Indian 'menstrual man' tackling taboo and sanitary product issues

[Leaningtoweroflisa]

Menstrual Man

Saw this on the BBC website while eating my brekkie at work.

What a fab man. He didn't complete his education and has such a fantastic attitude to his success, actually welled up a little.

Going from knowing nothing about periods when he married to how to make sanitary towels to making low cost easy to maintain machines for women to make their own sanitary towels in cooperatives as businesses.

I feel humbled.

[offblackeggshell]

Awesome chap!

[Meglet]

It choked me up too .

There are some great people in this world and he's one of them.

[eyestightshut]

Amazing story, if only there were more people like him in the world.

[BewitchedBotheredandBewildered]

That's fantastic!

Thanks for posting about it

[YoureBeingASillyBilly]

Wow! That is fantastic. It saddens me so much to read about the restrictions on women and girls during menstruation.

[HotCrossPun]

Brilliant article!

[NessieMcFessie]

I was reading this story this morning - a really amazing man!

[lubeybooby]

Brilliant article, what a guy never giving up like that. Amazing.

[Grumbliest]

I liked the story too because of his convictions. However there is no refuge collections in these villages and these sanitary towels will probably be chucked out on the roadside etc or burned. I think the cloth solution is the best idea as you can wash them. I've visited India loads and throwing my sanitary towels in a river makes me uncomfortable and burning something has an impact too

[Dawndonnaagain]

Wow! Fascinating and what a guy!

[YoureBeingASillyBilly]

I wouldnt wish a mooncup on anyone! The tears i cried over that bloody thing. It still taunts me every time i go to the cupboard for a tamp

[YoureBeingASillyBilly]

Tampon!

[DoctorTwo]

What a fantastic article. Utterly fascinating.

[GossamerHailfilter]

They may not have the facilities to wash a mooncup?

[Leaningtoweroflisa]

Grumbliest - yes, I did think about that while reading, but on balance, what the co-operatives are producing are probably a lot cleaner than Western sanitary towels, if they're cotton and cellulose based rather than all the fancy toxic shit Always tries to make us buy. Maybe they would be pretty compostable? So if buried, would break down into the soil in a positive way?

Maybe I'm being too optimistic about that.

However, I'd say the rags they were using were cloth SP just horribly done due to the restrictions and taboos.

Maybe down the line, the taboos will go and women can use their preference, e.g. washing and air drying their SP without shame.

(I am a cloth ST user, snuggly fleecy goodness )

[Cocolepew]

Amazing man.

[Anniecarrieson]

Loved the article. He sounds great and his sense of humour really comes across.

I wondered about the environmental impact as well, though. Are they biodegradable?

Also, concerned that the business model made very poor women reliant on a disposable product i.e. that they have to purchase regularly.

It would possibly be more helpful to these communities to help them somehow find a way to manage cleaning etc of decent, comfortable reusable pads - or, as another poster said, moon cups.

[Bishandbesh]

Was just about to start a thread. I love this story. Great guy!

[lauramac]

What an amazing man - such perseverance and an incredibly humbling perspective.

He has a TED talk which is brilliant - he's very funny.

[2014ThisIsMyYear]

Amazing story!

[CuntyBunty]

Oh wow. I love him.

[Isitmebut]

The plight of Indian women caught my attention last July on this sanitary problem, which went into far more detail on the subject of what women have had to go through and followed the wider implications on how it has held them back, economically.
www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-24/no-menstrual-hygiene-for-indian-women-holds-economy-back.html

And while we may have found ‘a very, very, nice man’ in India, there are probably tens of millions who are not and deserve their goolies removed and the wound bandaged with some of those old clothes he 'wouldn't use on his motor scooter', or whatever he had. IMO.
www.businessweek.com/news/2013-09-18/sold-for-sex-at-puberty-village-girls-fate-in-wealthier-india