It’s not because he didn’t try. But every time he went looking for citizenship he would be told that he lacked enough documents like birth and land certificates. The problem was, his parents didn’t get citizenship as they never felt they needed it. [break]
Maila started his quest for citizenship when he saw his friends earning good money through foreign employment. It was only then that he realized he needed a citizenship to get a passport. He started visiting the district headquarters to apply for citizenship.
Even to meet a VDC secretary he had to go to the headquarters which was around four-hour drive on a bumpy road from the village. It’s been more than a decade since the VDC secretary moved to district headquarters. Earlier, the reason was Maoist conflict, but the VDC secretaries haven’t returned to the village long after the conflict’s end.
This time Maila was successful. It cost him Rs 2,500 to manage all the documents. In this respect, the Election Commission’s door-to-door campaign—voter-list with fingerprints and photos—was a boon for him. The EC enumerators along with citizenship distributing team from District Administration Office had gone to the villages to collect information of 16+ aged Nepalis mainly for two purposes—to collect information for National Identity Card and register 18+ age group in the voter-list for upcoming election.
In the name of distributing “citizenship” the enumerators were charging between Rs 500 to Rs 5000 for their services.
Not just Maila dai. I personally met three such people during my one-night stay in the village. One of my friends shared that he spent Rs 5,000 to get a new citizenship after losing his old one.
His old citizenship was issued in Bhojpur district a decade ago. “Earlier they asked me to go Bhojpur district, but as I said no one lives there anymore and we have been living here for more than a decade they were ready to give me a citizenship. The original demand was for Rs 10,000, but after many rounds of negotiation the amount was brought down to Rs 5,000.” Like Maila dai, this person wanted to go abroad to earn money. Villagers shared that officials charged between Rs 100-300 just to fill up the citizenship form.
Interestingly one of the villagers told me he had earned almost Rs 200,000 by becoming a middleman between government officials and those looking for citizenship. For him it was a good business.
I was surprised to learn all this. I had listened and read about the “business of citizenship” in the southern plains only.
The issue of citizenship always gets a lot of attention from Madhesi leaders as it has a direct bearing on the number of their votes. Even when EC launched voter-list with fingerprints and photo in 2010 with a provision of producing citizenship to get registered, various Madhesi political leaders had expressed disagreements against the provision. They claimed there were almost three million stateless Madheshi people in the southern plains. There were cases of government ministers representing Madhesh ordering their cadres to chase away the enumerators sent by EC.
Later, the Election Commission had to revise its earlier plan and started approving any documents from VDC for citizenship issuance. Apart from this home ministry also sent a team via DAO in every district to distribute citizenship during the Election Commission’s door-to-door campaign.
But I have never heard leaders or other people talk about citizenship issue in the hills or the mountains. In my almost 60-district tour across Nepal I have found such situation not just in Tarai but in hills and mountains as well. This doesn’t come into light as the issue has not been politicized, as it has been in the Tarai.
The interesting thing is citizenship is never an agenda of Madhesi parties when they are in government, but when they are in the opposition or when election cycle comes around, they start raising it vehemently again. The bureaucracy, meanwhile, watches on.
Few months back when I went to Saptari district, my hometown, to get my brother’s birth verification certificate an official asked me Rs 10 just to look at the files, without any hesitation. I laughed. The VDC secretary asked for another Rs 100, claiming what I wanted was not in the record.
Similar was the case when I got my citizenship certificate almost seven years ago—officials of Udayapur district asked me to get a clearance letter from the VDC in Saptari where we used to live earlier, even though we had migrated from the area decades ago and were carrying migration certificates.
Later the secretary of Badgamma VDC in Saptari asked me for some money. I refused. He told me to visit the district office in Rajbiraj.
No sooner had I reached the place the official who was assigned to look for my record told me it was almost the end of the work day and asked if I would mind buying him and his colleague three beers! I nodded in fear that if I did not say yes he might send me to Katmandu to check my record.
But he too couldn’t find anything. He then sent me to another office, which was next to my VDC. As he couldn’t do my work, he didn’t ask for beer. Finally, in three days I got a clearance and on the fourth Udayapur district issued me a citizenship.
In comparison to my hassle-filled citizenship process, there are many reports that clearly show how people from across the border pay a few hundred rupees and become Nepali citizens. On the other hand real Nepali citizens are going through many hassles and are forced to pay thousands ‘extra’ to get citizenship.
This is clear indication of government officials’ apathy and lack of honesty towards their job. This is resulting in statelessness of millions of genuine Nepali citizens in Tarai, Hills and the Mountains.
The author is in-depth reporter with BBC’s Sajha Sawal
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