National 3 (Spotlight Weekly)

CHHAUPADI SYSTEM

Age Old Superstition

A horror visits thousands of women in western Nepal every month when they are forced to leave in seclusion during menstruation

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

The age old superstition has affected the lives of huge number of women particularly in the western parts of the country.

Hundreds of thousands of women in Nepal are driven into seclusion during their menstrual cycle, forced by their superstitious families to live in dirty, isolated sheds where they risk contracting diseases and face other dangers such as rape.

Rampant in the mid-western and far-western regions of the country, the practice of isolation known as Chhaupadi cuts across caste divides. In some places, such sheds called Suundh are built over a mile away from the village.

In June, 25-year-old Matadevi Khadka from the far-western district of Doti - some 500 miles west of the capital Kathmandu - died after being bitten by a poisonous snake as she slept in a secluded shed during her menses.

Khadka's case is not an exception. Thousands of women in western Nepal suffer health problems and risk dying an unnatural death during their menstrual cycle because of the inhuman practice.

Barely six feet wide and four feet high, the Suundh is a narrow shed built of wood. While affluent families build proper sheds, the poorer ones use extremely dilapidated and unhygienic outhouses.

Women are considered impure during the days when they menstruate and are barred from participating in normal family activities. They are not allowed to touch men and barred from entering even the courtyard of their homes.

But this doesn't mean they are excused from work. In fact, they are compelled to engage in hard labor such as working in the fields, fetching firewood, washing clothes and so on.

Worse, they are barred from consuming milk, yoghurt, butter and other nutritious food, and have to survive on dry foods and rice. They cannot use warm blankets and are allowed only a small rug.

According to superstition, if a menstruating woman, particularly an unmarried one, touches a man, he will fall ill. Likewise, if they touch trees, they will not bear fruit. The women have to stay away from temples and other holy places. It is also believed that if these women are given milk, the cow will stop producing milk.

Says Sabitri Mahara, 30, originally from mid-western Nepal but now settled in the capital with her family, "In my village I had to practice Chhaupadi. I dreaded my periods every month. Apart from the lack of family care and a nutritious diet, there was always the danger from wild animals from the nearby forest."

Mahara adds that her family stopped compelling her to observe the tradition once they settled in the capital five years ago. "The people there are extremely illiterate and superstitious," she says.

Former minister Bhakta Bahadur Balayar who hails from Doti district agrees. "The people in that part of the country are backward and blinded by superstition. We politicians have continuously tried to convince people to discard such superstitions," he says.

The communities have refused to abandon such irrational traditions despite protests from rights activists and development workers. In villages, families that do not observe the tradition become pariahs.

The system of keeping menstruating women away from the house has led to more dangerous consequences.

Many women have been raped during their stay in isolated sheds. "There are people who stalk the Suundh if they come to know that girls are staying there and rape them," says an activist associated with the nongovernmental organization, Forum for Women, Law and Development, Basanta Basnet.

In August, 25-year-old Bhagwati Bohara was raped in her shed in far-western Nepal's Bajhang district. Her husband, in turn, drove her out of the house.

"My husband deserted me after a man raped me in the shed. What was my fault? How am I going to raise my three-year-old son now?" Bohara cries.

According to Basnet, there are hundreds of cases of rape that do not even come to light as the women don't complain fearing a social backlash.

There are 20 districts in the region where this practice is observed. The local administration, too, is largely apathetic to the problem. "One of the reasons could be that the officials of the local bodies come from the same community and are not willing to cast off deep-rooted traditions quickly," says Tek Bahadur Balayar, a native from Doti district.

The regular isolation and social exclusion has triggered severe depression and various forms of reproductive health problems among women.

"This system violates not only the right to health but also other general rights of women," says a lawyer associated with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Bipin Adhikari.

According to Adhikari, particularly nursing mothers suffer from frail health because they are not allowed nutritious food. “The cases of depression and mental trauma are also extensive,” says Basnet.

“The Chhaupadi system is observed on a variety of degree in different districts of far western region. Some districts observe it more strictly than others,” says Tek Bahadur Balayar. According to him, increasingly the system is on the wane. Particularly, in urban areas like Dhangadhi (450 miles west of Kathmandu), the system is disappearing.

“Neither the government nor others have done comprehensive research on Chhaupadi and its impact on women's health. But definitely, the cases of reproductive health problems are more rampant among women in western Nepal," says a senior Health Ministry official.

Out of Nepal's population of 23 million, five million live in the far west and mid west region. Since around 50 per cent of them are women, the number of women forced to observe Chhaupadi can be easily imagined.

The NHRC, in coordination with the government, has started a campaign to raise awareness against Chhaupadi. "Twice a week, the state-owned Radio Nepal broadcasts programs to raise awareness against Chhaupadi and the reproductive health rights of women," says Adhikari.

"The program is mainly aimed at countering the age-old superstition that is so deeply entrenched in society," he says.

The acute superstition and irrational traditions are put forth as excuses to compel all ladies of menstruating ages to live their life in seclusion for four days every month - leading to several anomalies in society as well as rise in their reproductive health problems.

The practice of considering menstruating women as impure is derived from religious beliefs. Across Nepal, among the Hindu castes, there are practices of ostracizing girls when they have first menstruation. Such girls are kept in a separate room and away from the view of male members of the family. But this is limited to only the first time whereas in Chhaupadi system of western Nepal, the women have to undergo inhuman treatment every time they have menstruation and throughout their life.