Achham/kanchanpur, July 22 -- Despite years of activism and legal restriction, the deeply-rooted Chhaupadi tradition-where menstruating women and postpartum mothers are exiled to makeshift sheds considering them impure-still persists in various districts of Sudurpaschim and Karnali provinces. Alarmingly, even the elected people's representatives in the local government, tasked with abolishing such discriminatory practices, continue to observe the punishing custom.

Ramana Shahi is a ward member of ward 8 of Panchadewal Binayak Municipality in Achham, a hill district of Sudurpaschim. She finds herself trapped between social progress and superstition. Before she was elected in 2022 as a Nepali Congress candidate, Shahi served as the leader ...