A teenage girl has tragically died in Nepal after she suffered smoke inhalation from being banished to a ‘menstruation hut’.
The 15-year-old girl was taking part in “Chhaupadi,” a common practice in the far west of the country where women, considered unclean during menstruation, are removed from their communities during their periods.
The girl’s death was the second one in just under a month from Gajra village in western Nepal’s Achham district.
Police inspector Badri Prasad Dhakal said 10 girls have died in similar huts in the district over the past nine years, CNN reports.
“Deaths are usually caused by smoke inhalation, snake bites (and) lack of basic health care during menstruation,” he said.
Chhaupadi is a historic practice where women are removed from their house and have to live in a shed.
This lasts 10 to 11 days when a teenage girl has her first period and four to seven for every following one. Childbirth also results in a 10 to 11-day confinement.
The huts they live in are small and sometimes have no windows, poor sanitation, and minimal ventilation.
Women and girls cannot touch other people, cattle, green vegetables, or plants and fruits while in the huts, a 2011 United Nations report states.
“Some in the Far West still believe that a God or Goddess may be angered if the practice is violated, which could result in a shorter life, the death of livestock or destruction of crops,” the report said.
They are also barred from consuming milk, yogurt, butter, meat, and have to survive on a diet of dry foods, salt, and rice.
They are only allowed to have a small rug and are restricted from going to school or taking a bath.
Chhaupadi was outlawed by Nepal’s Supreme Court in 2005 and the government had planned to ban it nationally, but it still exists in the country’s far west.