There's lots to report from Nepal again today.
Provincial Boundaries in new constitution are disputed
First, followup from the violent demonstrations in the Terai during which police ( who are unarmed) were murdered in cold blood Aug 25th.
Murder as a tool of politics
Within a day of the murders, politicians from Terai revealed that they were planned, to get the attention of the politicians from Kathmandu. These same guys are not ashamed of what they did, and they refuse to negotiate for now, until some conditions are met.
The national government is sending the Army to the affected regions. the Police ( a very lightly armed group) are consolidating their positions.
Other issues with draft constitution
Several other major mass protests were planned for the capital, Kathmandu, but have been postponed for fear that these too, will be hijacked. Among the demonstrations was the "Citizen Through Mothers" campaign, protesting language proposed for the new constitution that would roll back women's rights in Nepal by about thirty years...
That's what I want to share today... join me on the other side of the orange janai purnima string and we can discuss....
Fourteenth Amendment in USA
Here is USA there's been attention to the Fourteenth Amendment. This is the one that says any person born in USA is a citizen.
Language in Nepal constitution
In Nepal, the parallel controversy is caused by draft language in the proposed constitution that says a baby is only a Nepali citizen if the father is Nepali.
This is all well and good for a married couple. But in Nepal, there are many single mothers, or ones who do not wish to name the father. In the village setting, many births go unregistered - i.e., no birth certificate. Nepal is a country with lots of bureaucratic red tape. Years later, the person with no birth certificate can't get a passport or a diploma, and can not vote. Nepal has a porous border with India, and estimates range from 400,000 to 4 million people affected by this in one way or another.
Hashtag?
There has been a Twitter campaign, hashtag #citizenshipthroughmothers on this issue.
I asked Manjushree Thapa, a well-known Nepali journalist and author, for advice as to the best analysis of this, and she sent this link.
On August 9, 2015, the Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (PDCC), tasked with resolving contentious constitutional issues, released a list of revisions to be made to the draft constitution. There were expectations that the revisions would include suggestions from the public that would make the draft gender equal by allowing either a mother or father to pass on citizenship to their child, instead of making it mandatory for both father and mother to hold Nepali citizenship.
The “and” clause has received widespread criticism because it denies fathers and mothers the right to pass on citizenship independently of one another. Such restrictive phrasing threatens to increase the number of people left stateless, which the UNHCR estimated in 2011 to be around 800,000. - See more at: http://recordnepal.com/...
She also gave the name of an NGO, "
Chaukath Nepal" which is a feminist organization in Nepal. Be advised, their Twitter site is in Nepali. Their
FaceBook site is partly in English.
People who wish to follow this issue and network with feminists in Nepal would do well to subscribe to the Wordpress blog of Chaukath Network.
Women in a patriarchy
The role of women in Nepal is a fascinating and complicated topic, with many elements that differ from western culture. This is only one of many areas to explore, but it is coming to the forefront because of the rush to finally get a new constitution, eight years after it was promised. stay tuned!