Children without legal fathers denied citizenship
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) Under Nepal's constitution, adolescents are granted Nepalese citizenship if they can prove that their fathers are Nepalese nationals. "Proving the nationality of one's mother is not good enough," said Norbert Rai, a Christian lawyer. "To become a citizen, a boy or his mother must prove the father is also a Nepalese citizen. Without proof, the child cannot get the citizenship."
According to Rai, this law has deprived "1.1 million Nepalese of their right to citizenship. These people live in Nepal, their country, but it is as if they weren't here. Their only fault is their inability to prove the identity of their father even though their mothers are for all intents and purposes citizens of Nepal."
Sarita Giri, a women's rights activist, told AsiaNews, that there are many reasons why there are so many Nepalese without citizenship.
The main one is that in the past ten years of Maoist insurgency thousand of women have been raped by both guerrilla fighters and government soldiers.
"The tragedy is that married women victims of rape have lost their marital rights under existing laws. They lost their husbands and the latter's protection and are denied access to property".
Another problem is when fathers die before their children reach the age of 16, i.e. the age when minors acquire Nepalese citizenship. There are many widows of Maoist fighters who have denied being married to rebels out of fear of retaliation by soldiers.
"This means their children eventually cannot get Nepalese citizenship," Giri said.
The third factor is polygamy. "In rural areas, this is a true social disaster. Men move from one remote place to another, get marry in one and then marry in another. Mothers are hard pressed to prove who their children's father is".
The constitution upholds the equality of men and women before the law. In principle, women have the same rights, including the right to vote, but "the paternity law is unjust and obsolete," complains Giri. "Our battle for a true democracy is useless unless we fight against this law which is contrary to the universal holiness of motherhood".
.png)
