सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
Saptari. It may come as a surprise to anyone to hear that an entire Dalit family has been deprived of citizenship, but this is the truth. The entire family of Magain Sada of Kachandaha, Shambhunath Municipality-3, Saptari is currently struggling to find their identity.
Magain Sada, 60, complains that he was born and raised in Nepal, but he has not been able to get any recognition as a Nepali until now. Since Magain, the head of the family, has not been granted citizenship, his wife Urmila Devi Sada, 55, his eldest son Govinda, 22, and his youngest son Deepak, 19, are without citizenship.
The members of the family, whose main identity is being Nepali, have not been granted citizenship, express their sorrow that they have been deprived of all the services and facilities they should have received from the state so far. Magain, who works as a farmer in a local bank, said that he has not been able to get recognition even after going to all the agencies for citizenship.
After birth, one’s name should be added to the list of citizens of the state legally, but since father Fani Sada and mother Chari Sada do not have citizenship, Magain Sada’s entire family is now deprived of identity. ‘Because my father did not have citizenship, my birth certificate could not be made, and now, because I do not have citizenship, my wife and sons cannot be identified,’ he says. ‘Because my sons did not have a birth certificate, they could not study in school and they had to go to India to earn money at a young age.’
Magain, who worked in Punjab, India for some time due to financial hardship, returned and now says that even if he wants to work hard in his homeland, he is facing problems because he does not have any identification as a Nepali. According to her, she kept coming from the then VDC office to the current local level ward office for citizenship recommendation, but it was not successful.
‘They look for birth certificates for citizenship recommendation, they ask for her husband’s citizenship and her parents’ citizenship,’ Urmila Sada says, ‘But she has neither her birth certificate nor her husband’s citizenship, and there is no proof that she is Nepali. That is why, even though she is Nepali, she feels that her life is in vain.’
Urmila says, expressing her sorrow at not only being separated from the state but also from society and community due to lack of citizenship, ‘Due to lack of citizenship, I have not been able to get membership in any group formed at the village level.’
The family of Chandar Sada from the same place is also facing a similar problem. Chandar’s entire family is deprived of citizenship due to the lack of citizenship of his father, Dhothar Sada.
Due to the lack of citizenship of Chandar, his 35-year-old wife Kadami Devi, eldest daughter Pooja, 17-year-old daughter Shraddha, 15-year-old son Phuleshara, six-year-old daughter Phuleshwari Sada, and four-year-old son Ayush Sada are also deprived of birth registration and citizenship.
Chandar Sada’s father Dhothar Sada is not a citizen, so now the entire family is without identity. This problem is not only in Shambhunath Municipality of Saptari, but also in various local levels of Saptari. After finding a major problem in birth registration, marriage registration, and citizenship in various local levels of Saptari, an awareness program has been started for personal incident registration.
With the support of The Freedom Fund, the Shreepurraj Community Development Center has launched an incident registration campaign targeting the Harwacharwa Dalit community in Saptari. During the campaign, the center is collecting data on those who have been deprived of citizenship in various wards and local levels of the district of Shambhunath Municipality and taking initiatives to create birth and citizenship records, says Bijli Ram, a facilitator at the Shreepurraj Community Development Center.
According to him, the center has been conducting a campaign to create citizenship birth records along with collecting data in Shambhunath, Bodebarsain, Dakneshwari Municipality and Rupani Rural Municipality of Saptari. It has been found that most of those who have been deprived of birth records cannot read because of their birth records.
The current generation is suffering badly because their ancestors did not understand the importance of citizenship and birth registration due to lack of awareness and did not take care to prepare birth, marriage and death certificates on time, says Anita Kumari Chaudhary, acting mayor of Shambhunath Municipality.
‘At that time, our ancestors did not understand the importance of citizenship and did not even try to do it,’ said Acting Mayor Chaudhary, ‘Now, the generation is suffering because of that, now there are legal complications, we are not in a position to recommend for citizenship even if we want to,’ she said.
Shambhunath Municipality-3 Ward Chairman Navin Kumar Chaudhary said that it is difficult to recommend birth certificates and citizenship due to the inability to obtain evidence and said that they are taking initiatives to resolve the citizenship problem of the family.
Satodevi has not received allowance even at 72 years
Satodevi Sada of Kachandaha, Shambhunath Municipality-3 has completed 72 years of age but has not yet been able to obtain citizenship. Satodevi, who lost her husband Dhotar Sada at the age of twenty-five, expressed her sorrow that she is still deprived of every facility received from the state because she does not have citizenship.
Satodevi, who has been living a difficult life in a thatched hut in the Dalit Musahar settlement, has not been successful in seeking citizenship despite applying to many places. ‘My children were young, my husband died at that time, and my husband did not have citizenship,’ says Satodevi, ‘Since my husband does not have citizenship, I will not get citizenship either. Now I am deprived of all facilities.’
In my old age, I am neither able to do any work to support myself, nor does the government provide any facilities, so now I am earning two meals a day by begging in the village settlement, Satodevi said with tears in her eyes.
‘It has been more than 45 years since my husband died, but I have not been able to get social security allowance yet,’ says Satodevi, ‘I seek citizenship for social security allowance, but I do not have citizenship.’ There is a provision for every single woman to get social security allowance from the state after the death of her husband. But Satodevi says that she has been deprived of those facilities due to lack of citizenship.
She has appealed to the ward chairperson to the CDO to get citizenship, but she has not been able to get citizenship yet. ‘When I reach the ward chairperson, they tell me to bring my husband’s citizenship and call someone to identify me,’ says Satodevi, ‘but neither my husband has citizenship, nor does he have a sibling to identify me.’
‘One brother has died, another brother-in-law went to India for employment and disappeared there, so I couldn’t find anyone to identify him. “Even until the last moment of my life, my dream of obtaining citizenship has not been fulfilled,” she added.
She laments that not only are people deprived of all the services and facilities they should receive from the state, but they also have to live as non-citizens in their own country.
प्रतिक्रिया दिनुहोस्