Amid Election Buzz, Single Mother Awaits Leaders to Fulfill Promise of Citizenship for Her Family

Biratnagar. The entire nation is currently energized by the election atmosphere. Amidst this enthusiastic environment, Shantikumari Chaudhary, a resident of Vishwakarma Chowk in Constituency No. 4, is waiting in a disheartened mood for leaders campaigning door-to-door to arrive.

She has no specific plan for what she will say when leaders come seeking votes during their door-to-door campaigns. Nor does she know which party's candidate is running. Her only desire is for someone to initiate the process for her to obtain citizenship.

Just like in the last local elections, Shanti still holds a faint hope that if leaders come seeking votes this time, they will listen when she elaborates on her situation and demands citizenship. This faint hope keeps her attention fixed on the road in front of her house, but despite waiting, she has not yet met any leader who has come directly to ask for her vote, as she stays home in the mornings and evenings.

There is daily public address system announcements, speeches, and vehicles moving back and forth for election campaigning in the neighborhood. Shanti leaves her 15-year-old disabled daughter at home, rushes out, looks around anxiously, and asks her neighbors if any candidate has arrived. Neighbor Laxmi Bechana shakes her head in the negative using sign language. Shanti, looking dejected, says, "If they come, please convey my demand for citizenship, okay?"

Shanti is not very concerned about local development; her only concern is the slim hope of becoming a Nepali citizen. Neighbors and society can speak up for other problems, but who will speak for her? Twelve years ago, when her son was eight months old in her womb, Shanti's husband took another woman as his second wife and fled to Darbhanga, India. He was missing from here for two years. The day her husband left home, he not only abandoned the house but also abandoned Shanti, completely separating himself from the responsibility of his children.

Shanti has four children: Deepak, Kusmi, Supriya, and Rohit. For the past 13 years, she has been fulfilling her responsibility as the guardian of all four children by working as a maid in other people's houses. It is her compulsion to feed her children breakfast and then leave to work. She has been raising her children by washing dishes in four different homes. Her 17-year-old daughter, Kusmi, can neither speak nor move around. Her menstrual cycle has begun. In the morning, Shanti puts a cloth on her for a sanitary pad and leaves her on the porch before going to work.

Initially, Shanti's family was doing well. Her husband worked as a mason, and they lived together with her paternal aunt's family. After her husband shirked his responsibilities and disappeared, the environment to stay at her paternal aunt's house also vanished. Her paternal aunt asked her to vacate the house when Shanti was only one month postpartum.

She asked for one month's time and went out in search of work. Forget resting and eating nutritious food during the postpartum period; the worry of what to feed her infant children made her restless in search of work, going from house to house, which feels like yesterday. As the children grew up and time changed, her miserable life remained the same. Her youngest son is now 11 years old, but the complication regarding his citizenship remains unresolved. Shanti lost her father when she was young. Her father did not have citizenship, so she could not get hers. Her citizenship could not be processed through her husband's side either. She thinks that if she could get citizenship for her son, she could send him abroad for employment. She says, "If I could just get my citizenship, I would send my son abroad for employment; otherwise, the future of my children will remain as dark as mine."

Meanwhile, Ward Chairman Ram Pokharel of Biratnagar Metropolitan City-8 states that Shanti's problem is not just personal but structural. "The problems of women without citizenship, single women, and those with disabled children are seen not only in our ward but in many places," Pokharel said. "The complexity arises from documentation, team presence, and legal procedures. We have been carrying out the work of recommendation and coordination from the ward level." According to him, the ward office has completed all necessary legal procedures based on Shanti's marriage, her husband's citizenship, and the children's birth registrations and has prepared the recommendation.

The citizenship process, which had been stalled for years due to the absence and non-cooperation of her husband, has now reached a decisive point after her husband, Rama Mukhiya, agreed to provide the necessary 'verification' (Sanakhat) for Shanti's citizenship. Ward Chairman Pokharel stated, "We have completed all recommendations and coordination work from the ward and sent the file to the District Administration Office."

The process has been delayed again as the District Administration Office is now demanding the husband's voter ID card. Demanding the husband's voter ID card, despite having his verification and citizenship, has cast a shadow over Shanti's hopes once more.

Shanti Chaudhary's struggle is not just her personal pain; it is a representative case connected to the development trajectory of Nepal's citizenship law. The formal debate on granting citizenship in the name of the mother in Nepal began with the Interim Constitution of 2063 BS.

That constitution, for the first time, made a constitutional provision to grant citizenship in the name of 'either the mother or the father.' A historic verdict by the Supreme Court played a decisive role in implementing this constitutional provision in practice.

To further implement this constitutional provision, significant amendments were made to the Citizenship Act in 2080 BS. The current amended law legally recognizes the provision of 'self-declaration' to obtain citizenship in the mother's name.

If a person's father cannot be identified, the child receives citizenship by descent if the mother self-declares that the father of her child cannot be identified. This provision has made it easier for thousands of women like Shanti to establish the identity of their children.