CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 125Menstrual Health and DisordersGender Studies and Social IssuesHypothalamic control of reproductive hormones

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 21 of the 21 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Practice and lived experience of menstrual exiles (Chhaupadi) among adolescent girls in far-western Nepal

Open access
Amatya, Prabisha, Ghimire, Saruna, Callahan, Karen E., Baral, Binaya Kumar, Poudel, Krishna C.·2018·PLoS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0208260PMC PMC6287853
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Menstrual exile, also known as Chhaupadi, is a tradition of "untouchability" in far-western Nepal. Forbidden from touching other people and objects, women and girls are required to live away from the community, typically in a livestock shed, during menstruation. We assessed the lived experiences of Chhaupadi among Nepalese adolescent girls in the far-western Achham district of Nepal, observed the safety and sanitation of their living spaces during Chhaupadi, and assessed the perceptions of local adult stakeholders towards the practice of Chhaupadi. METHODS: We collected data from 107 adolescent girls using a self-administered survey in two local schools in Achham. We also conducted a focus group discussion with seven girls, held key informant interviews, and observed the girls' living spaces during Chhaupadi, using a checklist. Descriptive statistics of the quantitative survey and thematic analyses of qualitative interviews are presented. RESULTS: The majority of the girls (n = 77, 72%) practiced exile, or Chhaupadi, during their menstruation, including 3 (4%) exiled to traditional Chhau sheds, 63 (82%) to livestock sheds, and 11 (14%) to courtyards outside their home. The remaining girls (n = 30, 28%) stayed inside the house, yet practiced some form of menstrual taboos. Of the 77 observed living spaces where the girls stayed during exile, only 30% (n = 23) had a toilet facility. Most exiled girls (97.4%) were restricted from eating dairy products. Participants reported having various psychological problems, including lonliness and difficulty sleeping while practicing Chhaupadi. Three of the girls were physically abused; nine were bitten by a snake. Notably high proportions of the living spaces lacked ventilation/windows (n = 20, 26%), electricity (n = 29, 38%), toilets (n = 54, 70%) and a warm blanket and mattress for sleeping (n = 29, 38%). Our qualitative findings supported our quantitative results. CONCLUSIONS: Chhaupadi has been condemned by human rights organizations. While the government has banned the practice, implementation on the ban is proceeding slowly, especially in far-western Nepal. Thus, as a temporary measure, public health professionals must work towards promoting the health and safety of Nepalese women and girls still practicing Chhaupadi.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pone.0208260

Cites

21 of 21 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Show all 21 references

Research works printed but not linked: 13

  1. K Seymour, 2008, Bangladesh: Tackling menstrual hygiene taboos, UNICEF Sanitation and Hygiene, Case 10
  2. United Nations, 2011, Field Bulletin: Chaupadi in the far-west
  3. K Hodal, 2016, ) Nepal’s bleeding shame: menstruating women banished to cattle sheds, The Guardian
  4. PHASE Worldwide, 2013, Chhaupadi: Giving Birth in the Cow Shed, Bristol: PHASE Worldwide
  5. D Lama, 2015, Maternal and Child Health Care in Chhaupadi Pratha, Social seclusion of mother and child after delivery in Achham, Nepal, Public Health Research Series, 22
  6. D Preiss, 2017, Law In Nepal Sets Penalties For Forcing A Woman Into A Menstrual Shed. National Public Radio, Law In Nepal Sets Penalties For Forcing A Woman Into A Menstrual Shed. National Public Radio
  7. S Pokharel, 2017, Nepal outlaws menstruation huts, but what will take their place?, CNN
  8. Bhandari R, Pandey B, Rajak M, Pantha P (2013) Chhaupadi: victimizing women of Nepal. in Jaishankar K and Ronel N (2013). Proceedings of the Second International Conference of the South Asian Society of Criminology and Victimology (SASCV), January 11–13, 2013. Tamilnadu, India.
  9. KB Karki, 2017, Scoping Review and Preliminary Mapping Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management in Nepal
  10. 2006, Adolescent nutrition: a review of the situation in selected South-East Asian Countries
  11. S Pokharel, 2017, Nepali 'menstruation hut' ritual claims life of teenage girl, CNN. New Delhi
  12. D Preiss, 2016, 15-Year-Old Girl Found Dead In A Menstrual Hut In Nepal, National Public Radio.
  13. A Gaelstel, 2013, Women in Nepal suffer monthly ostracization, The New York Times, 14

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 101–125 of 125

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Amatya, P., Ghimire, S., Callahan, K. E., Baral, B. K., & Poudel, K. C.
Affiliations
  • Pokhara University (NP)
  • University of Nevada, Las Vegas (US)
  • Nepal Medical College Teaching Hospital (NP)
  • University of Massachusetts Amherst (US)
Corresponding author
Ghimire, Saruna
ORCID
Venue
PLoS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2018-12-10
Volume
13
Issue
12
Pages
e0208260
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0208260
PMC
PMC6287853
OpenAlex
W2904190350
Cited by
125
References
21
Citations by year
2026: 19 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4
FWCI
8.09
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Scholarship - UNLV (University of Nevada Reno) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Menstrual Health and Disorders
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Studies and Social Issues
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Hypothalamic control of reproductive hormones
Keywords
menstrual taboos, adolescent girls, Far Western Nepal, sanitation, living conditions, physical abuse, psychological distress, menstrual health
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Child, Female, Humans, Hygiene, Menstruation, Nepal, Sanitation, Focus Groups, Young Adult

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review