Banished To A 'Menstrual Shed,' A Teen In
Nepal Is Bitten By A Snake And Dies
July 10, 2017·4:33 PM ET

For three nights, Tulasi Shahi slept in the
cowshed underneath her home in Nepal's
western Dailekh district because she was on
her period. In western Nepal, many families
believe it is a sin for menstruating women to
sleep inside the home and could bring bad
luck.
On her third night in the shed — last
Wednesday — a snake entered, so on
Thursday night the 18-year-old moved to the
cowshed at her uncle's house, according to
Anita Gyawali, the women's development
officer in the district. That night, a snake
breached the uncle's shed, this time biting
Shahi on the hand.
Shahi's family brought her to a Hindu
shaman, who performed rituals from 10 p.m.
til 6 the next morning before declaring she
needed a doctor. The local health clinic was
unable to treat her, lacking a supply of
antivenom, according to the New York Times .
Shahi died en route to the hospital a few hours away on Friday.


A Girl Gets Her Period And Is Banished To
The Shed: #15Girls
Snakebites are common during Nepal's rainy
summer, but the fact that Shahi died from a
snakebite while in menstrual seclusion has
brought renewed attention to the practice —
and renewed calls to end it.
Sleeping outside the house, called chaupadi,
is one of the most extreme forms of
restrictions for menstruating girls and women
in certain parts of Nepal. Women across the
country observe a wide-ranging set of rules
based on the belief that menstruation is
impure.
Nepal's Supreme Court banned chaupadi in
2005 as a human rights violation, but it
remains widespread in certain parts of the
country, where fears of consequences for
breaking menstrual taboos retain a tight grip.
A 2010 government study found 19 percent of
Nepali women practiced chaupadi, but in the
mid- and far-west, where Shahi lived, the
figure was closer to 50 percent. A
government study in another western district,
Jumla, put the figure at 74 percent this year.
Tulasi Shahi's death is just one of several
incidents in which young women have died
while practicing chaupadi.
Gyawali says around a month and a half
earlier, 16-year-old Lal Sara B.K. died of a
snakebite while practicing chaupadi. She lived
in the same area as Shahi.
"Lal Sara's case was never discussed
anywhere," Gyawali says. "When Tulasi's
accident happened people started talking
about it and people from those places started
coming and saying, 'oh no, this is serious and
wrong.' So change is happening but it's very
slow."
The government did in fact promise change
after two highly publicized chaupadi-related
deaths in the neighboring Achham district
last year: Dambara Upadhyay, whose cause
of death was not determined, and 15-year-
old Roshani Tiwari, whose death was
attributed to smoke inhalation.
Activists hoped the government would start
enforcing its ban on the practice. After the
2016 deaths, then prime minister Kamal
Pushpa Dahal expressed public concern, and
the government considered punishing families
who perpetuate the practice. Local officials
started publicly tearing down the sheds,
including the shed Roshani Tiwari died in,
according to Shiva Raj Dhungana, a journalist
who covered her case in Achham district.
But the practice continues, and families face
no consequences for adhering to it. "There is
no change," Dhungana says of Achham. "The
families in the area right around where the
two women died are still staying outside in
unsafe conditions during menstruation."
Pragya Lamsal, a development worker who
focuses on sanitation and hygiene issues,
says Achham had been declared "chaupadi-
free" before the 2016 deaths. She says
families don't abandon the practice because
they fear neighbors will shun them if they
buck the tradition.
For its part, the government says it's doing
its best against a deep-rooted cultural
practice. Toyam Raya, the spokesperson for
the Ministry tasked with women's, children's
and social issues, says the law just doesn't
work. "The government cannot go and directly
say, this is wrong you have to pay a fine,
we'll throw you in jail, these kinds of things,
because people have believed these things
for a very long time," he says. Raya says
building awareness (which he says the
government is doing through various
programs) not law enforcement, are the
solution.
Critics say that education isn't enough. Isha
Nirola, a reproductive health advocate with
the organization Possible Health, says
chaupadi-related deaths should be viewed as
any other death related to domestic violence.
In her opinion, the death of 15-year-old
Roshani Tiwari was a case of child abuse.
"It's very clear that this is against the law,"
Nirola says. "So the fact that the government
is not enforcing this [law] is problematic. It's
not simply that traditional beliefs trump the
law."
Nirola cites the practice of sati, once
prevalent in Nepal and India, in which a
widow was made to immolate herself on her
husband's funeral pyre. Sati has been
outlawed in Nepal since 1920 and is no
longer practiced. Nirola says chaupadi needs
robust law enforcement, in addition to
awareness, to be eradicated.
Anita Gyawali, the women's development
officer, says the most powerful actors in the
fight against chaupadi could be religious
leaders and shamans, like the one who
attempted to treat Roshani Shahi after the
snakebite. She believes if these traditional
healers can be convinced to spread the
message that menstruation is normal, that
"during periods you need to eat good food,
drink good water, stay in a good place,"
communities may take their word for it.


www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/07/10/536483652/banished-to-a-menstrual-shed-a-teen-in-nepal-is-bitten-by-a-snake-and-dies

So sad.....