Avoiding physical touch

Unrelated men and women should be cautious to keep at some distance from each other and avoid physical touch. When a woman is to give or receive an object from a non-related or respected man, or a brahmacari, vanaprastha, or sannyasi, the object should not be given directly hand to hand, but should either be given to a male such as the woman's husband or son to be passed on, or placed on a table to be picked up. Usually, even between women and close male relatives, even hand to hand passing of objects is done by carefully dropping the object into the hand, so as to avoid physical contact.