The new law that will come into effect next year stipulates a three month jail sentence or a 3,000 rupee fine for anyone forcing a woman to follow the custom, known as "chhaupadi", which forces menstruating women to sleep in huts away from home.

"A woman during her menstruation or postnatal state should not kept in chhaupadi or treated with any kind of similar discrimination or untouchable and inhuman behavior," the new law states.

Chhaupadi System

Linked to Hinduism, chhaupadi stems from the belief that women are untouchable when they menstruate, as well as after childbirth. Women who have their periods or who have just given birth are seen as impure or as bringers of bad luck, and can be forced to sleep in huts or cattle sheds.

Women are banished from the home and barred from touching food, religious icons, cattle and men. They are also forced to sleep in huts known as chhau goth. They are banned from touching cattle and men, denied access to some foods and can be barred from toilet and washing facilities in the house, forcing them to walk long distances from their villages.

Why banned?

The basic huts can be dangerous, posing health risks including pneumonia and snake bites.

Many deaths have been reported one from smoke inhalation after lighting a fire for warmth, snake bites. Harmful environments of these huts also pose serious threat in life of women.

Despite the custom being banned by the Supreme Court more than a decade ago, it is still practiced in parts of Nepal, particularly in the more remote western districts.

Chhaupadi didn't end, because there was no law to punish people even after the Supreme Court outlawed the practice.

They can also be exposed to extreme cold in the winter and criminal attacks, and young women cannot go to school.