Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 273 posts

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#151

Post by machbio »

nate_meurer wrote: post #93

I want to hug this guy. Like, really. Buy me a airplane ticket. Arunachalam Muruganantham is a hero. I use that word in its full magnitude. Since I am now an expert on the matter, having read the entire article, I'll speculate on what motivates this man: - Grit. Crazy amounts of grit. The article is full of good quotes, but my favorite is what he said after being abandoned by his mother: "It was a problem for me," he…

People interested in seeing his motivation to work in one of the InkTalks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4_MeS6SOwk

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#152

Post by geekam »

jaldoretta wrote: post #92

I'm a female founder in the US with a startup that has to do with menstruation, and I cannot even begin to tell you how uncomfortable people (male and female) get when I talk with them about it. For a man in India (where this topic is exponentially more taboo) to undertake a business like this and persist despite the backlash is so incredibly inspiring. The benefit of his business goes so far beyond simply reducing n…

http://readytogroove.com/ looks like a nice app. I have to try that.

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#153

Post by sveit »

nate_meurer wrote: post #128
auctiontheory wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are still many taboos around menstruation in India. Women can't visit temples or public places, they're not allowed to cook or touch the water supply - essentially they are considered untouchable. Every religion has elaborate rules to oppress woman. FYI, the Hebrew Bible has all the same stuff. (So I read in The Year of Living Biblically .) It's a question of "how literally does society obey those rules?" Will…

Thank you, quite right. The ongoing fight by (a slowly shrinking segment of) American society to continue blatant persecution of gay people is one of our most shameful failings. And I agree, the Church (big C) is largely responsible.

The Catholic Church teaches against persecution of gay people. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#154

Post by rajneesh1315 »

I am from north India and agree that menstruation is still taboo in our culture (mostly in villages). -During menstruation cycle women (mostly married) sleep in separate room, they are not supposed to touch anything and after 4 days all the clothes/bedding they wear/use (even mattress) will be washed. -Most of these rules are tied to religion. -I think when these "rules" were started there were no sanitary pads, so may be this was done for hygiene sake, but today it doesn't make any sense. And I think in those days if someone wanted people to follow anything just say its required by your religion and people will blindly follow. -This guy is doing really great work, happy that BBC picked it up.

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#155

Post by rhc2104 »

gus_massa wrote: post #81
igul222 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article mentions that commercial napkins sold for 4 rupees despite cotton being 1/4000th the cost, but also says farther down that the locally produced ones sell for an average of 2.5 rupees each. That's a 38% discount: significant, but it doesn't seem like a game-changing difference to me. I imagine that if this catches on, the larger manufacturers will likely just cut their margins to compete. On a more general…

What are the cost of the material + the proportional part of the 10 salaries + other costs? >* He weighed it in his hand and wondered why 10g (less than 0.5oz) of cotton, which at the time cost 10 paise (£0.001), should sell for 4 rupees (£0.04) - 40 times the price.* This is the first estimation of the material cost. Then he learned that they use cellulose. And I don't know if it considers the cost of the surroundin…

http://newinventions.in/profit.aspx

Their website says that the raw materials for 8 pads are 7.15 rupees.

So that's about .9 rupees/pad.

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#157

Post by huherto »

geekam wrote: post #152
jaldoretta wrote: post #92

I'm a female founder in the US with a startup that has to do with menstruation, and I cannot even begin to tell you how uncomfortable people (male and female) get when I talk with them about it. For a man in India (where this topic is exponentially more taboo) to undertake a business like this and persist despite the backlash is so incredibly inspiring. The benefit of his business goes so far beyond simply reducing n…

http://readytogroove.com/ looks like a nice app. I have to try that.

A good example, why diversity is important. I would have never thought of it.

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#159

Post by mzs »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #150

The optimal technical solution to this problem, for the vast majority of the population, is menstrual cups. They are completely reusable and generally perform better. To me the long term challenge is the social problem of convincing people that menstrual cups are not gross and are not going to hurt them. I totally respect this guy for finding an intermediate solution that helps his community though. I don't live in I…

Don't know about that. From talking with my wife they are very messy and need to be cleaned a lot or they smell, like boiled every day or two - so that's why there are disposable ones and they are more popular. Also you need a lot of clean tissues each time you insert, rinse, and replace it - which brings you right back to the using dirty rags again cause there is stigma to clean and dry them properly in those cultures. Anyway her ob/gyn told her to stop using them when she got a IUD, and that's another issue with them.

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#160

Post by scarecrowbob »

mzs wrote: post #159
erikpukinskis wrote: post #150

The optimal technical solution to this problem, for the vast majority of the population, is menstrual cups. They are completely reusable and generally perform better. To me the long term challenge is the social problem of convincing people that menstrual cups are not gross and are not going to hurt them. I totally respect this guy for finding an intermediate solution that helps his community though. I don't live in I…

Don't know about that. From talking with my wife they are very messy and need to be cleaned a lot or they smell, like boiled every day or two - so that's why there are disposable ones and they are more popular. Also you need a lot of clean tissues each time you insert, rinse, and replace it - which brings you right back to the using dirty rags again cause there is stigma to clean and dry them properly in those cultur…

My wife has had a different experience; she reports she's quite happy with hers and it requires less maintenance than alternatives. Of course, this is a very small sample size, a second hand report, and, of course, still surrounded by all the attendant larger issues....
Post reply on HN