Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, March 28:

A forty-minute long documentary “Chhaupadi” screened today revealed the trauma that women of the Far Western region have to undergo every month, during their menstruation.

In the name of hackneyed culture and traditions, the women are compelled to sleep in open sheds or stuffy cow-sheds without windows and forced to cook their own food as long they going through their monthly cycle, though that is the time when they need to be taken care of the most. The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare and Mainstreaming Gender Equity Programme and the United Nations Development Programme jointly screened the documentary. The documentary highlighted the insecurity and physical difficulties that women have to face while languishing in dark, narrow and unhygienic cowsheds. The documentary also came up with incidents of snakebite and rape in course of following silly traditions. Jogini Sunar, Indira Debi Khadka from the Far West narrated their litany of woes, describing their difficulties and insecurity during such times. The documentary also underscored that the chances of women and girls sleeping in open sheds were high.

The documentary highlighted that many cases go unreported. It advocated for stopping this evil practice and urged that it be dealt with according to a proper government policy. People should be eductaed about the futility of such social practices, so that charity begins to begin at home. The documentary also urged people to begin accepting menstruation as a natural phenomenon. Durga Shrestha, Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare said the practice of isolating menstruating women was a form of social violence, and it needs to be eliminated from society. Secretary Rabindra Man Joshi said every individual, organisation, class needs to make efforts to eliminate such malpractices from society.