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One more girl victim of Chhaupadi


Parbati Budha an Eighteen-year-old was found dead while  being in the Chhaupadi hut  at Turmakhand Rural Municipality-4 in Achham district.

It has been reported that  she was bitten by a poisonous snake on Saturday night. The incident happened while the victim was asleep with her friend Radhika Budha in the hut.

Chhaupadi tradition has been  deep rooted in the western parts of the country, wherein menstruating women are considered impure and forced to live in small huts during the menstrual period.

Similarly in January, Gauri Bayak (Budha), 22, was found dead by her neighbours inside a Chhaupadi hut in Turmakhand-3. Villagers suspect that she might have died of smoke suffocation from the fire she had lit to keep herself warm inside the hut.

Abolishing the tradition of chhaupadi, the Nepal government through its parliament has criminalized the practice of chhaupadi as a crime.  The new law, which will come into effect in a year’s time, stipulates a three-month jail sentence or a 3,000 rupee fine ($30), or both, for anyone forcing a woman to follow the custom.

In 2005 the Nepal’s Supreme Court banned chhaupadi as a human rights violation, but due to its cultural and tradition it is widely in rural parts of Nepal.

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