Nepal failing to protect women? 15-year-old dies in 'menstruation hut'

What's a 'menstruation hut?' 00:46
Story highlights
10 women and girls have died practising
chhaupadi in the past decade
Practice dates back centuries and has its roots in
Hindu taboos over menstruation
(CNN) — Deep in the Himalayas, the night rolled
in and a girl in a tiny hut lit a fire to keep warm.
As she slept, the 15-year-old died of smoke
inhalation. She was alone, separated from her
community because of a biological function that
half the world's population will experience.
The girl, from Gajra village in western Nepal's
Achham district, was taking part in chhaupadi, a
common practice in the far west of the country
in which women, considered unclean during
menstruation, are banished for the extent of their
periods.
Her death was the second in under a month,
according to Achham district police inspector
Badri Prasad Dhakal, who added that 10 girls
have died in similar huts in the district over the
past nine years.
Banished
Chhaupadi dates back centuries and has its
roots in Hindu taboos over menstruation.
As well as being isolated in tiny "menstruation
huts" -- small, ramshackle buildings with small
doors and often no windows and poor sanitation
and ventilation -- women and girls are forbidden
from touching other people, cattle, green
vegetables and plants, and fruits, according to a
2011 United Nations report .
They are also not allowed to drink milk or eat
milk products and their access to water taps and
wells is limited.
"Some in the Far West still believe that a God or
Goddess may be angered if the practice is
violated, which could result in a shorter life, the
death of livestock or destruction of crops," the
report said.
"It is believed by some that if a woman touches
fruits, they will fall before they are ripe. If she
fetches water, the well will dry up."
In some areas, the restrictions extend to girls
reading, writing or touching books during
menstruation out of fear of angering Saraswati,
the goddess of education.
Restrictions
Chhaupadi was outlawed by Nepal's Supreme
Court in 2005 and the government promulgated
guidelines three years later to eradicate it
nationally, but chhaupadi persists, particularly in
the country's far west.
Overall statistics are unavailable, but the
practice is most common in Achham, Doti and
Bajura districts.
Gajra village was declared a "chhaupadi-free
zone" in 2015, but Achham women's
development officer Bhagwati Aryal said that
more than 70% of the 138,000 women in the
district still perform the practice.
"Our law has banned this practice, but there is
no provision in the law which states punishment
for those involved," she said. "Until and unless
we have a stricter law with punishment for the
culprits, changes will come very slow."
Around 1,500 people live in Gajra, according to
government statistics . Birendra Niraula,
spokeswoman for the Ministry of Women,
Children and Social Welfare, said the
"chhaupadi-free zone" categorization was
achieved when 90% of the houses in any village
had dropped the practice.
"Local shamans started telling parents that any
bad luck that has befallen the village was due to
girls and women breaking the chhaupadi
tradition," she said. "So parents in some villages
started to get their daughters and wives back to
following the practice again."
While the 15-year-old's death was "very tragic,"
Niraula said such incidents were "very rare these
days, which is a good sign."
Discrimination
While some success has been made in stamping
out chhaupadi, the practice is a symptom of
wider gender-discrimination in Nepal.
According to UNESCO, around 45% of women and
girls in Nepal are illiterate, almost double the rate
for men.
A study by the Office of the Prime Minister and
Council of Ministers in 2012 found that almost
half of women had experienced gender-based
violence in their lifetimes, while 28% had
experienced it in the past 12 months.
More than 60% of women who experienced such
violence did not share or discuss their
experiences with anyone.
Child marriage is also prevalent, with 37% of
girls marrying before they are 18, and 10% before
they are 15, according to Human Rights Watch.
"These marriages result from a web of factors
including poverty, lack of access to education,
child labor, social pressures, and harmful
practices," HRW said.
"Cutting across all of these is entrenched gender
inequality, and damaging social norms that make
girls less valued than boys in Nepali society."