KATHMANDU: An eleventh grader, who was banished from her house in Achham following her period, was found dead on Sunday night.

The deceased has been identified as Gauri Budha (22), a permanent resident of Bhairavsthan at Turmakhand Rural Municipality-3 in the district. The place was declared ‘Chhaupadi free zone’ some two years ago.

The victim’s family went into the hut where Budha was kept as she did not wake up till late in the morning. She was a high school student at a local Kalikeshwori Higher Secondary School.

“She worked whole day in a farm on Sunday and seemed normal. She had no complains of any uneasiness,” informed her father-in-law Dambar Bahadur Budha.

Budha's husband works in the Nepal Police and the family has been waiting for his arrival to perform her last rites.

Chhaupadi was criminalised in the country under the Civil Code on August 9, 2017. Women, however, continue to fall prey to this superstitious practice.