Nepali court sides with women

The Supreme Court of Nepal has ordered the government to declare illegal the practice of chhaupadi within the month and to enact the needed laws to ban the �evil custom.�

�I dread my period every month,� says Kamala, a 16-year-old Nepali. She and several thousands of women from mid-western Nepal are banned from their homes and forced to stay in often dirty, isolated and unsafe sheds when they have their menstrual periods.

The court made the ruling after a public interest litigation was filed against the malpractice by a group of activists more than a year ago. The Ministry of Health was also tasked to conduct a study on the impact of the chhaupadi system within three months, while the Ministry of Local Government was ordered to mobilise local bodies to conduct an awareness campaign against the practice.

Untouchables
Girls and women in Nepal and much of South Asia are considered impure during menstruation, childbirth and after childbirth. They have to live with various restrictions - such as being forbidden to enter temples and to attend religious ceremonies during their period - for a great part of their lives.

Of these taboos, among the worst is the chhaupadi practice in mid- and far-western Nepal. Menstruating women are barred from family activities and kept in seclusion in sheds for four days, whereas girls menstruating for the first time and women who have given birth have to stay outside their homes for ten to 11 days.

Some of these outhouses are built almost a mile away from the village; many are extremely dilapidated and unhygienic. Women are forbidden to use blankets and are asked to survive on rice and dry food. Yet they are still burdened with hard labour such as working in fields, gathering wood and washing clothes.

Harmful practice
Nutritional deprivation and unhygienic conditions have resulted in various long-term illnesses and reproductive health problems among women. In some cases, the practice has led to deaths of mothers or their infants due to infections during childbirth. The regular isolation and social exclusion have also triggered severe depression and mental trauma. Girls, pressured to miss school for a few weeks, often drop out of school for good.

There have also been reports of wild animal attacks, as well as rape and sexual molestation during the women's stay at the sheds. According to Basanta Basnet of Forum for Women, Law and Development, there are hundreds of cases of rape that do not even come to light as the women do not complain for fear of a social backlash.

More needs to be done
Women's rights activists welcomed the court's decision, saying that this upholds their right to equality and is a positive move in removing the traditional discrimination against women. They say that the ruling is not enough, however.

For one, it applies only to chhaupadi, and does not cover other forms of discrimination faced by Nepali women in other parts of the country, such as being banned from participating in religious ceremonies during their menstrual cycle. Pushpa Bhusal, a leading lawyer in the country, also cautioned that changing the law is not enough; people need to be educated against this harmful practice.

The government's political commitment to gender equality will be put to the test as well. As Dr. Aruna Upreti, a women's health and rights activist, posed: �Now that the Supreme Court has given its verdict, will the government try to make up for lost time? Will it enact the law quickly, before more women are forced to live through this humiliation? Or are more women going to lose their lives after they bring forth new life in solitary confinement of their chhaupadi huts?�

Background:
Nepal is one of the few countries in the world where life expectancy of men exceeds that of women. Its maternal mortality rate is among the highest in the world (415 deaths per 100,000 live births compared to Sweden's 2 out of 100,000), while its infant mortality rate is 64.2 per 1,000 live births. The low status of Nepali women, poverty, and some of Nepal's socio-cultural practices, particularly the chhaupadi system, prevent women from accessing and utilising crucial health services and contribute to these high death rates.

Sources: CWDS-Bol, BBC News, Nepali Times, and nepalnews.com and studentBMJ.

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