Assessing the Role of Caste/Ethnicity in Predicting Menstrual Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices in Nepal

Baumann, Sara; Lhaki, Pema; Burke, Jessica G.

doi:10.1080/17441692.2019.1583267

Cited by 31 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Despite the Nepal government's initiative of banning the practice of Chhaupadi in 2005, followed by the "Chhaupadi Pratha" Elimination Directive in 2008, the practice still exists in some areas and communities in Nepal [15,16]. Even though this extreme practice has never been prevalent among urban Nepalese women, some socio-cultural restrictions during menstruation still exist in other societies across Nepal, specifically among different castes [17][18][19]. Some of the common socio-cultural beliefs in various castes in Nepal related to menstruation include: not touching a male member of the family, plant, tree or fruit during menstruation, not consuming pickles or dairy products, eating alone during menstruation, not entering the kitchen or places of worship, not visiting relatives, or not attending social or religious gatherings [12,20]..…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception and practices of menstruation restrictions among urban adolescent girls and women in Nepal: a cross-sectional survey

et al. 2020

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Background: Menstruation, a natural biologic process is associated with restrictions and superstitious beliefs in Nepal. However, factual data on women's perspectives on menstrual practices and restrictions are scarce. This study aimed to assess socio-cultural perceptions of menstrual restrictions among urban Nepalese women in the Kathmandu valley. Methods: Using a clustered random sampling, 1342 adolescent girls and women of menstruating age (≥15 years) from three urban districts in the Kathmandu valley completed a survey related to menstrual practices and restriction. This was a cross-sectional survey study using a customized program allowing pull-down, multiple choice and open-ended questions in the Nepali language. The self-administered questionnaire consisted of 13 demographic questions and 22 questions related to menstruation, menstrual hygiene, socio-cultural taboos, beliefs and practices. Univariate descriptive statistics were reported. Unadjusted associations of socio-cultural practices with ethnicity, education, four major social classes, three major religions, marital status and family type were assessed using logistic regression models. Results: More than half (59%) of the participants were aged between 15-< 25 years. The majority were Hindus (84.5%), reported not praying during menstruation (83.1%) and were encouraged by their mothers (72.1%) to practice a range of menstrual restrictions. Purifying either the kitchen, bed, bedsheets or other household things on the fourth day of menstruation was reported by 66.1% of the participants, and 45.4% saw menstruation as a "bother" or "curse." There were differences among social classes, where participants of the Janajati caste, an indigenous group, were more likely to enter places of worship [OR (95%CI): 1.74 (1.06-2.86)] and pray [OR (95%CI): 1.79 (1.18-2.71)] while menstruating, compared to the Brahmins. Participants with a master's degree were more likely to pray while menstruating, compared to participants with less than a high school education [OR (95%CI): 2.83 (1.61-4.96)].

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception and practices of menstruation restrictions among urban adolescent girls and women in Nepal: a cross-sectional survey

et al. 2020

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“…9 A recent quantitative study has reported that certain ethnic groups, especially in the rural areas, have largely fallen behind in terms of menstrual health outcomes, and these blanket menstrual hygiene management programs may not be sufficient for improving menstrual knowledge and practices among the population groups who live in the rural areas. 10…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Menstrual blood is bad and should be cleaned’: A qualitative case study on traditional menstrual practices and contextual factors in the rural communities of far-western Nepal

2019

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Objective: Unhealthy menstrual practices and the contexts surrounding them should be explored and clearly understood; this information could be useful while developing and implementing interventions to increase hygienic practices during menstruation and consequently increase health and well-being of women. Therefore, this study was conducted to explore traditional menstrual practices and the contextual factors surrounding the practices in the rural communities of far-western Nepal. Methods: This was a qualitative case study conducted in the Achham district of Nepal. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among four women, three men and two female community health volunteers to collect data and thematic analysis was performed to analyze the data. Results: We found two commonly reported menstrual practices: seclusion practice (Chhaupadi) and separation practice. In the Chhaupadi practice, women are secluded to stay in a small shed away from the house and restricted to wash or take a bath in public water sources for 5-7 days of the periods, whereas in the separation practice, women can stay in the house, but they still have several restrictions. The contextual factors that were reported to influence the cultural practices are as follows: cultural beliefs that symbolize menstruation as impure, menstrual stigma, poverty, illiteracy, the influence of traditional healers and family members, and limited effect of Chhaupadi elimination interventions. We also found that some development in the reduction of cultural myths and practices is happening, but the rate of change is rather slow. Conclusion: Most of the Nepalese women, especially in the rural areas of far-western Nepal, are forced to follow the harmful menstrual practices because of the socio-cultural context surrounding their lives. We believe the findings of this study would be relevant in terms of developing and implementing further menstrual health-related, community-based interventions that will be responsive to the local cultural context, beliefs, and practices.

