Chhaupadi

Chhaupadi is a system practiced in the far western region of Nepal where women are considered impure during their menstruation period and are barred from participating in normal family activities. The affected women are kept in the shed with cows and other animals. This process is done for 11 days when an adolescent girl has her period for the first time, and then it is repeated every month for four to seven (4 - 7) days.

This is also practiced for 11 days when a woman delivers a child.

Women are not allowed to touch men, and are even forbidden to enter the courtyard of their own homes. They are barred from consuming milk, yogurt, butter, and other nutritious food, for fear they will forever make those goods impure. The women must survive on a diet of dry foods, salt, and rice. They cannot use warm blankets and are allowed only a small rug; most commonly only things like "jute sacks". They are also restricted from going to school or performing their daily functions like taking a bath. They are made to stay in the dangerous and hazardous condition of the shed.

This system is based on the superstition that women is impure during their menstruation period. Thus, in this superstitious logic, if she touches the tree it will never again bear fruit, if she consumes milk the cow will not give anymore milk, if she reads a book about Saraswoti (the goddess of Education), will become angry, if she touches a man, he will be ill.

Many people are raising their voices to abolish these practices, and recently, a case has been filed in the Supreme Court of Nepal to forever eliminate these cruelties.

External links

• (BBC) Women hail menstruation ruling