Chhaupadi: A Cage Over Tradition
Howard University
Professor Dr. Mika Turim
ENGW—102 -94
16 October 2022
Chhaupadi: A Cage Over Tradition
A Testimonial by Hari Paudel
Geographically speaking, the western region of Nepal is where people say that we rank worst overall in all categories, whether it’s aptitude, infrastructure, or let’s say literacy. From personal observation, I'd like to offer the viewpoint of a girl who lives in this area and tell a story in her own voice and pretend to be her till the end. As a fourteen-year-old, imagine waking up with a steep feeling of dread in your stomach. As a girl, living in this region is like living the life of a raccoon, or to put it another way, living in the classical era while the rest of the world evolves. It was a fine, average morning for me as a girl of 14. The day was pretty cold. Yeah!! why wouldn’t it be? I was experiencing something unusual within my body on this day. Even after waking up at 9 o’ clock with a full 8 hours of sleep, I was kind of feeling dizzy, with pain near to my stomach that I had never encountered in my entire body before. I'd perhaps be electrocuted and have the superheated fire of a live volcano's magma inside me than suffer through this unbearable pain. After around 15 minutes, I found myself with a red and pale like sticky smelly substance in my undergarment. That first menstruation was a complete surprise to me. I was concerned because I had heard stories about neighborhood girls my age, including my elder sister and her friends, who were forced to live apart from their families.
I vividly recalled how I shivered even though I was only two doors away at my home while my sister was talking about Rita, a friend close to her, a few months back. Despite Rita's story's horrifying conclusion—that she passed away from a blood shortage while resting in the shed in Chhaupadi—I listened intently. It took me about an hour to realize that ovulation follows a consistent monthly pattern for every woman. In addition, I realized from my subconscious memory that I had heard the phrase "Chhaupadi" somewhere, and I asked myself, "Do I need to distance myself from my family?" If not, society will force my parents to treat me brutally. My own heartbeat had never been as audible to me as it was that day, with various thoughts spinning around about Chhaupadi, which not only requires every girl to stay away from family, but also forces them to live in cow sheds and its dung, or in a barely-roofed, open-to-the-sky menstruation hut.
ENGW-102
Hari Paudel
MP2 Final Paper
According to the National Census of Nepal done nationwide in 2015, nearly 63% of the local population of western rural regions of Nepal live below the poverty line, and when it comes to literacy rate it’s not that good; instead, it’s unbelievably only 55 percent. To this day, most of the girls in our western region -- nearly 70 percent -- use rags made into their sanitary pads instead of actual hygienically labeled napkins. Because girls aren’t being raised with enough of a voice to outgrow this tradition, it’s still being done in a few places, and the results are severely detrimental to the girls.
The majority of the female population in this area consists of girls who are deprived of a high-quality education, yet if they were to be educated, they would become aware enough to distinguish harmful effects and draw the line to create a better environment for a flourishing society on their own. Furthermore, by making education a top priority, future generations will have ample reason to thank those who took the initiative to end this trend.
You will see in stark relief how badly treated women are even now as a result of Nepal's decision to make Chhaupadi an illegal human act since 2005 in response to the UN Human Rights Commission's concern. It is still used in some places despite the Nepalese constitution's declaration that it is forbidden. According to statistics, there will be no more Chhaupadi instances by the end of this decade since the government is working with numerous NGOs and INGOs such as SAATHI, UNESCO, SAWF(South Asian Women’s Fund) and a bunch of others to make the mission more successful, and the results are promising.
Paper published in Journal of Clinical Gynecology & Obstetrics have shown major brutal consequences from Chhaupadi; women frequently suffer from VAGINAL bacterial infections as a result of poor sanitation, particularly during their menstrual cycles, which can lead to ovarian cancer.If authorities in charge of local level curriculum development took charge to make improvements it wouldn't have to be this way.
Returning to my story as a 14-year-old girl, everything I had to go through was just me and my pain. Though - and believe me when I say that I never imagined myself sharing this story while laying in a hospital bed surrounded in a blue sheet. My family's safety was put at risk by neighbors who warned my parents that "the consequences will be severe, and you will be made liable for not sending your daughter to Chhaupadi."I basically had no choice but to stay in that cow shed. I can still clearly recall being bitten by a poisonous snake up close, but luckily a farmer stepped in when I shouted in pain beside the shed. After the snake bite incident, I was almost totally unconscious before being taken to the hospital, where I later awoke. I hardly knew the person whose rescue saved my life when I opened my eyes. I couldn't be more grateful that it gave me a fresh lease on life, as the doctors said. This episode also gave me hope that both good and evil can coexist in each society, and I'm optimistic that things will improve.
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