Citizenship law in offing Can it provide the solution?

Article 15 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights conferred upon each individual in the world the right to have a legal connection with the state। This right is not availed by mercy. In fact, each one individual has right to nationality as it not only provides her/him a sense of identity but entitles her/him necessary protection from the State, apart from many civil and political rights.
Internationally, there have been different ways to get citizenship। One method to get citizenship is through right to blood (jus sanguinins), the second through right of soil (jus soli), the third is through the process of naturalization, the fourth is through choice and the fifth is through acquisition of territory।
In Nepal, the system of granting citizenship on the basis of an individual’s birthplace and descent started in 1952। A person was eligible for acquiring naturalized citizenship if one resided in the country for minimum five years. However, later on more restrictive clauses such as ‘Nepalese origin’ and ‘ability to speak and write Nepali’ were made pre-requisite for acquiring citizenship on the basis of naturalization.
The Nepalese constitution 1990 introduced more stringent legislation to discourage people from getting citizenship। It not only repealed the provision of citizenship by birth but also made it mandatory for the foreigners to reside in Nepal for 15 years to qualify for naturalization.
As a result, many of the Nepalese citizens mostly in the Terai region virtually lived in stateless condition। The number of those without citizenship was estimated at 3.4 million to 5 million in 1995.
However, after the second democratic movement in 2006, there was a general consensus among the political parties to issue citizenship to the Nepalese citizens liberally to ensure their participation in the CA election। Accordingly, new laws were introduced to facilitate the process of citizenship to the Nepalese nationals. In this process, the provision of issuing citizenship on the basis of birth was revived.
The Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007 mentioned, “Any person born and living permanently in Nepal before the end of mid April, 1990 shall acquire the citizenship of Nepal by birth in accordance with the existing law।” But this revision was only half-hearted as it added a clause whereby application for citizenship by birth was made valid for two years only until 26 November 2008.
Significantly, a massive campaign was launched in all the 75 districts of Nepal between January and April 2007 to distribute citizenship certificates to all eligible Nepalese citizens of 16 years age and above। Despite that, nearly 1 million to 2.4 million eligible Nepalese citizens are yet to be provided citizenship certificates.
Subsequently, it was found that a number of Nepalese citizens failed to acquire citizenship due to the lack of documents related to land ownership certificates required to prove one’s length of residence in the country; illiteracy; lack of awareness; poverty; discouragement to the girls and women in certain communities to apply for citizenship; difficulty in getting supporting documents on account of poverty; damage or destruction of records at the VDCs; and non-availability of the VDC Secretaries in several VDCs, particularly in the Terai region।
As per UNHCR estimates, nearly 800,000 people in Nepal are still living in the stateless situation in Nepal due to the lack of citizenship certificates। It is largely believed that most of these stateless people belong to Madhesh origin.
However, the Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles Committee of the CA has further complicated the procedure for getting citizenship certificates। Provision has been made in the concept paper to harass those who would like to acquire naturalized Nepalese citizenship through marriage relations. Many of the Maithili, Bhojpuri and Awadhi-speaking people in the region have experienced problems in acquiring citizenship certificates as they are treated as “none” or “less” Nepali on the ground of the languages that they speak। Because of such cultural and linguistic criterion in providing citizenship, a large number of people from these communities found it difficult to register their land in their own name no matter for how long they and their ancestors lived in the Terai region.
Besides other communities, the provision made in the concept paper prepared by the Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles Committee is going to affect the Madheshis most living in Terai। They have the practices of cross border marriage relationship with people across the border in India for ages.
By overlooking this age-old relations among the border inhabitants, the Committee members have exhibited their lack of understanding of the ground reality in cultural, economic and political relations among the border inhabitants in Nepal-India border area. Such a step, if not corrected, might invite more of problems rather than resolving the problem in the future in the Terai.