BIKRAM RAI DAUGHTER'S DAUGHTER: R. Gurung (face blurred) is unable to get citizenship for her daughter after her husband abandoned the family. Says Gurung: "I gave birth to my daughter in Nepal, but I can't get her Nepali citizenship."

A Nepali woman's citizenship is only a piece of laminated paper. It allows her to live, work, vote and spend money in this country, but doesn't allow her to pass those rights to her children.

A man goes to the district office, gets citizenship papers for his children within few hours, no questions asked. No one even bothers him with the details of his marriage or intruding questions about the whereabouts of the mother. A woman goes to the same office, she doesn't just have to produce the father's citizenship but prove that she was, or is, married to the man.

She has to put up with insults and ridicule, and still return empty handed. Last year, the Supreme Court made a landmark ruling allowing mothers equal rights to get citizenship for their children as fathers, but the administration is defying it. Rights and gender groups are outraged that instead of removing the discrimination, a task force has recommended that citizenship criteria for the children of Nepali women married to foreigners be tightened even further in the new constitution.

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