Nepal has taken visible steps toward gender equality, especially in cities where policy talks and empowerment campaigns are common. Streets buzz with development, and conversations about women’s rights echo in conference halls. But away from the city lights, in quiet villages and remote areas, a different reality still exists. Menstruation, a natural process experienced by half the population, is still surrounded by shame, silence, and sometimes life-threatening risks.
In the far-western hills of Nepal, a practice called chhaupadi still exists, even though it’s now illegal. During their periods, women and girls are forced to leave their homes and stay in tiny huts or cattle sheds, called chhau/goths. They are considered “impure” and banned from touching family members, cooking, attending school, or joining religious or social events.
The roots of chhaupadi lie in the age-old Hindu belief that associates menstruation with pollution capable of corrupting food, water, and even offending deities. While originally religious in nature, this belief has become a widely accepted social norm in regions like Achham, Bajura, Kalikot, Doti, and Dailekh, particularly within the Sudurpaschim and Karnali Provinces.
In 2017, Nepal passed a law making chhaupadi a punishable offense. But changing the mindsets of the people is harder than passing laws. Even today, we still hear heartbreaking news like the 21-year-old woman in Bajura who died in 2019 from suffocation in a poorly ventilated hut while many other girls and women have died so far from snakebites, cold, hunger, and infections.
What’s more?
Menstrual stigma isn’t just confined to rural huts. Even in cities, where education levels are higher and access to media is better, menstruation is still cloaked in discomfort. In many households, women are discouraged from cooking, entering temples, touching religious objects, and so on and so forth while on their period. A 2022 report by UNICEF Nepal revealed that three out of five adolescent girls across the country are excluded from daily activities during menstruation. Many feel shame or embarrassment, and an alarming number of young female students regularly miss school, or some for up to five days each month due to lack of proper sanitation, teasing, or home-based restrictions.
The impact is more than emotional, it's deeply physical. Menstrual hygiene is still a luxury for many girls in Nepal. The 2022 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey found that only 15% of adolescent girls in rural areas used sanitary pads. Most rely on old rags/pieces of cloth often reused without proper cleaning. This has led to rising cases of urinary and reproductive tract infections, infertility, and in severe cases, toxic shock syndrome. Yet another layer is the mental health toll adolescent girls, especially those raised in conservative families, often carry in the name of deep-seated shame, anxiety, and a sense of inferiority simply because of a natural function of their bodies.
And yet, when we look beyond Nepal’s border, we see cultural narratives that treat menstruation not as impure but sacred. One powerful example lies in Assam, India, where the Maa Kamakhya Temple, one of the most sacred and oldest of the 51 Shakti Peethas on earth, closes its doors every month for three days. During the Ambubachi Mela that takes place every year around the month of June that marks the annual menstruation period of Goddess Kamakhya, the deity is worshipped as the embodiment of Shakti (female power) and fertility. It is believed that during this time, Mother Earth herself undergoes her menstrual cycle. Therefore, more than just a religious event, Ambubachi Mela is a profound celebration of womanhood, fertility, and the sacredness of the female body. In Kamakhya, the divine feminine bleeds and is worshipped for it. Instead of considering the menstruation cycle as something shameful, it’s embraced. Therefore, the temple remains closed to allow the goddess to rest, and once it reopens, thousands of devotees gather to seek her blessings.
However, Kamakhya Temple is also closely linked to the Tantric tradition, and is often seen as the main center of Tantra worship in India. During the Ambubachi Mela, tantric practitioners, sadhus, aghoris, and spiritual seekers gather to perform special rituals and deep meditation. While many of these practices are genuine and spiritual, the powerful energy of the event has also led to rumors of darker, occult rituals.
This shows how society has a complicated relationship with menstruation. On one hand, it is honored as something divine, but on the other, it can be misrepresented or even exploited. While celebrating Kamakhya, it's important to tell the difference between true devotion and misused belief, and to protect the purity and power of the feminine from being twisted into something it is not.
On a personal note, I too follow certain menstrual norms set at my home with immense respect and with my own willingness. I don’t enter temples or perform puja during my cycle not because I feel impure or abandoned but because I believe menstruation is a time when our energies are elevated or say heightened. Some believe that the inner divine power within women becomes so strong during this time that it might unintentionally clash with the deity’s energy in a temple. For me, it's not about exclusion, but about reverence like two powerful frequencies overlapping, creating interference. It’s a cosmic pause, a moment of alignment, not alienation.
Moreover, at my home, menstruation isn’t treated as a stigma/taboo. I rest, reflect, and recharge myself. I am offered nutritious food, healthy drinks that my body severely needs at that time. I receive warm care, love from my family who makes sure I am eating and resting well. Also, that is the time when I enjoy my solitude and cherish my “Me Time” when at home. My period cycle days have become a gentle reminder for me that divine feminine energy flowing within me is so precious that I should embrace and flaunt it proudly feeling good, pampering myself from both inside and out. Just as the goddess Kamakhya bleeds and rests, so do I. However for countless women/girls privacy, comfort, and understanding remain out of reach. Menstruation, for them, continues to be surrounded by fear, stigma, and restrictions.
Change, however, is happening slowly, quietly, but undeniably. In Kathmandu and other urban settings, conversations are shifting. Parents are becoming more open and compassionate, ensuring their daughters receive the care they deserve during their periods. The Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) program, launched by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with partner organizations, has started distributing free sanitary pads and menstrual health education in public schools. Women’s groups, youth-led initiatives, and advocacy campaigns both online and offline are challenging the silence and normalizing periods as a part of life, not something to be ashamed of.
Today, sanitary pads are available even in some public toilets. School workshops and street plays are addressing myths. Girls are beginning to speak out. Slowly but surely, menstruation is being reclaimed as a sign of strength, not weakness.
Moreover, dismantling menstrual stigma isn’t something that happens overnight. It requires more than laws and policy reforms; it demands a cultural shift built on empathy, respect, and education. If Nepal is to grow into a truly inclusive nation, menstrual dignity must no longer be a privilege it must be a right. True progress isn't measured by a nation's GDP alone, but by whether every girl regardless of where she is born can bleed with pride and without fear, alongside enjoying the basic rights she is legally entitled to.
Let this be our collective call to end the silence, to honor the sacred, and to protect those who have long suffered in the shadows. From shame to strength, from stigma to celebration, let the transformation begin.