Nomadic Rautes to get citizenship cards

DULLU, June 19; The government is to provide citizenship cards to the Raute people leading a nomadic life in various districts of Karnali state.

The Ministry of Social Development of the Karnali state government is providing the citizenship cards to the Rautes on the basis of the identity cards issued by the Gurans rural municipality of Dailekh district.

The Gurans rural municipality had issued the identity cards to the Rautes last year in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Development. Ministry secretary Man Bahadur BK, speaking in an interaction programme, said the ministry will provide the citizenship cards based on the identity cards. The interaction was held with stakeholders working in the welfare of the Raute community.

Secretary BK said distribution of citizenship cards to the Rautes would make it easy for the local governments to provide them social security allowance and other government facilities. He added that the citizenship cards would be distributed in coordination and collaboration with the stakeholder organizations working for the Rautes.

The Rautes would get the citizenship cards as the residents of Gurans rural municipality-8 from where they got their identity cards. Chief District Officer of Dailekh, Laxmi Prasad Banskota, said the district administration has started the process for issuing citizenship cards to the Rautes. The Raute population in the rural municipality is said to be 146. The Rautes claim themselves to belong to the Kalyal, Raskoti and Rajbanshi clans.

Meanwhile, the Gurans rural municipality has started collecting fees from people visiting the Raute settlements, citing outsiders coming to the Raute settlement to observe their lifestyle and culture in an unregulated manner which has threatened the Raute's unique culture and tradition.

The rural municipality has fixed Rs 10 for residents of the rural municipality, Rs 20 for Nepali citizens, Rs 500 for foreign nationals, Rs 100 for recording audio-video documentary in mobile and Rs 1,000 for audio, video through the camera.

The amount collected from fees would be spent on the uplift and conservation of the Raute people.

The Rute settlement at Kanchhi Bazar, Gurans rural municipality-5 has been fenced with the help of thread. The rural municipality has assigned two of its staff to collect fees from the visitors coming to the settlement.

A health worker and two teachers have also been deputed at the Raute settlement through the Raute Project implemented by SOSEC, Dailekh in coordination with Gurans rural municipality and with the support of AEIN, Luxembourg.