The Citizenship Affected People’s Network Nepal (CAPNN) on Thursday urged the government to address concerns of citizenship deprived Nepalis and ease the process of acquiring citizenship through double descent.

According to CAPNN Coordinator Dipti Gurung, provisions in the current Citizenship Bill must be changed to address the plights of those who are deprived of Nepali citizenship because of illogical legal complications in obtaining citizenship certificate.

“Although the law of distributing citizenship to single mother came into effect a long time ago, many District Administration Offices do not provide it citing lack of adequate documents,” Gurung further added.

Despite existence of laws allowing single parents to pass on their citizenship to their children, only a few women have been able to do so, largely because bureaucrats arbitrarily refuse to approve nationality applications for the children of single mothers.

Although there are no exact figures on how many children have been stateless due to the lack of ‘easy provision’ for citizenship through mothers in the country, Forum for Women Law and Development (FWLD), a non-government organisation, claims the number is over four million.