 A 23-year-old woman in Nepal was on Tuesday found dead at an isolated hut where she was left alone as part of a long-banned ancient Hindu practice that banishes women from the home during menstruation, a media report said.Many communities in Nepal view menstruating women as impure and in some remote areas they are forced to sleep in a hut away from home during their periods, a custom known as "Chhaupadi".Police said that Gauri Bayak (Budha) was found dead by her neighbours inside the Chhaupadi hut (menstruation hut) yesterday at Turmakhad Rural Municipality-3 in Achham district, The Kathmandu Post reported. The deceased has been identified as Gauri Budha (22), a permanent resident of Bhairavsthan at Turmakhand Rural Municipality-3 in the district. 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. Though, the practice of Chhaupadi (a custom that sends women to isolation during the monthly period) is banned by law in Nepal, women continue to fall prey to this deeply rooted ill tradition. It may be noted that the Women and Children Office, with the support of the Save the Children, declared Bhairabsthan chhaupadi-free zone two years ago. Chhaupadi was illegal in Nepal since 2005 while it was criminalsed in the Civil Code earlier this year.
– A 22-year-old woman was found dead this week in Nepal after being sent to a so-called menstruation hut by her family to wait out her period, the Kathmandu Post reports. Gauri Budha's family found her body after going to the hut to check on her. Her father-in-law says she had spent Sunday working on a farm "and seemed normal." He says "she had no complaints of any uneasiness." According to News18, the cause of death is not yet known, but villagers speculate Budha, a student, may have died from smoke inhalation after starting a fire in the menstruation hut to keep warm. The practice of Chhaupadi, in which women are sent into isolation during menstruation, has been illegal in Nepal since 2005, and the Himalayan Times reports it was made a criminal offense in August. The district where Budha lived was declared a "Chhaupadi-free zone" two years ago. However, the practice still persists. Two other women from Budha's district were found dead in menstruation huts last year. (An 18-year-old Nepali woman banished during her period last July died from a snake bite.)