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“…Furthermore, a study by Sivakami et al ( 2019) showed the direct relation of education with menstruation which further indicated pain medication in school and use of disposable pads were associated with lower absenteeism and inadequate sanitary facilities with higher absenteeism during menstruation, whereas in this study as well painful menstruation is one of the significant causes of absenteeism at school. Similarly, the study by Baumann et al (2019) showed that 59% of the adolescents girls had positive menstrual practices, like changing pads every four hourly, using soap, and taking nutritious diet during menstruation. Unlikely to this, in this study more than three fifth of the girls (69 %) clean genitals after changing pads and 89.7 % take bath during periods.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Furthermore, in 2017, Government of Nepal passed a law punishing people who force women into exile during menstruating with up to three months in jail or a fine of 3,000 Nepalese rupees. Despite national and international initiation and intervention for MHM, still 15 to 22% of girls missed schools during the days of menstruation (Dhakal et al, 2018); less than half (48.1%) of the girls have appropriate knowledge about menstruation (Baumann et al, 2019) and they experience different forms of restrictions during the days of their period (Sapkota et al, 2013). The practice and perception of menstruation is different in culture and context of Nepal, the practice of restriction is varied from urban to rural and different ethnic groups (Ranabhat et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Problems and Practice of Management on Menstruation by Adolescents Girls of Basic Schools of Chitwan, Nepal

Ghimire¹

2020

J. Health Promotion

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Managing menstruation in a hygienic way is a challenge in most of the low and middle-income countries (LMIC) including Nepal, where normal and natural physiological process of menstruation is considered as girls’ problem which is viewed as sinful, unholy and matter of shame. This paper explores the current practice and existing difficulties that adolescents girls encounter hygienic management of menstruation (MHM) especially during school days. The study was conducted on five purposively selected community schools of Chitwan district. The study adopted Participatory Action Research (PAR) as an approach, that is encapsulated with mixed method research design. For qualitative information observation, focus group discussions (FGD) and field notes were used, whereas for quantitative data self-administrative questionnaires were used. Quantitative information was collected from 205 girls students who were present at schools on the day of data collection. The finding shows that majority of the girls (93.7%) who encounter hygienic management of menstruation were of 10-14 years old age, whereas nearly one third of them were (29%) from grade eight. Similarly, among the total 205 girls, only 79 girls have already started their menstruation; among those who have started menstruation majority (78%) had heard about menstruation form their mothers. Likewise, 35% girls used homemade cotton pads and 40.5% of them changed pad three times a day. During FGD, adolescents girls shared that lack of water and soap in toilets, stress and lack of concentration during menstruation are the major difficulties which they encounter during days of menstruation. They suggested the concerned authorities to manage pad bank, make soap and water available, and develop skills for proper disposing of used sanitary pads for MHM at schools.

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Assessing the Role of Caste/Ethnicity in Predicting Menstrual Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices in Nepal

Cited by 31 publications

References 28 publications

Perception and practices of menstruation restrictions among urban adolescent girls and women in Nepal: a cross-sectional survey

Perception and practices of menstruation restrictions among urban adolescent girls and women in Nepal: a cross-sectional survey

‘Menstrual blood is bad and should be cleaned’: A qualitative case study on traditional menstrual practices and contextual factors in the rural communities of far-western Nepal

Problems and Practice of Management on Menstruation by Adolescents Girls of Basic Schools of Chitwan, Nepal

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