Having your period is a big deal in Nepal, and many Americans have read about “Chappaudi” — the practice of segregating women in a hut away from contact with men each month for five to seven days. menstrual blood is “unclean” and being in the presence of a menstruating woman is to be avoided. The monthly cycle is a factor in the treatment of women. Let’s talk about it. But only if you are not — (how to say) “delicate” about it. Sometimes it reads like something from “The Handmaid’s Tale” but it is real life, right now and right here on planet earth.
Chappaudi
In rural Nepal especially in the western part of the country, the traditional practice is for women to go to a small hut outside the house and segregate themselves while menstruating. Every now and again a woman dies while doing this, maybe from a snakebite or from some illness, and it gets attention from The New York Times. The government of Nepal banned the practice in 2005. It still persists and they have cracked down on it this year.
Here is a three-minute-seventeen-second video in Nepali with English subtitles. You can listen to the attitude of the menfolk as to why segregating women is necessary ( at the 0:37 mark):
This is a dramatic example of issues surrounding menstruation, but hardly the only manifestation of the challenges faced in improving women’s health in Nepal (and the rest of South Asia for that matter).
Puberty
Young girls are not often taught anything about the onset of menstruation. The lack of health knowledge is an obstacle. Here is a teaching video to educate girls as to what to expect:
Lack of toilets at schools in Nepal
This is a parallel issue. In rural Nepal, many schools rely on open defecation. If a girl goes to school with her period, she will be subject to merciless teasing and voyeurism by the teenage boys. Often the girls drop out at puberty for this reason. There are Non-Governmental Organizations working to address this issue. Menarche ( the onset of menstruation) is a cause of female illiteracy. The government is promoting the idea of “Menstrual Health Management.”
Teen Marriage and teenage motherhood
Another issue. One way to stop having periods is to get pregnant. According to UNFPA, forty one percent of women in Nepal marry before the age of eighteen. This is among the highest rates in Asia.
Contraception
This is not widely available in rural Nepal and despite family planning campaigns, the use of condoms has not caught on.
Availability of feminine hygiene products
Yes, you can get these products in Nepal. In the rural areas women need to “make do.” In India there is now a cottage industry to recycle old cloth into homemade substitutes. I don’t have firm data as to how this is handled in Nepal. I know these products are widely available in cities. Simply not a discussion I have had.
Needing a first-born son
Rituals at time of cremation promote the idea that a favorable rebirth is more likely when there is a first-born son to lead the send-off. Abortion is legal in Nepal. Sex-selective abortion ( i.e., aborting a female fetus) is illegal.
Segregation during childbirth
Until recently, women were expected to go outside the house to deliver; the majority of births took place in a non-hospital setting. Often the woman would give birth over a bed of straw in a shed used for animals. The government began an incentive program for women to deliver in hospitals.
Human trafficking
This also has gained international attention.
“Bride-Burning”
Is also a gender issue. This is related to the dowry system, which is still practiced though illegal.
Solidarity
Because of all the above phenomena, ( or maybe in spite of it) women’s culture in Nepal is one of solidarity and banding together in support. This is paradoxical and amazing.
What prompted this diary
I’m here in Kathmandu and I write a blog about my activities. May 12th was International Nurses Day ( celebrated on Florence NIghtingale’s birthday), and I attended a small ceremony at a school of nursing here in Kathmandu where they have instituted a training program in midwifery. This is supported by the German Development Fund and modeled after their efforts in Bangladesh. I don’t consider myself an expert in women’s health, though in my career I formerly taught maternity nursing at a school of nursing here in the USA. The list above is not exhaustive but it gives you a flavor of the issues and challenges in cultures other than what we think of as “Mainstream American.”