Hindustan Times (Gurugram) - Hindustan Times (Gurugram) - City
Akshay Kumar’s film gives wings to women’s initiatives
After the success of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017), in which Akshay Kumar highlighted India’s sanitation woes, the actor has received positive reviews and wide appreciation with Pad Man this year. But it looks like, his real success has been in the form of different initiatives that Pad Man, which deals with menstruation and the lack of sanitary napkins, seems to have kick-started.
Recently, Akshay inaugurated the Asmita Yojana, an initiative by the Government of Maharashtra to distribute subsidised sanitary napkins to women in rural parts of the state. The Ministry of Railways has also announced that 200 railway stations across the country would get sanitary napkin dispensers and incinerators.
In another instance, two girls from Jaipur, who were impressed with the film, started a pad bank to help women who couldn’t afford sanitary napkins.
A source says, “Akshay ensured that Arunachalam Muruganantham, the original Padman, was present at some promotional events because he wanted people to know Arunachalam and the work he did. Although Akshay is thrilled with the box-office success of Pad Man, the film was more than just a project for him. Ever since its release in Feb, Akshay hasn’t stopped hearing about how people from different parts of India are coming up with initiatives for women. He was ecstatic to install a pad vending machine at the Mumbai Central ST Bus Depot. He is open to more initiatives of this kind.”
Akshay’s last film, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, too, managed to raise awareness about the ill effects of open defecation, and also promoted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cleanliness initiative, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Besides this, the actor has been vocal about his support for women, and has posted videos advocating self-defence for women.