A teenager in Nepal has died of a suspected snake bite after being banished to a hut during her period.
Anita Chand, 16, from the Baitadi district, was found dead on Wednesday after sleeping in a windowless hut.
She is believed to be the first person since 2019 to have died in Nepal as a result of the illegal practice of chhaupadi, whereby menstruating women are forced to sleep in huts.
Many Nepalese communities see menstruating women as impure. Banishment, or ‘chhaupadi’, was outlawed in 2005, but is still practised.
Chhaupadi is punishable by up to three months in prison and a 3,000 Nepali rupee (£20) fine.
In 2019 a Nepalese woman died of suspected smoke inhalation after being forced to stay in a hut during her period.
The body of Parbati Bogati, 21, was found in the smoke-filled hut in the western Doti district.
Just weeks earlier Amba Bohara, 35, and her two sons, Ramit, nine, and Suresh, 12, were found dead in a cowshed. Both women are believed to have suffocated after lighting fires to stave off freezing temperatures.
