Kathmandu, July 11
Rahul Sah, 25 of Bara district, who lost both his limbs after electrocution said that he had been trying to obtain his citizenship for last few years but due to non-enactment of new federal citizenship he has not been able to make his citizenship. Sah's father is citizen by birth and his mother is naturalized citizen. "The constitution has ensured my right to obtain citizenship by descent. All my siblings are citizen by decent but I am not getting my citizenship," Sah said at an interaction organized by Forum for Women Law and Development. He also said that as a young son of his parents, he was supposed to take care of his old parents but the irony was that his parents are taking care of him. "What can people like me do when they cannot get their citizenship in the productive age? What will be the use of citizenship if I get after losing my productive age?" he wondered.
Executive Director of FWLD Sabin Shrestha said that the government brought new citizenship bill proposing to grant citizenship to children of citizens by birth, children of single mothers whose parents cannot be traced and non-resident Nepalis. "The provisions that the government incorporated in the new citizenship bill are positive ones but there were many progressive provisions in the bill finalized by State Affairs and Good Governance Committee and if the government could incorporate those provisions too except the controversial seven-year waiting period for matrimonial naturlisaiton, that could have addressed most of the problems," Shrestha said and added that the rights activists wanted some reforms in the bill in the House. He said the House should also think positively about addressing the problems faced by orphans and sexual and gender minority in obtaining Nepali citizenship.
Chair of Human Rights, Law and Justice Committee of the House of Representatives Krishna Bhakta Pokharel said that the government should have tried to pass the old citizenship bill as that contained many progressive provisions. He said that the House could reduce the waiting period for foreign women marrying Nepali citizenship to obtain matrimonial naturalization.
He said politician's patriarchal mindset was the great hurdle in ensuring women's equal right in matters of nationality.
"There are some politicians who think that if Nepali women are given equal right in matters of nationality, then all Nepali women will marry foreigners and their spouse will come to settle in Nepal," Pokharel added.
