KATHMANDU, Sep 22: President Ram Chandra Paudel on Sunday authenticated the long-debated Citizenship Bill, bringing relief to thousands of people deprived of the crucial national identity card.
Rights activists who have fought for decades to secure women’s equal role in conferring citizenship hailed the development as a significant breakthrough. However, they cautioned that the path to full gender equality remains incomplete.
The Office of the President endorsed the bill under Article 113, Clause (2) of the Constitution, following its passage by the now-dissolved Federal Parliament. The new law strengthens mothers’ role in passing citizenship to their children, particularly addressing the rights of children born to Nepali women married to foreign nationals, as well as children whose fathers cannot be identified.
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Yet, activists point out that the law still falls short of removing entrenched gender disparities. Under the amendment, children born to Nepali women and foreign men are only eligible for naturalized citizenship, and citizenship by descent is possible only if the foreign father himself holds naturalized status. By contrast, Nepali men can immediately confer citizenship to their foreign wives—an option not available to Nepali women marrying foreign men.
“This is progress and we are happy that our three-decade-long struggle has borne fruit. But it still does not reflect the complete equality we envision between men and women,” said women’s rights activist Babita Basnet.
The law also allows a child to acquire citizenship in the mother’s name if the father is deceased, absent, refuses to support the process, or is married to another woman. In such cases, the mother must make a formal self-proclamation regarding the father’s status. False declarations may result in one to three years of imprisonment and fines ranging from Rs 100,000 to Rs 300,000.
Advocate Sabin Shrestha, a longtime campaigner for women’s equal citizenship rights, welcomed the amendment but stressed its shortcomings. “This provision is a good news, but there is still constitutional bias. A woman must make a proclamation about the father, whereas fathers face no such scrutiny,” he said.
The amendment further allows fatherless children to obtain a Minor Identity Card based on the mother’s self-proclamation, enabling them to access passports and other government services that previously required the father’s details.
The changes also comply with a Supreme Court directive requiring the government to guarantee citizenship rights through the mother’s lineage.
The District Administration Office, Dolakha, had issued citizenship through mother’s lineage for the first time to Sabina Damai based on a historic Supreme Court verdict in 2011 by a division bench of Justices Balaram KC and Bharat Raj Upreti, says advocate Ananta Raj Luitel. However, he added that people seeking citizenship through their mother's name still struggle due to bureaucratic red tape.
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