Manang District Administrati-on Office (DAO) has issued first ever citizenship by descent in a mother’s name to  Mingma Lama.

Eighteen-year-old Mingma of Tachai, Bagarchhap VDC-8, had to wait for years to get the citizenship, because the previous law did not allow a woman to pass on citizenship to her children. She was finally able to obtain the citizenship in her mother’s name after the Citizenship Act 2006 was amended to allow women the right to pass on citizenship to their children.

Since Mingma’s father had left her mother before she was born, she had no way of getting a citizenship certificate through her mother’s name under the previous law.

She said the DAO had refused to grant her citizenship in the past as she could not prove that her father is a Nepali national.

The new citizenship provision still requires the applicant to prove that his or her father is a Nepali national, barring women to pass on citizenship to their children without the need of verifying the identity and nationality of the father.

In case of Mingma, the DAO verified her father’s nationality by taking statements from her relatives and the people in her village.

Chief District Officer Bhimkanta Sharma said it took them nearly three months to verify the nationality of Mingma’s father. In Mingma’s citizenship certificate, the field that asks for her father’s name is empty. It only has the name of her mother, Pasang Chhomu Lama.

Mingma said now that she has become a Nepali citizen she no longer will have to worry about competing for positions in government agencies or seeking job opportunities both within and outside the country.