Chhaupadi
- By Koyelia Sirkar
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- 05 Apr, 2016
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The illegal (and borderline inhumane) practice that's severely harming women in Western Nepal.
Fast forward a few days to when I'm on a Skype call with my no more taboo. colleagues and we are discussing the work to be done in Nepal when our CEO, Chloe, visits the country. It was then that Chloe informed us about a practice called “chhaupadi” followed by a lot of women in the rural areas of west Nepal.
And that was when I realised, I don’t have it worse than anyone else on the planet; what I need to deal with is a walk in the park in comparison to what women go through during chhaupadi.
Chhaupadi literally means “untouchable being”, and what you have to do during this is every bit as repulsive as the name itself.
If you are a menstruating woman in the western regions of Nepal in a village where chhaupadi is still prevalent, you are expected to exclude yourself from the rest of the civilisation for the next 5 days, until you are "pure" again to be brought back into society.
So when you start menstruating, you have to live in tiny makeshift huts for the next five days. Mind you, Nepal being in the Himalayas is cold for most part of the year. Insulation to keep you warm is a far away dream when the rickety walls of these huts are made of mud and the roofs are thatched offering zero protection from not just natural adversities but also wild animals and rogue men. Cases of sexual assault and abduction of women practising chhaupadi are not unheard of. The female relatives of these menstruating women bring food for them into the hut and throw it in their general direction making sure that in no way they touch them or acknowledge their presence.
These women could, in some ways, be considered luckier than others who need to practise chhaupadi by sharing the same shed as the neighbourhood’s cows. They sleep on the floors strewn with cattle food and dung, again with no source of heat to keep them warm and no secure doors to keep away intruders.
If you subject a young girl to these (mentally and physically scarring) conditions and ingrain in them the belief that they are “impure” when they are menstruating, they will never ever learn to respect themselves. They will grow up accepting that God has intended them to be treated as untouchables during their menstruation and they deserve to be kept away from their families and households in order to protect them. It's believed if you do not practise chhaupadi you will bring misfortune on your community, such as ill health of a relative, spoilt crops, or even an earthquake.
Chhaupadi was banned by Nepal’s Supreme Court in 2005 but it is still being practised in several villages. A lot of people in Nepal are of the opinion that the Government has not taken active steps to eradicate it since passing the law to make it illegal. Families trying to stand up for their women are ostracised and sort of disowned by their communities.
It now lies in the hands on both the Government and the NGO’s in Nepal to advance the work and educate the women and their families in these rural areas to ensure that the girls in these villages who are about to reach menarche are not victims of this detrimental practice in future and that they receive timely and adequate guidance to help them understand their own bodies and the natural process of menstruation better. Everyone involved must work with the communities rather than against them to help improve and reduce the restrictions put on their daughters by chhaupadi.
no more taboo. CEO, Chloe Tingle, has been spending the last few weeks talking to several organisations in Nepal to understand the practices and traditions surrounding menstruation in Nepal in depth to see how we can help these women.
You can watch Chole’s vlog on chhaupadi here -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsiUwEdyWM8
and follow our Nepal vlog series here -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho1paZ5N2bA&list=PLQgy3eKmVf9tn-uh_Cxj31nis1VoB7wkW
To find out more about chhaupadi watch:
-This short documentary video by The Guardian for first hand accounts from women performing chhaupadi and a shaman explaining why women SHOULD keep practising chhaupadi:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/video/2016/apr/01/menstruating-nepalese-women-confined...
-This fantastic interactive documentary put together by Aljazeera in colaboration with NFCC one of the organisations no more taboo. has visited in Nepal. http://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2015/BanishedNepal/index.html
- Koyelia Sirkar, Head of Global Communications
WOW Women of the World festivals have been popping up across the world, if you get the chance to go along to one we would strongly recommend it.
WOW – Women of the World festival celebrates women and girls, and looks at the obstacles that stop them from achieving their potential.
Around the world, individuals and communities are insisting on the simple proposition that women and girls must have equal rights and asking the question: why is gender equality taking so long?
Southbank Centre's WOW – Women of the World festival is a global network of festivals which provides a platform for celebrating what has been achieved, and exploring all the ways we can change the world for the better.
What’s not to love?
Our Founder, Chloe, and her Mum Angela went along to represent No More Taboo with a stall across the two days. Here’s her highlights:
“Although we didn’t get much time to take in all the discussions as we were kept busy wo-manning the stall (thanks Mum for helping out)! We had some great discussions around gender, equality, inclusivity and of course periods with new customers, supporters, other panellists and some old friends who came to see us.
In fact, we were really pleased to catch up with Plan International UK who were opening the festival with a discussion about Period Activism exactly one year on since the launch of our #BreaktheBarriers research and Period Poverty Conference that we ran in collaboration with Plan.
On the first weekend of September, No More Taboo set up shop at Lush Cribbs Causeway for their Charity Pot weekend.
The Lush Charity Pot is a wonderfully creamy shea-butter hand lotion where all the sales money (excluding VAT) goes towards a chosen charity or non-for-profit. This scheme is designed to help boost grass-roots, small and local organisations, like ourselves, financially so that we can continue to do the work we do such as our Tackling Period Poverty programme.
As we were Lush’s chosen organisation for the weekend of the 1-2 September, one of our volunteers, Iloni, and one of our advisors, Carolyn, went along to wo-man the (suitably Lush-styled aesthetic) stall that Lush had kindly provided for us. We took along a range of our products, stacks of leaflets and information as well as our enthusiasm for talking about all things to do with periods.
Over the weekend, we sold over £200’s worth of stock with Ruby Cups and Honour Your Flow re-usable pads proving most popular with Lush customers. On top of this, Lush sold so many of their Charity Pots that £340.60 was raised for No More Taboo – which was amazing!
However exciting the money side of things were with this event, what I personally took away as being the real highlight of the weekend was the number and nature of conversations we shared with customers.
Mothers and daughters came and chatted to us about how they agreed it was so important to use re-usable products for personal and financial reasons as well as for the planet’s sake. Boyfriends accompanied their other halves as they prodded and probed the range of menstrual cups on display. Older women commented on how it’s such a relief to be able to talk about menstruation in public and with people you’ve only just met. They regaled of a time when periods were even more hush-hush and celebrated with us out mission of there being No More Taboo.
We would like to thank Lush Cribbs Causeway for being such wonderful hosts, encouraging every customer that came through their doors to consider buying the Charity Pot or simply to chat with us. Each member of their staff team was incredibly warm and so keen to find out more about what we do. On behalf of all of us at No More Taboo, thank you.
For more information, take a look at their website: https://www1.uwe.ac.uk/whatson/biggreenweek.aspx
Read more here: https://www.wen.org.uk/environmenstrual-week-of-action/
