Real ‘PadMan’ Arunachalam Muruganantham listed as 2026 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, says: 'I'm really proud'

There are 287 candidates nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2026. Social entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham claimed that he has been listed this year.

Social entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham, who is famously known as the 'PadMan,' claimed that he has been listed as a nominee for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.

Arunachalam Muruganantham created and patented a machine which could manufacture low cost sanitary pads for less than a third of the cost of commercial pads. Photo-credit-Facebook

What Arunachalam said

"I couldn't believe it at first... For the Nobel Prize, you cannot submit your name, nor can your friends or family. It has to be a third party... A Dean from Aravind Eye Hospital of Pondicherry and American teams working there submitted my name for the Nobel... It was accepted within 24 hours... I'm really proud...", Muruganantham told news agency ANI on Sunday.

Arunachalam Muruganantham is a social activist from Tamil Nadu who introduced low-cost sanitary pads to villages in India. He was also the inspiration behind Akshay Kumar-starrer PadMan. Directed by R Balki, the film also featured Radhika Apte and Sonam Kapoor. It was released on 2018, and went on to win the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues.

More details

How does the nomination process for the Nobel Peace Prize work? The nomination process is an eight-month screening and decision-making process. As per the official website, "The five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee is the decision-makers. It meets regularly from the latter half of February, goes meticulously through all nominations, and selects those which it want to consider more carefully. The selected candidates are then assessed by independent experts, who prepare detailed reports that are circulated to the committee ahead of its meetings. This is an iterative process, where the list gradually is shortened, and new assessments are solicited in each round. The Committee may, at any stage, reach back and reconsider candidates not shortlisted, as long as there is a valid nomination. By summer, the shortlist is normally cut down to a handful of candidates."

The Nobel Peace Prize 2025 was awarded to Maria Corina Machado "for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy".