Ramana Shahi of Achham's Panchdeval Vinayak Municipality-8 Barla is a ward member. Before being elected as a ward member from the Congress, she was the president of the mother group. Ramana, who has been leading the society, easily won the election. But she still hasn't overcome the Chhaupadi malpractice in the society.

She was in the forefront when the camp demolition campaign was conducted in Achham in 2076. She herself became active in demolishing more than 200 huts of Barla village. She also started staying at home. For some time, Barla was almost free of encroachment . However, this situation did not last long.

Ramana herself started living in the neighborhood again. Now she leads the society as a public representative. But she could not change herself . 

'When the campaign to destroy the camp started, I led it myself . Then the campaign stopped . Everyone in the society became one. All of the destroyed settlements were built . I also could not go away from the society . I started living in Chhaugoth,' said Ramana, 'the biggest deity of our village is Kuikelni Mai . Everyone is scared with the belief that the actual goddess will appear. Even the women who work in this closed place cannot come near.'  She said that when the

campaign started, everyone decided to keep them at home when they were menstruating, but after the campaign was stopped, they all started living in sheds . He believes that Chhaupadi custom will be removed from the village only when all the leaders of the society, the deities, and the representatives of the political parties come together.

32-year-old Basanti Saund of Chowrapati rural municipality-6 is a ward member elected by UML from the open women's quota. Her husband, who got married at the age of 16, died within a year of her marriage. Having spent half her life as a single woman, she changed her routine after becoming a public representative, but her lifestyle did not change. She still lives in the neighborhood. In his village Selpakha, every house has chaugoth . It's not that she didn't think she should stop living in the neighborhood after becoming a representative, but she couldn't dare to stay at home when she was menstruating for fear of being alone in the society.

"No one in the village agrees to stay at home during menstruation due to the fear of God". As I am lonely in the society, I am not able to stay at home during my period," she said. We are afraid that they will boycott us because we won the election.' 

It is the opinion of the Achham police that an ambush was found in the house of some people's representatives and they are still observing its practice. Achham police chief DSP Ishwari Prasad Bhandari said that he is continuously organizing programs to raise public awareness about the state of Chhaupadi system. According to him, under the community police partnership program, they are going to all 10 local schools and settlements in Achham and conducting awareness programs. He said that the people's representatives could not take the initiative to remove the Chhaupadi malpractice. He said that there is information that most of the people's representatives are staying in the camp.

'People's representatives, especially ward members, are found sitting in the quarters. It does not seem like this problem will be reduced until the people's representatives themselves take the initiative,' he said, 'Most people say they don't live in the neighborhood anymore when they meet.' But it seems to be sitting inside.' According to him, 190 programs related to Chhaupadi malpractice have been conducted by the police unit of the district in the current financial year alone. 

is a social issue, but even though the local level has taken it as an interest, there is no cooperation from educated and social leaders. It is the state's responsibility to campaign against this evil practice and reduce it. But the educated section of the society should also support,' she said, 'Every citizen needs to take it as their own issue and run a social campaign.'

Netrakaladavi Shahi, Vice President of Dhakari Rural Municipality, said that when she spoke against the people's representative living in a shed, she was being uncooperative. "Some time ago, during the training monitoring in Ward 3, women were found sitting inside their heads with tripal hanging," she said. When all the structures of the society and the executive are on one side, it is not possible to say that we will take legal action . During the campaign, all the sheds were destroyed, after that they started living in the banks of the fields with tripal hangings.

She said that the people's representatives in the rural municipality do not consider it a problem to live in Chaugoth, hanging tripals and inside Doko. People's representatives are shouting that people who believe in goddesses should not say that they should keep chhaupadi at home. Nothing can be done by women alone," she said, "People's representatives say that building a tent is our tradition. Incidents have also been taken for granted. I got tired of talking alone. Even though I am the vice-president of the village, my voice has been suppressed.' She said that nothing has been included in the policy, program and budget to reduce Chhaupadi malpractice from the municipality.

Dhakari-1 ward president Uma Budha's house was demolished by the police only on Wednesday. He said that women from all over the village would come to his shed. "There are no menstruating people at home now." Daughters have gone to study abroad. As the hut was not as narrow and dirty as others, the neighboring women used to live there,' he said, ``Now that the hut has been demolished, now we should conduct a campaign like this across the village.''   

Chhowgoth is moving with the house

Asmita Damai of Krishnapur Municipality-1 Nigali in Kanchanpur is 46 years old. His family migrated here from Sanfebagar area of Achham around 2022. After getting married at the age of 15/16, her family has moved four times . Every time, along with the wooden house, the neighborhood is being moved to a new place . Asmita lived in Mumbai, India for a long time with her husband Suke Damai for employment. When she came home, she slept in the barn. 

^{Kamala Suteke Chaugoth who died during treatment after snakebite . After his death, the shed was demolished. Photo: Bhavani Bhatt/Kantipur}

Kamala Auji Damai, a relative of Deurani, who died of snakebite during treatment last Friday night, was sleeping in her neighborhood. "My house is leaking, my sister cleaned it and said that I will sleep in your house, how can I say that," she said, "The previous day I was sleepless because my grandson was sick, I went to bed early that day, Kamala came and found out that he was sleeping, after a while he started screaming that he had been bitten by a snake and called the villagers to look for an auto." He was taken to the hospital. Asmita's camp has been demolished after Kamala died after being bitten by a snake in the camp.

Kamala, who keeps moving the house along with the house, is still in two minds, "Should we make another house or sleep inside the house?" She can't say that she can sleep inside the house. For a long time, his family has been doing wage labor in India and is now building a solid house. But the superstition that sleeping inside a concrete house will cause anger and evil has taken root in his mind. "We destroyed the barn, but the fear in my heart was not destroyed," she said, "Goddess and the people here had to destroy it too." Photo: Bhavani Bhatt/Kantipur

^{The shelter in front of the house of Kamala, who died of snake bite during treatment, was demolished only on Saturday. His family members are also confused. Krishnapur municipality on Sunday instructed all ward offices to demolish the Chhaupadi Goth within 15 days and said that if they do not do so, action will be taken according to the law and a fine of 10,000 will be imposed. "Chowgoth is meant to be destroyed, but how is our tradition destroyed?," said Jethani Rupa of Kamala, who came home from Surat, India, "In India, we used to sleep inside the house, we didn't do that, here too now it is said to destroy the chowgoth, let's see what will happen, we can't say that we can sleep inside the house now."} 

deceased

  The compound next to Kamala's house is being demolished on Saturday.  ^{On Sunday, after the death of Kamala after being bitten by a snake, the Krishnapur municipality ordered the demolition of the camp. On Monday, the district administration office also sent a letter to all the local levels to conduct a campaign to destroy the slums. Chief District Officer Laxman Dhakal has written to all the nine local levels of the district to conduct a special campaign to end the traditional bad practice by demolishing Chhaupadi Goth.}