By Hyacinth Estrada
The death of a 28-year-old woman in a menstrual shed in Kanchanpur district has reignited calls to eradicate the deeply-rooted practice in western Nepal.
While observing her monthly cycle at a remote hut close to her home, Kamala Aauji Dama of Krishnapur Municipality-1 was bitten by a snake and died on Saturday.
Police reports stated that she could not be saved even after being taken to a nearby hospital.
With her husband and in-laws away for work, Damai was left alone.
“She had her meal and slept in the chhaugoth [menstrual shed]. That’s when the snake bit her,” Krishnapur Municipality-1 ward chair Mohan Basnet told The Kathmandu Post daily newspaper in an interview.
“Her young sons were at home. She went alone to the shed, which is about 20 to 30 metres from her concrete house,” Basnet added.
Illegal, unsafe practice persists
Despite it being deemed illegal in 2017, some areas in Nepal still enforce chhaupadi, the practice of isolating menstruating women in unsafe shelters, typically in cattle sheds or separate huts.
This practice, stemming from the traditional belief that women are considered “impure” during their periods, exposes women to dangers such as snakebites, suffocation, extreme cold, and sexual violence.
Even with jail time or fines as legal penalties, law enforcement remains uneven and largely ineffective in eradicating the tradition.
Local campaigns and initiatives have dismantled dozens of such huts in the past, but resistance persists.
“We tried hard to eliminate them, but people rebuilt them,” Basnet said.
“We keep educating them, but they don’t listen to us.”
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More than legislation needed
Activists have previously claimed that chhaupadi cannot be stopped by legislation alone.
“We have not been able to wipe out chhaugoths in the areas where religion is deeply rooted,” Nanda Thapa, vice-chairperson of the neighbouring municipality of Badimalika, told German news outlet Deutsche Welle in a 2022 interview.
The Supreme Court of Nepal outlawed chaupadi in 2005, deeming the act a violation of human rights.
Authorities have also conducted public awareness campaigns since 2008.
The tradition was then made illegal by the Nepalese parliament in 2017, which stipulated that anyone who forced a woman to follow the custom might face a three-month jail sentence, a fine of NPR3,000, or both.
However, these measures have not succeeded in stopping the practice, which has continued to persist in some regions in the country.
Thapa noted that education is the only way to stop this issue: “We believe that spreading awareness on menstrual health will take effect and slowly bring good changes.”
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