On Thursday night, a woman and a girl were hit by a stone and were living in Tripal in Churekholi tol of Serapani, Barala, Panchdeval Vinayak Municipality-8, Achham.

A similar incident was repeated in the last week of June. At that time, Kamala Auji, who was sleeping in a shelter in Krishnapur municipality-1 Nigali of Kanchanpur, died of snakebite. There is a law to stop the practice of chaupadi . But no action is taken. Why is the series of deaths going on in Chaugoth ? Is the government not working to prevent such incidents?  Why is the tradition of going to the camp still continuing in the Far West? We have tried to explain these topics in question and answer style.

What is Chhaupadi Kupratha ? 

• In some places in the Far West, it is customary for girls and women to stay in separate sheds for 4 to 6 days when they are menstruating. The superstition seems to be rampant in this community if the deity who sits inside the house during menstruation becomes angry and evil. Therefore, girls and women during menstruation are forced to live in cramped quarters outside the house where there is not enough air and not even light.
  

This malpractice is more prevalent in Achham than in other districts of Far West. It seems that those who have migrated from the mountains have also made camp in the plains . In the Terai, this problem is especially common among those who have migrated from Acham. How does life go to intersection?  There are incidents ranging from suffocation, illness to rape and death while living in a dilapidated shed with no ventilation and leaks. After the government launched a campaign to demolish the sheds, the women started living under the tarps and in the dens. The victims of Thursday night's incident also started living in Tripal after demolishing the shed. Since 2063, 26 people living in the camp have died.

Where are the encounters, how many lost their lives?

• Even though the campaign to demolish sheds was started on the orders of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the police do not have a single data on how many slums there are in Far West, how many were demolished and how many were rebuilt. While 20 women and girls in Achham, 2 in Doti and 3 in Bajura, 1 in Kanchanpur and 1 in Kanchanpur, 26 people have died in the Far West in the incidents that took place in Chhaugoth until Friday.

According to the order of the Ministry of Home Affairs, from 075/76 to 077/78, the police have destroyed 7 thousand 454 sheds. But the unified data of deaths in Chhaugoth is not with the government .

• The series of deaths in Chaugoth continues . But what are the police-administration and local level doing ? 

Campaigns are sometimes launched to stop rape and death incidents in the neighborhood. But it seems that such campaigns disappear over time and the tradition of superstition is revived.

In the last week of June, the Krishnapur municipality warned that if the camp is not cleared within 15 days, action will be taken according to the law and a fine of 10,000 will be imposed. Soon after, the Kanchanpur district administration instructed all the local levels to carry out a campaign to demolish the encampment. In the first days, the ward offices seemed to be campaigning, but now they have slowed down.

• According to Hemraj Ojha, mayor of Krishnapur, 18 camps were demolished in Nigali area till last week. Chairman of Krishnapur-1 Mohan Basnet has formed a committee under the coordination of executive member Ratna Bohra to demolish 126 slums across the ward. After a girl was raped in Chhaugoth last year, they decided to conduct a campaign against the Chhaupadi malpractice in all 10 local levels of Achham, to demolish the Chhaugoth and take legal action against the violators, but the campaign was stopped after some time. The campaign is running but it does not continue and the local level and the police administration do not monitor it regularly, so these incidents are recurring. 

What is the law for those who consider Chhaupdi? 

The Criminal Code 2074 has taken Chhaupadi as discrimination and insulting behavior. According to sub-section 3 of section 168, there is a provision that women should not be kept in confinement or subjected to any kind of discrimination, untouchability or inhumane treatment during menstruation or childbirth. According to sub-section 4, a person who does such a thing will be punished with imprisonment for three months or a fine of three thousand rupees or both

• . If the national servant violates, there is an additional three months of imprisonment . It seems that the fact that there is such a provision in the law has not been understood in general. 

There is a law to stop poaching, but why is there no action? The police are complaining that the people's representatives have not been able to move forward to eliminate the Chhaupadi malpractice in Achham. Complaints that some people's representatives are living in slums are also made public from time to time . The police have been conducting awareness programs against Chhaupadi by going to various schools and settlements of all 10 local levels of Achham under the Community Police Partnership Program.

• In the last fiscal year, Achham Police has conducted 190 programs related to Chhaupadi malpractice across the district. Netrakaladavi Shahi, the Vice President of Dhakari Rural Municipality, complains that it is our tradition to build Chhaupdi and the people's representatives take such accidents for granted. Dhakari-1 president Uma Budha demolished the compound in her house in the presence of the police in the first week of July after allegations that the people's representative was living in a shed.

Why are government efforts to stop Chhaupadi malpractice failing one after the other?  After the incidents like deaths and rapes in Chowgoth became public, every effort made by the government has not reached a conclusion . Four years ago, after 20-year-old Parvati Budha Rawat died of suffocation in a slum in Sanfebagar Municipality-3 Siddheshwar, more than 10,000 slums were demolished in Achham on the instructions of the Ministry of Home Affairs. At that time, the Ministry had ordered to destroy the encampment in 19 districts of Far West and Karnali Provinces, raising public awareness and taking legal action against the violators. According to the same instructions, Parvati's brother-in-law Chhatra Raut was sentenced to 45 days imprisonment by the district court for forcing her to stay in the camp. In that incident, a case was registered based on the police report as no complaint was filed by the family members. The