Question

FRUGAL SANITARY TOWELS

ARUNACHALAM MURUGANANTHAM AIMS TO TRANSFORM THE LIVES OF INDIAN WOMEN WITH A FUNDAMENTAL INNOVATION

High school drop-out and welder Arunachalam Muruganantham has developed a low-cost sanitary towel the hard way. In India, only 12 percent of women can afford to use sanitary towels for their monthly periods, the rest making do with old rags and even husks or sand. As Muruganantham’s wife explained to him, if she bought the expensive sanitary towels on the market, the family would have to do without milk. But the cost for many women is infections and even cervical cancer. Muruganantham determined to find a cheap way of supplying Indian women with proper sanitary towels. In Indian society, however, the issue was taboo. The local hospital was unhelpful, and even Muruganantham’s wife and sisters refused to talk about the problem. A survey of college girls failed. Muruganantham’s prototypes were scorned by his wife. At his wits’ end, Muruganantham experimented on himself, carrying a bladder inflated with goat’s blood while wearing one of his own sanitary towels and women’s undergarments. His tests while walking and cycling around the village created a local scandal. His wife moved out. Muruganantham characterized the issue as a ‘triple-A problem – Affordability, Availability and Awareness’. But after four years of research, he finally built a machine for producing sanitary towels at less than half the price of those offered by rivals such as Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson. The machines are cheap and handoperated, enabling small-scale local production by units employing six to ten women each. Muruganantham believes that the small businesses using his machines could create up to one million jobs: ‘The model of massproduction is outdated. Now it is about production by the mass of people.’ Muruganantham sells the machines to NGOs, local entrepreneurs, charities and selfhelp groups, who produce the sanitary towels without fancy marketing. A manual machine costs around 75,000 Indian rupees (£723, €868, $1084) – a semi-automated machine costs more. Often the women who make the towels are the best marketers, passing on the benefits by wordof-mouth. Towels are often sold singly rather than in bulk packets and are even sold through barter. Muruganantham explains the marketing: ‘It’s done silently and even the male members of their families don’t know.’ Slowly but surely his machines spread all over India with operations in 23 states. By 2015, his company, Jayaashree Industries, had expanded to 17 other countries including Kenya, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Myanmar. He employs over 20,000 women in rural India and the enterprise has been valued at over a billion dollars by some analysts. Muruganantham has become a globally renowned frugal innovator and motivational speaker. His machine was entered in a competition for a national innovation award and came first out of 943 entries; he received the award by the then President of India. He was also ranked by Time magazine as one of 100 most influential people in the world in 2014 and was invited to give a lecture at Harvard. His wife has moved back in with him. Muruganantham was confident about the sustainability of his model: ‘We compete very comfortably with the big giants (such as Procter & Gamble). That’s why they call me the corporate bomber.

Q1

- Identify the various features of Muruganantham’s approach that make his sanitary towel business a typical or not so typical ‘frugal innovation?

Answer 1

The various features of Muruganantham’s approach that make his sanitary towel business a typical ‘frugal innovation' are that the machines used for manufacturing of sanitary towels are cheap and handoperated, enabling small-scale local production by units employing six to ten women each. Also the marketing of towels is done in a very frugal and discreet manner through word of mouth marketing by the women who make the towels passing to other women. Towels are often sold singly rather than in bulk packets and are even sold through barter. The male nembwrs of the family often do not come to know about the product through such discreet and frugal marketing. Through simple approach, the machines have spread all over India with operations in 23 states and his company, Jayaashree Industries, had expanded to 17 other countries including Kenya, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Myanmar as well giving employment to over 20,000 women in rural India.