Meet Madhya Pradesh's Padwoman Who Is Fighting For Menstrual Hygiene Awareness

For Madhya Pradesh's padwoman, Maya Vishwakarma, 36, life has come a full circle. It was a long journey for the girl hailing from Mehragaon, a dusty village in Narsinghpur district to go to California and become a scientist and later get back to her roots.

Once back, she decided to work for menstrual hygiene among poor women and started a mission to make available low-cost sanitary napkins them, earning her the tag of padwoman.

Though Akshay Kumar's latest Bollywood flick Padman have helped her come to limelight, Maya had started her mission much before the film was made on Coimbatore-based social entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganatham, popularly known as the padman of India.

facebook/Maya Vishwakarma

Inspired by Arunachalam, Maya, started working on her project in 2016 to make available low-cost sanitary pads to poor women.

She met Arunachalam in search of a cheap and efficient sanitary napkin producing low-cost machine and finally set up a unit in Narsinghpur district two months ago.

"This unit has been set up with an investment of Rs 5 lakh. I have employed 20 women to start with and increase the workforce to 80. We have a capacity to produce 2,000 sanitary pads every day but we are presently producing 1,000," she told TOI.

A self-made woman, Maya is one of the four siblings of a farmer's family. "My father was a small farmer, or rightly put my parents were agriculture labourers," she told TOI.

facebook/Maya Vishwakarma

After passing middle school from Mehragaon, she finished her schooling from different village schools and graduation from neighbouring Jabalpur district.

"Menstrual health discussion was a taboo during my college days," she said. Perhaps, it was her experience that prompted Maya to find an affordable and safe solution for the poor women during periods.

She said finances for the project was raised through her personal savings, friends working abroad and by India chapter of the Sukarma Foundation founded by her and crowd funding," she said.

facebook/Maya Vishwakarma

Maya said that she will soon launch a yatra in all the tribal villages of Madhya Pradesh to launch a campaign for safe menstrual hygiene.

"I have already started meeting tribals in Narsinghpur district explaining them the importance of the hygiene ", she said.

After Anna Hazare's movement against corruption, Maya had formed the California unit of AAP. She also contested election from Hoshangabad on the party's ticket.

While contesting elections, she had told TOI, irrespective of the poll result outcome she would continue to work here. "This place needs me, I owe a lot to it."

Four years later, perhaps, her real work has started now.