Nepali Times

The interim constitution of this land, or what remains of it, provides that no citizen will be discriminated upon based on socio-economic identity and that legal inadequacies will not hinder their protection, development, and empowerment.

But what if an individual has been denied these fundamental rights due to the unwillingness or sheer negligence of those in power to issue a citizenship certificate? Last week in this paper, single mother Deepti Gurung highlighted her own futile personal saga of trying to get her children citizenship papers of a Nepal steeped in patriarchy.

There are hundreds of thousands of others in the Tarai who have also been denied citizenship just because of the absence of the state or because they don’t have their own documents. Three generations of a poor Madhesi family have been denied citizenship - this is not just a political issue, it is also a humanitarian one.

Disowned and abandoned by their own nation and ignored by local officials, 21 Madhesis from five Tarai districts are in Kathmandu to highlight their plight in the political power centres of the capital. On Tuesday, the men and women, mostly students and workers in their 20s and 30s submitted a memorandum at the prime minister’s office and offices of major political parties including Madhesi Morcha. It was either good timing or the timing couldn’t be worse. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai was getting ready to step down and the Madhesi parties in the coalition were all distracted.

Kari Thakur (pic, front row first from left), 36, was born in India but has been working as a wage labourer in Matihani VDC of Mahottari district for the last 25 years. Thakur worked hard at menial jobs, but couldn’t make enough money to educate his children. But now, with some savings, he wishes to educate his young grandson so that the family can finally get out of the vicious cycle of poverty and hardship. But Thakur can’t get his grandson citizenship.

“My son’s birth could not be registered because I did not have citizenship and his marriage was not registered for the same reason. Now, my grandson is being punished,” Thakur told me with tears streaming down his wizened cheeks, “how long do we have to live in Nepal before my decedents are recognised as citizens?”

The Madhes movement may have subsided, but the citizenship issue could re-ignite it at any time because of the sheer scale of the problem. Silent acquiescence is turning to seething anger and could erupt in the coming months as families like Thakur are denied the right to vote in elections.

Sangeeta Chaurasia, 22, from Kapilvastu had to give up her dream of enrolling into a nursing college because she does not have citizenship papers. “My father is a citizen, but I am stateless,” she says, “don’t you think that’s odd?” Ram Bechan Mali (pic, centre holding placard), also 22, from Sarlahi has the same problem. Their fathers were among thousands who acquired citizenship in 2007 after the Madhes uprising, but writ petitions filed in the Supreme Court didn’t just stall the process, but prevented children of those who had acquired citizenship by birth from obtaining their own citizenship.

“I cried, begged, and dropped at their feet, but in vain. I had to drop out of college and herd cattle now,” says Mali, her voice quivering with bitterness.

Sceptics within and outside the Madhes contest such claims and are convinced that there were massive anomalies in the distribution of citizenship after 2007. They also argue that many who have acquired citizenship may be taking undue advantage of legal loopholes.

On Wednesday night, the four main political forces agreed to form a CJ-led government to hold elections and allowed voting even without citizenship papers. Among others, they have agreed on constitutional changes to make citizenship distribution more transparent and accessible. But until many like Thakur, Mali, and Chaurasia don’t get that laminated card that makes them citizens of Nepal, even this accord will have been in vain.