• QUEST FOR CITIZENSHIP

KATHMANDU, JUNE 17

Women lawmakers blamed patriarchy and selfish bureaucracy for the sufferings of children of Nepali mothers who have not been able to obtain their citizenship just because they cannot trace their fathers and they cannot produce certificates of their father's nationality.

Rosemary (name changed), 26, from Kaski district said at an interaction organised by Forum for Women, Law and Development that she had been going from pillar to post for last eight years, making her trip from home district of Kaski to Kathmandu but has not been able to make her citizenship. Rosemery has filed a case at the Supreme Court on her behalf.

Rosemary's mother died when she was a small baby and her father also vanished and never contacted her. She was brought up by her aunt. "I do not have my father's identity document but the district administration office wants my father's document," she said. She hoped that the SC would deliver verdict in here favour. "But I have a fear that I might have to fight long battle to get citizenship card even if the court rules in my favour," she added.

Nisha Thapa from Morang who is perusing engineering degree in Kathmandu said that she and her sister had been trying to obtain their citizenship but they are denied their citizenship as they fail to provide their father's nationality identity. "My father went abroad to work and he never contacted us. We do not have his document," she said. She also filed a case at Patan High Court and the court has ruled in favour. Advocate Sushma Gautam, who pleaded on her behalf, said that although the court ruled in Nisha's favour, she was not happy though because she knows that despite court ruling, sometimes people have to fight long a difficult battle to obtain their citizenship.

She said the SC was taking too long to decide cases and sometimes cases that are supposed to be decided in three months are decided after three years.

Member of the House of Representatives Yashoda Gurung Subedi said patriarchy and selfish bureaucracy were the main hurdle in ameliorating the plights of children of Nepali mothers in terms of nationality rights. She said bureaucracy could create hurdles for people even after the passage of the bill as applicants and their mothers would be required to submit affidavits.

Another HoR member Samina Hussain said that the state had been doing great injustice to children of Nepali citizens by refusing to issue them citizenship.

Without citizenship, a person is non-person. Genuine citizens have waited for years and yet they have not got their citizenship in the absence of a new federal law. The government is killing Nepali citizens, she added.

National Assembly member Anita Devkota said that it was bizarre that the citizenship bill remained pending in the House for more than three years.

Another NA member Pramila Yadav said that children of citizens by birth were unable to obtain their citizenship and as a result, they were unable to open bank account, apply for government jobs and to get education. He said HoR panel's to make foreign women married to Nepali citizens to wait for seven years to obtain Nepali citizenship was wrong.

"In India there is some waiting period, but people married to Indian citizen enjoy almost all rights granted to citizens," she said and added that the seven-year waiting period was wrong. HoR member Laxmi Chaudhary said that she received calls almost everybody seeking to know when the citizenship bill would be passed. HoR member Minakshi Jha said that citizenship bill should be passed addressing all issues and not leaving any issue for future settlement.

A version of this article appears in the print on June 18, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.