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Family ostracised for shunning Chhaupadi
DOTI, FEB 02 -
A family from Chhatiwan VDC-7 in Doti district has had to face ostracism from the community for not following Chhaupadi, a tradition wherein girls and women are kept in isolation du-ring menstruation as they are consi-dered impure and untouchable.
Gagan Singh B.K. and his family have been barred from social events and gatherings for his decision to let his wife stay inside the house and perform regular household chores during her periods. Even B.K.’s parents avoid the food cooked by his wife just because she didn’t keep herself in Chhaupadi confinement during menstruation.
B.K. poured out his frustration at Tuesday’s VDC council meeting, in which women crusading against Chhaupadi in the VDC were honoured.
B.K. said for the last five years or so his neighbours have been passing sarcastic remarks at him and his family members accusing them of disregarding tradition.
“I advised my wife not to practice chhaupadi as it was dangerous for a woman to stay secluded away from home at night,” B.K. said. “And for that my family is hated.”
Menstruating women are kept in cow sheds away from home for five days, often leading to their deaths.
B.K. added that his repeated pleas to organisations working against the Chhaupadi system for justice went unheeded. “These organisations are using the Chhaupadi issue just to make money. They don’t care what my family is going through because of this tradition,” B.K. lamented. “My own neighbours treat me and my family as untouchables.”
Krishna Pariyar of EDC, an organisation working for Dalit rights, said it was appaling to hear of vi-llagers mistreating B.K. and his family for discontinuing the Chhaupadi prac-tice.
VDC Secretary Birendra Pant pledged to appeal to the community “to create conducive environment” in the village so that B.K. and his family could live without discrimination. “What the B.K. family did against the Chhaupadi tradition is exemplary. Instead of shunning and snubbing the family, everyone should respect their struggle and the ordeals they went through against this anti-social practice.”
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