Kathmandu (Pahichan) September 20 – It has been four years since the new democratic and inclusive constitution was promulgated. For the first time in Nepal’s political history, the rights of sexual and gender minority were addressed by constitution adopted in 2015 so that it is regarded as a progressive constitution in South Asia. The LGBTI community who are facing a lot of discrimination and abuse in the society was upbeat when constitution guaranteed their rights.

However, the constitutional provisions were just a broader outline and there was a need of specific laws in order to provide rights to this community in a practical sense. Since then, LGBTI community is urging politicians, government and parliament to promulgate law in order to secure the rights of this community but there has not been any progress. The budget session of Parliament which concluded on Thursday was supposed to pass progressive citizenship law but it failed to do so.

On the one hand, they are turning deaf year to promulgate specific laws targeting this community, on the other hand, the existing draft of laws are discriminatory. The draft of citizenship Act is a case in point which remains in pending in Parliament since a year. The ongoing discussions on Citizenship Act clearly show that our politicians carry a traditional mindset of the society and they are not ready to provide rights to this community.

The draft of laws which is in State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of Parliament makes it mandatory for the members of this community to present medical proof in order to take citizenship as per their gender identity. Experts say it would be regressive provisions if such provision was endorsed by full house. Read more via Pahichan