15 year old Nepali girl dies due to banishing her to shed during menstruation

chram,Dec19:A 15-year-old girl has died in Nepal’s western Achram district after she was banished to a shed because she was menstruating, under an ancient Hindu practice that has been banned for over a decade, police said.

“We are investigating the case. We suspect that she died of suffocation from the smoke of a fire she lit to keep herself warm,” local district inspector Badri Prasad Dhakal told the AFP news agency on Monday.

Local media identified the girl as Roshani Tiruwa.

15-yr-old dies in Chhaupadi shed, in Western Nepal | https://t.co/oeXANlY0TA pic.twitter.com/UluOSo7YQ8 #Chhaupadideath

— Ashok Dahal (@ashokpillar) December 19, 2016

Some Hindus view menstruating women as impure and in parts of Nepal they are forced to remain in a hut or cowshed for days, a practice known as chhaupadi.