‘I didn’t want to eat due to the smell of period blood on my hands’ Nagamma would refuse to eat after washing the rags she used during her period.
‘Sometimes it would rain and the rags would not dry well.
Even when I washed them, I had to make sure there was a separate area for drying and nobody would see it.
It was the pungent smell of blood – lingering on the social worker’s hands afterwards – that disgusted her the most and put her off her food.
Others are shamed into dropping out of school, excluded from social and religious events, or forced to miss work.
