KATHMANDU: Despite being criminalized in 2018, an estimated 77% of girls in mid-Western Nepal are still being forced to sleep outside in “menstruation huts” during their period, according to a new study published in Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters.
The practice involves women sleeping in specially built chhau huts during their menstrual cycle, in order to keep “impurity” out of the home. Every year, women die in these huts from exposure, animal bites or smoke inhalation after building a fire to stay warm.
The tradition was criminalized in 2018, however, a new study, published in the journal suggests the practice is still widespread.
In April 2019, researchers led by Dr. Melanie Channon at the University of Bath traveled to Karnali Province in mid-Western Nepal.
The results showed that, despite being criminalized by the Nepali government in late 2018, 77% of girls surveyed still practiced chhaupadi.
Teenage girls are still being forced to sleep outside during their periods in parts of Nepal despite a string of deaths and a law banning the ancient custom, researchers said on Tuesday.
A new study published days after the latest victim suffocated to death found nearly eight out of 10 girls in Karnali, a province in western Nepal where the practice is prevalent, were banished from their homes while menstruating.
Because menstruating girls and women are viewed as impure, many have to sleep in huts, where they are at risk of being raped, bitten by snakes or dying from carbon dioxide poisoning from fires lit to keep warm.
“The women and girls we spoke to were terrified of snakes and animals coming in at night, or of being attacked by strangers,” said Jennifer Thomson, who worked on the study.
“Even if they hadn’t experienced that directly, the psychological stress of that was quite real,” added Thomson, a lecturer in comparative politics at the Britain’s University of Bath.
The centuries-old Hindu practice known as chhaupadi was outlawed in 2005, but penalties including a fine and jail time were only introduced last year after the deaths of a teenager and a mother and her sons led to a parliamentary investigation.
Researchers interviewed 400 girls aged between 14 and 19 in mid-Western Nepal’s Karnali province for the study.
Even in wealthier urban households, where it was less common, about two-thirds of girls said they practiced chhaupadi.
The study came less than a week after Nepali police arrested the brother-in-law of a woman who died of suffocation in a hut – the first such arrest in the country.
But activists said more needed to be done to raise awareness and combat the perception that menstruating women and girls are impure and can bring misfortune to their communities.
“This is about changing deeply ingrained cultural practices and behaviors, and while changing the law is important, this study shows it’s going to take much more than that,” said Thomson.
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