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Arunachalam Muruganantham

Arunachalam Muruganantham or PADMAN (played by Akshay Kumar) like you know him now is the inventor of the low-cost sanitary pad-making machine and is involved for finding grassroots mechanisms for generating awareness about traditional unhygienic practices around menstruation in rural India.

Only 12% of India’s 355 million menstruating women use sanitary napkins (SNs). Over 88% of women resort to shocking alternatives like non-sanitised cloth, ashes and husk sand. Husk sand! That is what women have to go through. Muruganantham instead of igniting riots for political benefits started a revolution. That is the thing about heroes, they work in ways others don’t.

Muruganantham used to supply beverages to factory workers and took up various jobs as machine tool operator, farm labourer, welder, etc. to support his family in Coimbatore. When Murugananthan discovered his wife collecting filthy rags and newspapers to use during her menstrual cycle, as sanitary napkins made by MNCs were expensive, he started designing experimental pads.

When he finally cracked a way out to make cheap sanitary pads, in 2006, he visited IIT Madras to show his idea and received suggestions. His invention was registered for the National Innovation Foundation’s Grassroots Technological Innovations Award and his idea won the award.

Today Muruganantham’s machine has given jobs and income for numerous women. Affordable pads enable many more women to earn their livelihood during menstruation. Acceptance and empowerment is the key to development.

In 2016, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.

BREAKING THE TABOO:

Mensturation isn’t an epidemic, our mentality is. Why isn’t science (biological mensturation) accepted by us when every parent wants their kid to be a doctor or engineer? Why are we going back to something we have fought so hard to come out of?

KOMPASSIONS: THE GARMENT BANK

The garment bank is an Art of Giving the initiative to collect the unused/ old and obsolete clothing from the households and make it available for the poor free of cost after reprocessing. The processed clothes are then taken by the needy public according to their choice. We give them the experience of not being getting by chance but by their choice.

LAUGTHER YOGA

In a world where is natural smile is lost, one has to consciously delve into laughing consciously and faking the brain because the positive effects of laughing remain same. This technique is called Laughter Yoga. The concept of Laughter Yoga is based on a scientific fact that the body cannot differentiate between fake and real laughter. One gets the same physiological and psychological benefits. So, Art of Giving promotes the practice of Laughter yoga under the guidance of Dr. Madan Kataria, Founder of Laughter Yoga university.

BASTI RAAHGIRI

The street children of Bhubaneswar, Headless figures on nameless receive a human touch that a child secretly yearns at the deepest abyss of their souls. The care is given by none other than the children of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, who once were too a deprived lot. KISS children mingle with the street children, grooming them, giving them clothes, sharing the life skills they have learnt and playing with them. It infuses a great sense of camaraderie and hope for a better tomorrow for the street children.

EDUPOWERMENT

Education is the best weapon against poverty and hunger. It has the power of Empowering the Individuals. It seeks to provide Quality Education to all. At KISS, World’s Exclusive Tribal University free Education is provided to 40000 (30,000 on Campus & 10,000 on the Satelite campuses) poorest of the poor tribal children besides free lodging, boarding and healthcare facilities. 40,000 students have graduated from KISS and are well placed. they have also excelled in academics and sports.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Kalarabank, a remote village in Cuttack district of Odisha, has been developed as a ‘Smart Village’, the first smart village in the country. The work to develop the village as a ‘Model Village’ started in 2000 and in 2006 it was named as a model village with modern amenities for education, health & sanitation, communication, environment, etc. These facilities were extended to entire Manpur Panchayat, thus making it first model Panchayat. In 2016, Kalarabanka transformed into a smart village and the entire Panchayat became Smart Panchayat.

MAITRI

An art of Giving project that seeks to build a platform of Interaction between KISS and KIIT Students. The project benefits KISS students by inculcating soft skills in them through word game, grammar quiz and host of indoor and outdoor games. MAITRI, as the name suggests, is a step by a friend for a friend. It started in November 2016 with just 10 students, now there are more than 80 students of KIIT who conduct the activities at KISS.

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