The teachers were dead certain Kamala had fallen ill because some deities were angry. Kamala had used the school toilet while she was menstruating.People in this part of the country have deep faith in superstitions. There is a shrine of a female deity on the premises of Bichhya Secondary School. That meant that the school girls needed to maintain a distance from that spot, at least when they were in menstruation. As they had to pass near the shrine while going to the toilet, the teachers took it for granted that they had angered the deity.
"Many of the girls, and not just one, have fallen sick in this fashion. It certainly looks like the ire of the deity. The locals said girls should not have used the toilet when they were menstruating," said Gorakh Bahadur Rokaya, the school principal. He added that it is 'not a good idea to offend the deities'.
He also said that Kamal had used the school toilet a little while before she fell sick.
The district education office (DEO) had constructed the toilet a few months ago and it was much used in the beginning. However, following cases like that of Kamala, the school administration announced that students cannot use the toilet anymore.
Interestingly, the school administration had called a meeting of its management committee and a written agreement was signed to enforce the ban on use of the toilet.
"What to do, we had to take the step for the sake of the girls," said Rokaya, adding that they had consulted the parents after the students started falling sick. All of them had shown the same symptoms - shivering, shouting out and falling unconscious.
Reports of mass hysteria among school girls are nothing new. And in places like Bajura, they consider it a manifestation of divine wrath. According to Rokaya, shamans are much sought after in the villages. "In fact, we decided to shut the toilet after shamans suggested it," Rokaya said proudly.
However, even after the toilet was shut down, the girls did not stop fainting. Yet the locals think that the girls had angered the deities earlier and 'it would take time' for divine tempers to cool.
Meanwhile, with the ban on use of the toilet, the students have for the past two months been forced to relieve themselves in the open. Ironically, Bajura had much earlier registered itself as an open defecation free (ODF) zone.
Over 400 students are enrolled in the school, which is a three days' walk from district headquarters.
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