Kathmandu: In Bajura district that around 720 km west of Kathmandu, A Nepal official has launched a mission to end an ancient tradition which forces menstruating women to stay in rudimentary protections, following an incident this month when a woman and her two children were found dead in such a hut.

Shristi Regmi, Deputy Mayor of Budinanda Municipality in Bajura district said that "The practice of `chhaupadi` is an ill religious practice that has killed many women. This deeply established belief should be ended now."

On the night of January 8, Amba Bohara had been banished to the windowless mud and stone hut to wait out her menstruation and had lit a fire to keep herself and her sons, aged nine and 12, warm. When Bohara`s mother-in-law opened the door to the hut the next morning, all three were dead. According to the police, they died of suffocation due to lack of ventilation. Regmi, 26, will travel to every village in the remote Bajura - her own constituency and the district with the lowest human development index in Nepal - to demolish these huts.

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While for centuries in Nepal, menstruating women and girls have been banished from the home to separate huts although the practice was banned by the Supreme Court in 2005. In August 2017, the Nepal government criminalised the practice with a three-month jail sentence and/or a penalty of 3,000 Nepalese rupees ($30).

However, The Deputy Mayor has so far managed to take to pieces 80 menstrual huts across various municipalities. After the death of Bohara and her children, Regmi said all municipalities have been given two weeks to demolish the huts that fall within their jurisdiction.

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