In a small village in Tamil Nadu, a man once found himself at the centre of ridicule for doing something most people refused to even speak about.

He was trying to make a sanitary pad.

Neighbours whispered about him. His wife left him for a period of time. At one point, he began testing his own prototypes by simulating menstruation on himself, determined to understand what women experienced every month. 

To those around him, this was not innovation. It was seen as something deeply inappropriate.

That man, Arunachalam Muruganantham, is today among the nominees for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.

His journey from social isolation to global recognition is often told as a story of resilience. But the more important question now is this. How far has his mission to end period poverty actually come?

The answer begins with a moment inside his own home.

In the late 1990s, shortly after his marriage, Muruganantham discovered that his wife was using old cloth and newspapers during her periods because sanitary pads were too expensive. A packet of branded pads was a luxury their household could not justify. 

When he began asking questions, he realised that this was not an isolated case. Across rural India, millions of women were forced to choose between affordability and hygiene.

What he had stumbled upon was not just a gap in the market. It was a deeply entrenched public health and social issue, wrapped in silence and stigma.

With no formal training and limited resources, he set out to create an affordable alternative. The early years were marked by........

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