The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

BBC ^ | 3 March 2014 | Vibeke Venema

[familyop]

"He has also opened himself to lawsuits if women experience health issues from his product."

"The cakes are then wrapped in non-woven cloth and disinfected in an ultraviolet treatment unit."

Maybe they're safer for women than tampons, and printing instructions and warnings on tampon packages isn't enough. And maybe the litigation/regulation regime is running out of stolen time.

[Tax-chick]

It’s a gross, yet technical, topic.

Maybe the polysyllabic gentleman will come up with disposable diapers next.

[Secret Agent Man]

nope they weren’t being bought by these women in the first place. this wasn’t and still isn’t a market for tampax.

[familyop]

"I am actually surprised that so many male freepers commented on this thread. I figured they would try IMMEDIATELY to find a thread about fishing, hunting, Nascar, tree cutting, power saws etc.. :)"

I don't know about most other men, but many analytical technical minds see the posted article as being related to that list of pursuits (technologies, inventions, cutting costs, production). Granted, some men only see morbid humor in it, but this is one of many topics of great societal importance.

You see, quite a few things are being invented and modified in our western culture countries now in efforts to stop the slide toward slavery (low cost, low tech. home energy systems, food production, construction, repairs, transportation, modifications,...). There are too many anti-competition regulations and policies. Much of the middle class has already fallen from employment, and generally, we're not manufacturing enough on our own soil to support much of the remainder (see debts, spending, likely bond collapses, etc.).

[Pecos]

The other point that should become obvious to any preppers in the crowd is that this is a need for every woman in your home.

[Tax-chick]

Cloths can be used ... were used for most of history. (I was told by American Indians in Oklahoma that they traditionally used cattail fluff to make a type of disposable diaper-stuffing. I wonder if they made something similar for menstrual use.)

There is a confluence of negative factors in the situation described in India. Poverty and low technology, yes, but also a cultural effort to entirely hide women’s menstruation from general knowledge, as part of a more general rock-bottom status of women. (The inventor didn’t know such a thing existed until he got married!)

The difficulty of accessing water seems to be complicated by an effort to restrain and isolate women. They can’t hang the cloths to dry, because that would be admitting they exist!

Under other circumstances, the use of absorbent cloths for menstruation is uncomplicated. From a practical standpoint, it’s just like using cloth diapers, but not as smelly. Rinse out, soak, scrub and bleach (if possible, not essential), and dry in the sun.

[Tax-chick]

Also, if you lose enough weight, you get amenorrhea and the problem goes away.

[Moose Burger]

“One roll of toilet paper goes for close to a day’s wage in rural India.”

What, are they socialists?

“The Constitution of India, which came into effect on 26 January 1950, states in its preamble that India is a sovereign, socialist...”

Well, duh.

[TheRightGuy]

he probably had to pull some strings to get government approval

[goat granny]

at the turn of the 20th century, women in the US still used rags, rewashed and reused. When I was a young gal, the saying for having a period was still....she’s on the rag...God bless Kotex the first as far as I know. Thick pads and you held them in place with a belt.Circ: 1940...

[1010RD]

Crony capitalism exists everywhere: The Indian government recently announced it would distribute subsidised sanitary products to poorer women. It was a blow for Muruganantham...

Socialists always fail: “Where Nehru failed,” he says, “one machine succeeded.”

I like this story and the entrepreneur in it.

[1010RD]

A greenie chick I knew went on and on about how the Indians used everything. She didn’t think it was funny when I replaced her toilet paper with corn cobs.

[1010RD]

Is he raving about global warming or an unaccomplished junior Senator without any useful experience?

[1010RD]

The trouble in India stems directly from poor private property rights and socialism.

[Tax-chick]

Those are definitely problems, but the cultural issues long predate modern India. Not that India ever had private property as we understand it.

I’m trying to think of a country that *doesn’t* have private property, rule of law, something on the order of a market economy ... but *does* have a reasonable chance of a decent life for women.

[1010RD]

The key is the Absolute Nuclear Family. Those cultures that have the ANF are best for women. Tribalism hurts women. They become the prize and not prized.