Menstruating women in India are often subject to long-held societal taboos about what they can do during their periods. A 2014 survey of 1,105 women and 202 men across 10 Indian cities revealed that more than half the urban women still behaved in ways prescribed by such age-old beliefs.

These range from washing their hair only after the fourth day of the menses (65%), not watering plants during periods (54%), or even touching pickle jars (59%). There were regional variations – 70% of women from Northern India felt they shouldn’t touch pickle. Similar taboos involving setting curd (48%), sharing a room with your husband (48%) and touching the masala box (55%) were also prevalent in Western India. In Eastern India, 86% bought their sanitary napkins wrapped in newspapers and a similar percentage of men felt more embarrassed to buy a sanitary napkin than to purchase condoms.