scoff at the idea that using a cup could "ruin" a women's virginity, that could be a real concern for an unmarried girl in rural India.
- solutionyogi 15y agoA great point about 'ruining virginity'. It is definitely a very sensitive topic in India and would severely affect product adoption.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- lizzard 15y agoThey are great, but I can imagine they might be difficult to manage and to keep clean in some situations.
- jackityquack 15y agoLike without running water. And, yes it might be the most cost effective, but if you can't convince a white person to use it, then we shouldn't be telling Indians to use it either. It's an option, but the market should and will decide. (p.s. my roommate uses one too.)
- lizzard 15y agoI love that this guy figured out how to make and re-sell a cheaper manufacturing machine! I have some questions though. One is about the suggestion in the article that not using disposable napkins results in reproductive tract infections. That seems unlikely. Another is that while good, cheap, reliable period-managing supplies are useful and liberating for women, there are movements to use menstrual cups and washable, reusable cloths as an alternative to disposable stuff. "Rags" sounds negative but "reusable cloth pads" less so. So while this is great, maybe there is still more opportunity for disruption in this market!
- slurgfest 15y agoAny kind of planning on helping the situation for menstrual products in India has to start with some kind of observation of existing practice. In the actual environment of this product, there might be many existing practices/strategies for managing periods which could cause reproductive tract infections. Just to give you an idea, in some parts of the developing world girls are taught to use diluted disinfectant to douche.. that is surely not the worst. "Rags" is not a negative word for "reusable cloth pads," the story is actually talking about rags. They might be fine if they are kept sterile, but maybe the time to judge that is after you have done it in poor conditions in India and talked to women there about why they don't do it the same way.
- marquis 15y ago>not using disposable napkins results in reproductive tract infections. That seems unlikely. Some sources that show that infection, death and loss of reproductive ability is a clear concern: http://www.wateraid.org/documents/plugin_documents/addressing_the_special_needs_of_girls.pdf http://www.wateraid.org/documents/plugin_documents/addressin... Addresses many forms of health problems caused by using rags, e.g. in flood areas and where dangerous insects live. http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2011/10/aussie-launchpad-project-aims-help-african-women http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2011/10/aussie-launc... "..unhygienic materials use to deal with periods lead to rashes, sores and bruising, and the women are regularly exposed to reproductive and urinary infections." http://www.corporateknights.ca/article/sanitary-pads-some-development-all http://www.corporateknights.ca/article/sanitary-pads-some-de... "..women rarely washed their rags in clean water and hid them in dark places, which encourages the growth of mould. This has led to vaginal infections and cuts that are hidden and dealt with in silence." Lastly a note about reusable cloth and cups: these require clean water, which is the first problem here for these communities. Bring clean water to a village and the schools and workplaces and a safe place for cloth/cups to be boiled and dried and you have solved the problem. But clean, running, untainted water is not easy to provide.
- radicalcakes 15y agoInspirational! This is a great example of the only barrier for not achieving something great...is yourself.
- jasonshen 15y agoI'm going to send this article to anyone who complains about how entrepreneurs only make "trivial apps" instead of solving serious "real-world problems". I love what this man has done, but to say that people unwilling to add to the stress/difficulty/risk of starting a startup by tackling a market/problem like this one is inappropriate. Yes, let's encourage entrepreneurship on all levels, but don't pretend that it's just as hard as building and selling a mobile app.
- evmar 15y agoI am sad to say when I read this I worried whether the manufacturers' samples would come back to bite him in the form of some sort of patent lawsuit. I guess it could be considered a benefit that he isn't making money, as it makes him a smaller target.
- meow 15y agoThat's much less of a worry in developing world. No manufacturer wants to link "selfish" word with its name in news head lines. And that is how its gonna look if they sue.
