Women rights activists have claimed that the lawmakers tried to conceal the gender discriminatory provisions regarding citizenship in the revised version of the draft constitution. They have demanded the lawmakers to amend the discriminatory provisions in earnest.

 “Despite the first clause stating that a person can obtain Nepali citizenship through either father or mother, the other clauses make it a must for a person to prove that his or her father is a Nepali citizen to obtain the citizenship by decent. The lawmakers did not listen to the public feedback either,” said Advocate Sapana Pradhan Malla.

Citizenship through mother was one of the top three suggestions collected during public opinion collection of the draft constitution.

President of Inter Party Women Alliance Sashi Shrestha said the Article 11.5 and 11.7 in the draft constitution must be removed to make citizenship provision gender friendly. Article 11.5 states that a child born to a Nepali mother cannot furnish the information about his or her biological father will be granted Nepali citizenship by decent on a condition that the citizenship of such person will be converted into naturalised one, if in the future it is proved that the person’s father is a foreigner. Similarly, the Article 11.7 states that despite all the other provisions, a child of a Nepali woman married to a foreigner, who has not obtained a foreign citizenship, will be eligible for a naturalised citizenship.

Shrestha said the lawmakers have failed to address the issue of single mothers and recognise the change in the society. “These provisions are reflection of a patriarchal mindset, convinced that all women get married and move in with their husbands. Times have changed and woman in today’s society have made huge leaps and we do not need Article 11.5, 6 and 7.”  

Judging by the mood inside Parliament, Ram Narayan Bidari, member of the Constitution Drafting Committee, said, citizenship through mother is still a distant dream.  “Majority of the politicians from the so-called big parties are in no mood to provide women the right to pass on citizenships to their children. Unless women lawmakers manage to unite against the leaderships and forward an amendment proposal, nothing is going to change,” Bidari said.

According to his observation, the issue of citizenship has still not become a political agenda and that women leaders and activists should unite and put combined pressure from both inside and outside Parliament.