There are two kinds of students: those who study and work to survive, while others who want to be achievers.
There were offers from a few Bollywood filmmakers, but I was sceptical as to whether those films will do justice to my vision or even my life. I was also apprehensive because what if I sign an agreement and give the rights to some filmmaker, and he shelves the project?
Quality napkins are made in villages at a cost of just Rs 2 per piece with my simple and cost-effective machines.
'Padman' was about my early life and struggles, including my wife calling me a psycho and leaving me.
The idea came from my wife, since in our village, women cannot afford to buy sanitary pads. When I asked my wife, she told me we would have to cut down half of our milk budget to buy sanitary pads. Moreover, while raw materials for sanitary pads cost 10 paise, the end product was sold for 40 times that price. So, I decided to create it on my own.
The world has a shortage of solution providers. Everybody want to be in the 'Forbes' list.
To help my mother, I started working as a workshop helper. There I learned welding and other tools.
Most of the students whom I have lectured were inquisitive to learn and contribute towards my vision. So, the youth who want to achieve in life can do a lot for society.
Every year, in our country, we churn out more job seekers rather than job creators. We have to look at new business models, identify a problem, and work on a solution for the same. Today, the machines I have created have provided employment to many women in the rural areas across the country. Why can't youngsters follow suit?
A male can be a boy, a man, a love/husband, a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather, but they don't have any knowledge what's happening inside a woman's body. That's what I had learnt in my early married life.
When I tell a foreign audience that 90 per cent of Indian women have no access to sanitary napkin, there is a visible disbelief. But there is hardly a ripple when I say the same thing to an Indian crowd.
My plea is that don't wait for a girl to become a woman to empower them. Empower a girl's life by giving sanitary pads to them. With pads, we give them wings.
I am becoming a solution provider. I'm very happy. I don't want to make this as a corporate entity. I want to make this as a local sanitary pad movement across the globe.
I suffered a lot when I tried to make sanitary napkins and promote the idea. My family - including my mother and wife - deserted me. Villagers even tied me to a tree and beat me. But after seeing me successful now, they come and say that they all knew that I would become famous one day.
Imagine: I got patent rights to the only machine in the world to make low-cost sanitary napkins - a hot-cake product. Anyone with an MBA would immediately accumulate the maximum money. But I did not want to. Why? Because from childhood, I know no human being died because of poverty - everything happens because of ignorance.
You can send women to the Moon or Mars later. First, provide sanitary pads to them.
I am the son of a hand-loom weaver. I have a connection with yarn. I thought, 'Why not try to make an affordable sanitary pad for my wife?'
Why buy sanitary napkins from multinationals when we can make them at home and generate employment?
Even if I can take sanitary napkins to 10% of the poor women in India, it will be big achievement.
To break the age-old taboos and to see girls and women use pads was a difficult task.
