Dukhani Saday, 65, from Siraha, Nepal never received her citizenship certificate. This has stopped her from availing any kind of facility from the state. Her statelessness resulted in her children’s statelessness, too. Even the generations before her were never recognized by the state. 

Her grandchildren go to the nearest school in Lahan to study but the school has not formally registered their names citing the absence of their birth registration, which was impossible to acquire, for Dukhani’s children are also stateless. 

“We did all we could,” says Rajkumar Saday, Dukhani’s son, “my father fought the same fight. So did my grandfather.”

Dukhani’s family is an example. A huge section of the Musahar community is deprived of every social and political right. 

The total population of Musahar people according to the 2011 census in Nepal is over two lakhs.