Content warning: gender discrimination and sexual assault
According to the World Health Organisation, there are an estimated 2.1 billion people menstruating worldwide. Menstrual health remains a leading health issue around the world, which is why Days for Girls Nepal (DfG) are working to create a world where periods are never a problem. Since it was founded in 2015, the non-governmental organisation has reached more than 70,000 women and girls across 44 local districts. It seeks to help women and girls pursue opportunities and achieve their goals by removing menstrual-related barriers.
I visited DfG as part of Intrepid Travel’s Women’s Expedition in Nepal, led by a local female leader and featuring all-female travellers. These expeditions break down gender barriers and create opportunities for women in travel by facilitating impactful and authentic cultural experiences that uplift women and girls. During my visit, I learned from DfG that factors such as limited access to sanitation facilities and menstrual products, as well as poor national infrastructure in education and healthcare, are compounding existing menstrual health challenges for women and girls in Nepal.
For example, a 2024 study of absenteeism in Lumbini Province, Nepal’s third most populous province, found that a lack of access to menstrual health products and water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities was the main reason that girls were missing school. “These challenges are exacerbated by gender discrimination and menstrual stigmatisation, which remain deeply embedded in Nepali cultural, religious, and social norms,” warns DfG.
In some parts of Nepal, primarily the midwestern and far-western regions, there exists a centuries-old harmful religio-cultural practice called ‘chhaupadi’, which limits the participation of women and girls in their households and communities while bleeding. The tradition, whose name refers to “a state of being untouchable/unclean”, banishes women and girls to makeshift huts and cowsheds during their menstrual period or after they give birth. It is not uncommon for mothers to be joined in chhaupadi by their newborn or infant children.
More often than not, the small huts women and girls must live in are made up of mud and stones and without windows or locks, exposing them to extreme weather conditions and criminal and/or animal attacks. These huts also lack adequate access to water and sanitation facilities, leading to adverse health outcomes. In some instances, women and girls are even considered too impure to seek shelter alongside cattle, and are subsequently left to survive outdoors in open fields or forests outside of their village.
Maya Devi Khaitu, DfG Nepal Country Director, recalls various cases where women and girls, or their dependent children, have been found dead in their huts. In one instance, she says, a mother and her two sons died of smoke inhalation after setting a fire to keep them warm while they survived the night. In another, a mother’s small infant died of pneumonia. “In some places, women and girls are raped. They are not safe,” says Khaitu.
In 2005, Nepal’s Supreme Court banned the practice, describing it as a “human rights violation”, and in 2017, the nation’s parliament officially passed a bill making it a criminal act punishable by a three-month jail sentence or a 3,000 Nepali rupee fine. However, lawmakers have struggled to effectively monitor compliance and enforce penalties, leaving organisations like DfG Nepal responsible for challenging the persistent, deep-rooted beliefs that drive chhaupadi.
Even in Nepal’s urban areas, less severe forms of exile and exclusion are enforced based on the belief that menstruation is impure. UNICEF reports that menstruating women and girls, even when allowed to stay in their own homes, are barred from worship, cooking or preparing food, entering the kitchen, touching plants, livestock, or male family members, consuming dairy, and eating an unrestricted/normal diet.
Khaitu, whose work strives to eliminate chhaupadi in rural and remote areas, says she carried deep shame about her period even though she lived in an urban area and was not always required to take shelter outside. “I felt so embarrassed and uncomfortable,” Khaitu says of times she was sent out of her family home while bleeding, because it was believed her presence would impact the success of various religious and cultural rituals that needed to be performed. “I felt so bad about myself even while being able to stay inside, then I would think about the women and girls who were forced outside and were unable to see their family or touch their children.”
Once, a young Khaitu, forgetting she had started her period, entered the family kitchen and touched a plant. Immediately, she was flooded with panic, assuming the plant or a member of her family would die. She waited every day for a week, until she accepted that nothing would come of it. That was when she began to question the beliefs that had been handed down to her family throughout generations about the harms of menstruation. “I prayed to God that in my next life, I would please be born a boy and not a girl,” says Khaitu.
Much of DfG Nepal’s work is based on tackling the stigma that creates deep shame and embarrassment, causing some girls to drop out of school and, in some cases, view being born female as a disadvantage. The organisation believes that while laws against Chhaupadi are necessary, punitive measures are not always effective. Their goal is to change societal mindsets through education rather than by force.
“We tell girls, ‘You are powerful, you are beautiful, and you are strong’. That statement changes everything, even for myself,” says Khaitu. “We also let them know that periods are natural, it’s a blessing. If there is no period, there won’t be people: man or woman. So if the period is impure or unclean, then everyone is impure and unclean.” She explains that these affirmations are part of broader comprehensive educational programs and resources that teach young girls about the menstrual cycle, the how and why they occur, and of course, how to maintain your hygiene and health while bleeding.
However, young girls aren’t the only ones benefiting from these conversations. The organisation runs a course specifically targeting men and boys. “Young boys will grow up to be the major decision makers in their families and communities, and if they do not know what the girls and women in their lives are going through, then they won’t care…or be able to realise how they can affect their households or make better policies or environments for women.”
Through delivering the DfG programs, Khaitu says she has started to see a shift in attitudes among young boys, with some of them starting to speak out. They’re expressing a desire to end harmful menstruation practices within their families once they become the heads of their households. Some girls, empowered by the knowledge provided by DfG, are now more confident managing their periods and have even continued their studies, achieved bachelor’s degrees, and taken on leadership roles in spite of persisting menstrual discrimination.
Alongside their educational programs, DfG offers practical support by selling and distributing their soft, super-absorbent reusable DfG pad, designed for maximum comfort and protection and proven to last up to three years. However, “to manage menstruation effectively, people with periods need more than just a pad. That is why we offer Days for Girls Kits,” says the organisation. The DfG Kits, which include a pad and come paired with comprehensive menstrual health education, also include soap, underwear, a wash cloth, liners, a carry pouch for washing and storing, a care and use sheet, and a drawstring bag to hold all its components.
Days for Girls Nepal is part of an international organisation that has reached over 3.5 million women and girls with their life-changing menstrual health solutions. To learn more or provide support, you can visit the following websites: www.daysforgirls.org or www.daysforgirls.org/nepal/
Missing Perspectives was a guest of Intrepid Travel for a condensed 7-day Nepal Women’s Expedition in March alongside four AFLW players known for their impact on and off the field. Intrepid offers a 13-day Women’s Expedition in Nepal, shattering the barriers of traditional tourism with female-led immersive cultural experiences combined with a five-day trek led entirely by a female team of mountain guides and porters.