- algoshift 15y agoWait a minute... According to the article and his website the machine costs $2,500 each, can produce 2 napkins per minute and requires 746W of power. Each machine employs a crew of four people. A full scale industrial machine is claimed to cost $500K and, from a quick bit of google-ing can produce 350 napkins per minute and requires about 80KW of power. Each machine seems to be operable by a small team of five or so, but let's double that to ten people. In order to match the production rate of a single industrial machine you would need: Machines: 175 Cost: $437,500 Power: 131KW Workers: 700 According to this (http://mahadiscom.com/emagazine/jan06/india1%5B1%5D.pdf http://mahadiscom.com/emagazine/jan06/india1%5B1%5D.pdf) electricity cost in India runs around 1.5 rupees per KWh for residential and 3.5 rupees per KWh for industrial applications. Assuming ten hours per day (for easy math) the power costs compare as follows (converted to USD): 175 low cost machines @131KWh in household settings: USD $37 per day. Industrial machine @80KWh in industrial setting: USD $52.87 per day. The industrial machine cost a little more to run (power) but it produces 175 times more product per machine. Put a different way, around USD $0.03 of power is required per napkin with the household machine. The industrial machine --even at more than double the electricity cost-- only requires USD $0.0003 per napkin in power. In terms of labor costs --assuming $1 per hour-- the household machine would cost about $0.033 per napkin while the industrial machine runs $0.0005 per napkin. According to the linked statistic the TAM (Total Addressable Market) is around 300 million women: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-01-23/india/28363510_1_women-resort-napkins-menstruating http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-01-23/india... If his dream to "make India a 100% napkin-using country" is fully realized you would need to produce a minimum of 1500 million napkins per month (assuming five pads used per period). The solutions compare as follows: Assuming that the machines are run 24 hours per day for 30 days. - Household solution Machines: 17362 Cost: $43,405,000 Power: 12MW Labor cost per 30 days: $25,001,280 - Industrial Solution: Machines: 100 Cost: $50,000,000 Power: 8MW Labor cost per 30 days: $90,000 Unless my numbers are grossly wrong (please check, I threw them together quickly) this is not as good a solution as it has been made out to be. In fact, it looks like a really bad solution to a large scale problem. The costs are staggering. Power consumption is at least 50% greater. I'll bet that product quality and consistency also suffers a great deal. And, of course, we haven't even covered maintenance costs and MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) of 18,000 low-cost machines versus 100 industrial grade machines. Good job. Lots of work. But I'd invest in a used industrial machine out of China over making thousands of these low cost household devices.
- rachelbythebay 15y agoThe world needs more people with empathy who are willing to put themselves in the shoes of others. Brilliant story. Thank you for posting it.
- wallflower 15y agoYou're welcome. I'm glad that the HN readership has helped share this story with people who might have missed this and who are interested in these true individuals.
- cezar_sl 15y agoI only saw "wife came back when he became famous (and presumably rich)"
- mynameishere 15y agoWhy not just buy bulk medical gauze and fold it up? That's got to be cheap as hell, and if it's good enough for bullet holes...
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- geekagirl 15y agoBecause medical gauze, usually being sterile, is more expensive than napkins.
- pressurefree 15y agoI believe my invention will disrupt the wind power industry... https://sites.google.com/site/verticalwindfarm/ https://sites.google.com/site/verticalwindfarm/ send wampum.
- vamsee 15y agoI heard this guy tell his story to a live audience in Chennai a while ago. He's an electrifying speaker. You should see his passion for his project. He is an inspiration, reminded me of Dr. Varaprasad Reddy of Shantha Biotechnics, who also has a great story to tell.
- danhodgins 15y agoBrilliant example of the design thinking process in action. This man has certainly practiced the 'design thinking' process outlined by Tim Brown in "Change By Design" - a book about the process of innovation. The Design Thinking process involves lots of ethnographic research, and developing empathy for the user - the same tenets as user centered (UCD) or human centered design (HCD). In this case, the inventor developed empathy by going so far as wearing a fake uterus that emitted goats blood! I find this story and others like it to be very inspiring. However, knowing that the world can be changed for the better or worse by people who believe strongly enough about something is both reassuring and frightening at the same time.
- eternalban 15y agoHard to say if it was brilliant, in fact. Per my reading of the story, he basically pulled really bizarre moves until he finally did the sensible thing and white box reverse engineered a working model ...
- stfp 15y agothe. period. industry.