KATHMANDU, JULY 31
With the aim of addressing the citizenship issues in Nepal, Shailee Theatre, Sarita Foundation and Aasman Nepal jointly staged a play. The play was staged on 30 July in Shailee Theatre.
The play titled 'Dhakiyame Nagarikta' aims to address the problems facing the people of Tarai region in getting citizenship.
The play narrates a story of a potter's family. There are four members in the family, including the mother, father, son and daughter.
"Although my daughter did an internship in an organisation, she did not get a job because she did not have citizenship.
My son's academic performance is very good, he wants to become a doctor. For that he wants to get scholarship, but he doesn't have citizenship and this does not let him fill the scholarship form."
This is a line in the play.
The government has announced that barren land will be given to people who have been cultivating it, but since no one in the family has citizenship, they lose this opportunity too.
Since the father does not have citizenship and the sons and daughters cannot get citizenship, they try their best to get citizenship, but to no avail.
No matter how hard they try, they can't get citizenship.
Similarly, there is a woman in the same village, who came to Nepal after getting married from India, but her husband passed away and she has a five-month-old baby. Her mother-in-law evicted her from the house. Since women do not have citizenship, they cannot fight for their rights.
So, she keeps visiting people from different places at different levels of authority with the hope of obtaining citizenship.
She even argues with the CDO, but the latter keeps saying that nothing can be done until rules and acts are made.
This play was staged to elaborate the problems and difficulties faced by common people who have not received citizenship.
The play is authored and directed by Sarita Sah. It is being staged in Rautahat, Saptari, Siraha and Dhanusha districts of Madhes Province on 1, 2, 3 and 4 August respectively.
The play features 13 actors, including Sarita Sah, Anil Kurmi, Raj Sharma Pangeni, Sujita Sah, Ramita Yadav, Somnath Khanal, Sudip Jung Karki, Sanjay Mudiyari, Rohit Shah, Krishna Kumar Mahato, Hang-O-Hang Rai, Saraswati Adhikari, and Sudip Patel.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 1, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
