Bajura locals start rebuilding demolished Chhaupadi huts

BY SHER BAHADUR SHARKI

Bajura, Oct. 23: The construction of Chhaugoth, a shed where menstruating women are forced to live, has started again in Bajura district. Earlier, in January 2020, the local representatives in collaboration with the Nepal police, had demolished more than 500 sheds there.

Local women have said that after the campaign fizzled out, the villagers have resume building sheds in fear of shamans. Kavita BK of Budhiganga Municipality-10 said that the shamans were compelling the villagers to build the sheds in breach of the government order.  

Many menstruating women had started living inside the house when the shed demolition campaign was at its peak, said BK and added that now as the monitoring has lost steam, they are made to suffer again.  

Menstruating women are now compelled to stay for up to five days in those sheds, built far away from their homes.

Due to the deep-rooted menstrual taboos and superstitions among shamans, many menstruating women have now been compelled to live sheds, she added. In the past, such women have suffered from pneumonia, asthma, pain in hands and feet, and other diseases or have even lost their lives prematurely.  

Pooja Rawat of Budhiganga Municipality-10 reported having asthma after sleeping in a cold place during her periods. "Sometimes I have my period twice a month. During the cold season, I had to sleep in a shed for ten days in a month, causing me to suffer from asthma and swollen hands and knees,” said Rawat. 

Recalling how relieved they felt when the shed demolition campaign started in the village, Rawat said that the women were now compelled to sleep in the cold dark place again.  

The police administration and the local government are against the practice. But due to cruelty unleashed by the shamans, the sheds are being rebuilt, said BK. 

Though the local government has conducted various programme to end it, the evil practice is deeply entrenched in the shamans’ minds. Manisha Rawal, a social activist, said that this practice still exists because of the fear shamans have put on the women’s minds that menstruating women living inside the house makes the deities angry.  

Despite being aware of the evil practice, women are helpless in going against the imposed norms. Many menstruating women are even restricted from eating dairy products. In Bajura, a mother and her two sons died in the Chhaupadi shed in Budinanda Municipality in 2019. 

After this incident, the Ministry of Home Affairs had directed the chief district officer to launch the campaign to demolish Chhuapadi huts. Around 511 such huts were demolished in the two fiscal years, 2018/19 and 2019/20. 

Surya Bahadur Thapa, chief of District Police Office Bajura, said that they would conduct various public awareness programmes reaching the place where the sheds are being built.